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Giving up the booze
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Ah, the quote function is annoying; or my Geordiness means I don't understand it!
Sorry.
Ha ha; I had to think about that one for a second, Jonnie. No, mate, but I'm planning to be Enlightened by the Summer.
How are you doing?
Thanks for your thoughts Easy Does it.
I know very well the thing about wanting to drink more after drinking a little. It is not guaranteed but sometimes my body and mind scream for a bottle of brandy and a smoke after a couple of drinks but normally I have enough sense not to follow through. Mostly because I would not expect to finish it all and I would hate to have any left for the next day.
Next weekend I am running a half marathon in Kingston. Not very exciting as flat and along the Thames but I am looking forward to it. Now the drink thing is that my last race was my first ever road 10k before which I had not been at work and I was able to not drink for 4 days. That is special for me but more importantly my time of 45:31 was by far my best age graded performance to date.
Now that is a statistic I want to improve next week. In fact, I have started to get really very overexcited and I am planning attacking marathons. I need to not drink to do well but my training and parkruns continue despite my continued though reduced imbibing.
Did not help the evening I came across the youtube video of a running and beer bar in USA and then I read Born to Run and the young running drunkards in there.
My job to overcome these obstacles.
If you find you can't overcome 'these obstacles', which I'm inferring you mean a drinking problem, then please, seek help. Four days sober is no big deal you know? Sorry, but it just isn't. Anyone can stop drinking, staying stopped was what I found hard. The thing about being sober is that time goes slowly, I felt restless, irritable and discontented; I didn't know what to do with myself. Anxiety and stress wore me down till I snapped and started drinking. Then once I started, I usually finished the job.
And as the years ticked by, my alcoholism just got progressively worse; that's pretty normal.
I found my solution in A.A., but there's lots of different organisations and programs around; honestly, if you find you can't do it by yourself, start investigating some outside help.
And that's not a bad 10k time too.
Good luck for next weekend senorb. That's a great time for a 10k too
4 days might not be big to you EDI but at the start I couldn't even see making 4 days. Up to nearly 4 months now.
Before I got my first sober 24 hours in, there had not been one single day in the previous 8 years (at least) where I'd been sober.
I know what it's like to try and stay sober with white knuckles. You notice all the TV adverts advertising booze. You notice all the different areas they sell booze in the supermarkets. You notice a lot of stuff that you don't notice when you're drinking.
I also know it's like Japanese water torture and it kept on 'dripping' till I snapped and drank. They say that when we stop drinking that we feel better. And we do. We feel anxiety better, depression better, anger better; time just goes so slow.
Fitness works, to a point, and like a drug, eventually it stops working.
Well done on the four months and sorry for my negativity. I see alkies all the time who try to do this on their own, and the results aren't usually good.
You're not wrong with all the advertising. I never realised how much there was till over Christmas, it was everywhere!
Well thank EDI and Cinders for your encouraging assessment of my 10k performance.
But EDI, you were not as generous in how you rated my record for the last decade (at least) of four dry days. However, being a competitive sort, I have taken such derision on the chin and decided that records are there to be broken.
Yesterday was day number one in a series of dry days which will stretch up to seven and the half marathon next Sunday. And yes, going to the supermarket yesterday was the first exercise in discipline.
See what you have spurred me on to EDI. It's all about little steps.
well done senorb and little steps will become big strides, nearly 9months off the criptonite and my lifes inproved by 100% and EDI helped me in early days ans did this thread, stick with us and you will be fine, choose booze and you lose that's my motto,
Enlightened by the summer hey EDI? you got til midsummers day, can you actually meditate properly? ive tried but with no luck so far too many clouds up in my sky
Thanks Runner Jonnie and Jugula for your support. Six days without drinking now. That's a new PB. Each day after work is the worst time. I use a similar process as I did for giving up smoking last year. Projecting my mind a little into the future and imagining if I would be pleased with having had a drink the night before. Would it make a difference to be proud of? It provides a good reason not to.
But it seems that the dry spell could be ending earlier than expected. The weather forecast for my Sunday morning half marathon is rain. Curiously, though I have been running since last summer, I am yet to run in anything more disturbing than a light drizzle so this will be a new experience. I think I am prepared. I very recently bought a runner's waterproof. Or should I just put a hat on?
Enjoy the run Jonnie.
Seems it will be a splashing time for us all!
Odd that until now, I have not had to run in the rain. Not been dodging it, it just has not happened.
Anyway, it will be character building I am sure.
Well done senorb, keep going. Which half are you doing tomorrow? Just don't get cold if it's raining.
Hope your run tomorrow is ok too RJ
I ache all over today, went back to kickboxing for the first time in over 4 months last night!!!
It is a flat one by the Thames at Kingston.
Not my dream race but part of the progression.
Anyway, seems the weather will add to the challenge.
I have decided that the August Bank holiday version of that race would be a nice introduction to the world of marathons.
Do you think those towpaths will be very muddy in the rain that is forecast? I have trail shoes I could use.
For which race are you training?
Can you take both tomorrow and see how things are then?
But I think the state of the towpath will be a mystery until I get there during the race
And yes, it was always the plan to enjoy a drink afterwards. Will start the next dry run soon. Very soon.
Hello, not posted here for ages, still happily sober and running again happily as well
Just done my first proper race for over 20 years last weekend - Kilomathon 13.1 km Edinburgh,where i done the rather slow time of 1:20:55 and was 62nd out of 76 for my age group 50-55. Cardinal sin of going to fast in the first few miles!!
Got the Great Edinburgh run(10 miles) on April 19th so hopefully do a bit better.
Very grateful i can run,when i went into rehab 3years 7 month ago i had to be taken up stairs on a disabled person stair lift.
Like EDI the solution i found was in AA, so glad it waited for me after so many false starts. will try and post some more regularly,as i have enjoyed everyones comments that i have missed,cheers.
You don't have to necessarily give up booze - Just make it a treat! So much more enjoyable. Life is all about balance ayy...
Would be lovely if it worked like that Ed but some of us, myself included, can't just drink as a treat
Hadn't seen your post there BWF, well done on the Kilomathon and good luck for the Great Edinburgh this weekend.
Thanks Cinders, hope things are going great.
Ed, i am afraid when you are a recovering alcoholic, its a matter of life or death about giving up the booze.
I agree, BWF.
For those, whose liver has crossed the point of no return, the decision to relapse purely is a matter of life or death.
Although it would certainly appear that returning to running has allowed you to achieve a certain level of solace.
Without putting too finer point upon it, it seems as though you've replaced one addiction with another (albeit it a healthy one).
As such, I wouldn't necessarily concern yourself with how fast you're able to complete a course. Instead, I'd suggest that you simply embrace the fact that you're still able to enjoy the benefit of lacing up your trainers and heading out the door whenever you feel the need.
Moreover, in the hours after finishing your run, you also continue to benefit from the smug satisfaction that the runner's high produces.
Hello, certain amount of truth MG2 although i do not think i am addicted to running,certainly addicted to recovery. Agree with your comment on post run,liked that a lot.
I finished the Great Edinburgh Run in 1;41;02 so quite happy with that as it was a very hilly route in parts,also made £600 for cancer research,so happy with that,although that will be the last charity raising for a while,why does everyone assume you must run to make money for charity ? Nobody asks me for charity raising when i play golf..
Sorry if that sounds uncharitable,have a nice bank holiday weekend.