Running and Alcohol

[Deleted User]

Like all of you out there, I eat a healthy, low fat, high carb diet to help with my training. However, there is a big fat bluebottle in the ointment - alcohol. I enjoy a beer or two at the weekend any maybe a couple of glasses of wine. I read somewhere that calories from alcohol cannot be used as a fuel source, why not? and how many calories are there in a pint of strong lager or cider? (they tend not to print nutritional info on the tin!) I'm assuming that there's not much fat in a pint so why is it bad and what harm does it do to a training program? Please tell me I don't have to stay sober tonight.........

[Deleted User]

sadly it's a lot worse than simply a question of calories. but let someone else tell you that tomorrow after you've enjoyed that nice bottle of Shiraz.

[Deleted User]

You're amongst friends. We're all boozers! But fit ones. There are nine cals in a gram of fat, four in a gram of carbs and I think six or seven in alcohol - but who cares! If you enjoy, do it. I'm sure runners all have a hedonistic streak in them. Oh, and a pint of strong lager - about 400 cals and no fat, but lots of sugars. Console yourself, how many fat alcoholics do you see? (I know, I know, they don't eat and their livers are pickled!) I'm sure that helped, and I haven't even touched a drop tonight!

[Deleted User]

Im a fat alkie!!!
I think if you run seriously eniugh there must come a point when you dont want your running to suffer so you stop drinking
You could save drink for pre rest days
No help to me, id have 5 or 6 a week

[Deleted User]

I don't want my drinking to suffer - perhaps I'll stop running.

[Deleted User]

excellent!!!
oops wrong answer
Fancy a gin?

[Deleted User]

For what its worth, your metabolism can burn the calories in alcohol, but, like Achilles says, that is the least of your worries. Alcohol is the chemical equivalent of beating your head against a wall. Hic.

[Deleted User]

so THATS why I feel so awful
Ho hum

40 minutes

Like the rest of you I drink & run, which I find OK apart from the dehydration after a particularly indulgent session. I do early morning runs. Too much the previous night produces poor training runs, which probably aren't much use at all - but there is more to life than running.

I do, however, operate a pre-race abstinance period of a couple of days. I'm sure this helps.

Cheers!

[Deleted User]

A couple of pints the night before a race or a long run has help relax me - i had two pints of Guinness the night before the Dublin Marathon and ran a comfortable 3.05
Mind you i would say that as i've worked at a brewery for the last 27years

oiyou

OK - I'll do the dull but sensible answer. One of the main problems with drinking is not the alcohol itself, it's the way it's done. Lots of people "binge drink" i.e. little or none for days & then on Friday night they drink themselves to a standstill. There can't be many people who have not read or heard about the general health problems this causes, but we keep on doing it (I don't exclude myself from this). There are few things this can't b****r up.
As to your specific questions:- it's not clear why alcohol doesn't produce usable energy, possibly it's metabolised quickly as it's a poison, possibly it's disipated as heat; a pint of beer might be 250 - 350 calories/pint (61% cals from alcohol 36% from carbs 3% from protein); if abused before training it dehydrates as it's a diuretic, and hydration is vital to any training, it depletes vitamins & minerals in the body etc etc etc.
I'll stop there coz I enjoyed by couple of glasses of wine this evening & I'm slowly talking myself off it. Moderate consumption does not have all these downsides - the challenge is to define ( and consume) moderate.

oiyou

PS - all spelling mistakes are due to the lack of spellcheck not to the effects of a nice Australian Shiraz. Honest!

[Deleted User]

4 double gins a night is all right then
Nothing tonight , im on call
we shall see if i run better

[Deleted User]

Shiraz? I prefer Hardy's Australian Stamp Chardonnay.

[Deleted User]

didnt run better
So its back to the gin

[Deleted User]

Seriously though your philosophy on boozing should be 'a little bit of what you fancy does you good.'

oiyou

The trouble is "a little" is just that - a little & if you follow the health advice thats only 2-3 units a day for women & 3-4 units a day for men. If you like strong beer that's only 1 pint!!

Several people on the forum went "dry" publicly recently - how are they doing? I tried a couple of times some years ago but failed after a while - I think 2 months was my best go.

Mike S

Was I one of them? I do remember saying I was considering cutting back seriously on the booze until after Helsby. Certainly the alcohol consumption this week has been 7 or 8 units at most. Might have a bottle of Fürstenberg tonight - then again....
Where alcohol gives me problems is in terms of recovery. I find there aren't enough hours in the day for me to grab more than 7 hours sleep at night-time. If those 7 hours are preceded by 2 or 3 beers, I sometimes wake up in the morning feeling I've hardly slept at all.
As a result of the Helsby training, my weekly mileage has jumped from high 20s to low/mid 40s (and still climbing) - so R&R has become very important.

[Deleted User]

Hmm...I've gone onto 'No booze during the week' again, until Christmas. Agree with you Mike, whatever the theories, I know sometimes just one or 2 glasses of wine late at night can make me feel fuzzy-headed in the morning. I'm sure my alcohol tolerance has reduced since I started running regularly.

Also, it's seductively easy to look forward to a drink as THE way to relax in the evening, and I regularly like to wean myself off the temptation by only having a drink at the weekend.
I'm sure I'm not alone in that when I only drink irregularly I don't miss it at all, once it gets to 3-4+ times a week I really want it!

I wouldn't give it up permanently though - far too pleasurable part of life.

[Deleted User]

would always miss it, but then----