Does Alcohol Directly Affect Running Performance?

dev123

Hi all,

A quick question. If you have completed a week of fairly intense training with threhold runs, intervals and easy runs can pints on a Saturday night reach back in time and undo the quality of the work you have put in? Does alcohol have a direct effect on measurable indicators of performance such as lactate threshold and VO2max?

Or is it more the dehydration, possible weight gain and the risk of eating meat from a spinning stick at 3 in the morning that will affect your running performance for next weeks training?

Thanks,
Dev

dahat

Really simple theory on this for me.......

Isn't Alcohol a poison of sorts?has to have massive negative impact on athletes if so.

ecoli

Alcohol inhibits recovery within the muscles so drinking post intense training sessions can affect the benefit derived from a session. Their is also the weight factor with the empty calories not t mention the associated late night chippers and cravings linked to weekend drinking.
Having said that sometimes it can be a mental release. All of us are effectively hobby runners and aren't making our living from the sport so you need to balance it with your over all life style

robinph

I've often had some pretty good races a day or so after several days worth of heavy drinking. Never felt that great mind.

robinph

In response to my outrage over Russia no longer classifying beer as food:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14232970

...I got sent this link telling us how good beer is for marathon runners:
http://www.active.com/running/Articles/Can-Beer-Improve-Your-Run-Time.htm

figs

robinph wrote: »

...I got sent this link telling us how good beer is for marathon runners:
http://www.active.com/running/Articles/Can-Beer-Improve-Your-Run-Time.htm

Excellent! Not feeling so bad about my hangover now!

911sc

No alcohol was consumed though, sorry to dissapoint you:)

The beer drinkers drank up to 1.5 liters of the non-alcoholic wheat beer each day, while the abstainers drank an identical amount of a placebo drink.

robinph

911sc wrote: »

No alcohol was consumed though, sorry to dissapoint you:)

The beer drinkers drank up to 1.5 liters of the non-alcoholic wheat beer each day, while the abstainers drank an identical amount of a placebo drink.

You are only supposed to read the headline, we don't care about the facts of the article if it says we cannot drink beer.

stamfordbridge

dev123 wrote: »

Hi all,

A quick question. If you have completed a week of fairly intense training with threhold runs, intervals and easy runs can pints on a Saturday night reach back in time and undo the quality of the work you have put in? Does alcohol have a direct effect on measurable indicators of performance such as lactate threshold and VO2max?

Or is it more the dehydration, possible weight gain and the risk of eating meat from a spinning stick at 3 in the morning that will affect your running performance for next weeks training?

Thanks,
Dev

I always think there's a genuine, definate way to find out the answer to questions like these. It's not always surveys and research and information from other runners.

It's merely assessing how you feel yourself. Have you ever ran a PB post night out, drinking 5 pints? Probably not but for some people it may be different.

Some modern golfers swear by a no-drinking policy but for Darren Clarke, he would probably say, for him, it's no harm.

I'm thinking it would have a major impact for most runners, of any level. Personally, I've been feeling off form post vodka of Friday, and I *FEEL* deep down within myself that I won't be back to normal for at least another week. In that sence, I really regret Friday as I haven't drank for about 4 months previous to that.

In conclusion, it's pretty obvious that it would hamper *most athletes, but, like everything, the level of impact would depend on individual circumstances and your body's tolerance and elimination qualities.

kandikane

figs wrote: »

Excellent! Not feeling so bad about my hangover now!

listen to your body i have run pb"s after having a few pints the day before always taking an electrolite before hitting the hay,the only negitive thing after drinking a few pints of water before going to bed i do be up pissing like a camel all night;)

YFlyer

Carlos Lopes drank alot of wine during his running career. Heard Coghlan had a couple of beers the night before the World Championship 5000m in 1983.

john do

Always have 4 or 5 pints every Sunday after long run and 1 or 2 during the week even when in very intense training, helps stop running from taking over your life, if anything I feel more relaxed which helps me train better, just finished me 4th bottle of cider and plan on having 2 more after a tough 19 mile run this morning.

anymore

Here is an interesting link from Runners World on the topic :
http://www.nsca-lift.org/perform/articles/04062.pdf#search=%22alcohol%20consumption%20sports%20preformance%22

dev123

Thanks for all the replies folks.

I think it is clear that alcohol definitely affects performance but it is an indivdual choice as to whether we want to accept that trade off for a few pints at the weekend.

As they say everything in moderation, and that includes both running and drinking.