I don't drink much anymore, in part because as much as I enjoy craft beer I feel full afterwards, so 1-2 is the limit. If I have a glass of wine or a whisky, it's just one. I drink water throughout the day any way so I'm usually well hydrated.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

Was this a recent/sudden change?

Might be worth seeing a doc, getting a full workup.

After 40 certain things change, you recover slower, hangovers are worse, but waking up with heart pounding for hours is a little alarming...

ETA: in my mid 40s. If I have more than a few craft beers I feel sluggish/like crap in the morning, but no heart pounding or anything like that. If I did feel that way, I'd quit fast.

Sounds like a normal hangover? I have to plan my drinking nights and make sure i can be useless half of the next day. If i have to train then i wont drink at all. I find drinking more enjoyable if i can be in bed recovering the next day and not getting up early and trying to run through my hangover. I remember in college drinking till 4am then going home, showering and being on the tennis courts by 8am to play. Miss the days when i could get away with that.

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2x Deca-Ironman World Cup (10 Ironmans in 10 days), 2x Quintuple Ironman World Cup (5 Ironmans in 5 days), Ultraman, Ultra Marathoner, and I once did an Ironman.

try having 2 young kids and a hangover
thats usually my incentive for taking it easy on the beer/wine - not this silly exercise stuff

I agree with the others....I'd definitely get it checked out. I have found now in my 60's that I am able to drink more than ever without any adverse effects. I'm sure it's unusual, but it doesn't affect me as much as when I was far younger. Call your doc....

You're just out of practice ;)

Didn't come on suddenly, started noticing right around 39/40. I'll be turning 43 in March. I read about Holiday Heart Syndrome and I know that's what this is. I was just wondering if many others were finding that they are more sensitive to being even just a little dehydrated later in life.

But I have also noticed that at the start of an interval session my heart is also pounding (like a lump in my throat) if I'm not really well hydrated first. If I slam half a bottle I'm much better in 5-10 minutes, but then I have to pee mid-ride. Maybe I should go see a cardiologist...

Yep very common, when I was young I could drink 10-12 beers, get no sleep and function fine the next day, in my 40's 4-5 beers and I was wrecked, now at 50 1-2 and im bad for at least a day, our livers can't remove alcohol like they did when we were 20.

I can barely drink anymore either (age 40). I doesn't always happen, but more likely than not, a beer or two will give me a pretty bad headache the next day.

I'm sure there's some genetic component involved as my father and brother get similar symptoms of alcohol intolerance. A pain specialist also suggest that scar tissue/inflammation in my back from contact sports (hockey and lacrosse) creates a lot of tension that can manifest itself in weird ways, like alcohol intolerance.

I suppose it's not all bad as alcohol really isn't much good for us anyway.

My liver doesn't generate enzymes to break down alcohol, so I can't drink. If I drink, my face becomes red, heart races big time and eventually I throw up. I think as you get older, your liver doesn't generate those enzymes as much as before.

Alcohol jacks with my sleep, etc. but I neeeeeeeeeeed a beer to go with my favorite cuisine...mexican food. So yeah I don't plan on accomplishing much the day after mexican food which is every day lol

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 If I have more than a few craft beers I feel sluggish/like crap in the morning,

This is me. It's not a hang over. I just don't have my usual "A" game that day.

No this is not normal.....go see a Doc.

I wore a heart rate monitor after nights of easy, moderate, and heavy drinking just to see what happened. It was 33% higher than my resting HR just with moderate drinking. Needless to say, sleep quality declines and a hangover suck.

I'm 32 and am quitting drinking forever on Feb 17. Chose that date because it's a few weeks out and gives me some time to "prepare". Since I'm single, dates almost always are 'let's go get a drink'. I need some time to identify triggers/situations/people that may interfere with my plan. Let's see how it goes....!

Of course it may not hold, but I want to go at least 1 year without. I will take it 30 days at a time and evaluate how it's been going for me and make adjustments to my expectations and general day-to-day. I also wouldn't rule out a few years without and then slowly learning to have a drink here and there later on. But for now, I want to learn to live life totally without it.

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Nourish - Sports Nutrition Made Easy

Nothing that severe, but a few years ago (age 33 or 34 I suppose) I mostly stopped drinking because the duration and quality of the buzz went down, and the sick feeling/ hangover became longer and more severe. It just stopped seeming worth it, so now I hardly ever partake.

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The point is, ladies and gentleman, that speed, for lack of a better word, is good. Speed is right, Speed works. Speed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

I got one of those fancy watches that you can monitor your heartrate 24/7 with. My normal resting HR hovers around 47 +/-
I went on a vacation down south where I did a lot of relaxing and drinking. Even though i was relaxing a lot, I was also drinking more than my usual; I noticed my resting HR never went below 50. If anything it was probably resting about 7-10 beats higher than normal. Maybe I am wrong but I can only attribute the higher HR to the increase in alcohol consumption.
Personally not stressing about it as I am not a big drinker but it certainly raised my eyebrows to the detrimental effects alcohol can play in such a short period.

Good luck - definitely hard being single and trying to take this on.

Take it or leave it, but a few years ago I set up a "clean day" rule - meaning I wanted at least 95% of my days to be without 3 or more drinks, fried food, and sweets. Over time, I have ramped that up to 97%-98%. This allowed me to have 1-2 when I felt like it (certainly not every day, but in a work setting, etc) and pick and choose my spots to have a few more (weddings, bachelor parties, etc.)

Shoot, I'm 25 and can really feel the differences. I rarely drink anymore but sometimes I have spurts of consecutive days (like this week). Im on 3 nights in a row. I feel crappy, and my performance is crappy. Why do I keep doing it? IDK I get bored in the evening

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Highly depressing thread...

sure it stinks when your athletic performance drops due to age...but when drinking capacity drops it's a bona fide tragedy IMO!

You might e developing an alcohol intolerance or allergy. Not really a health risk.

symptoms of alcohol intolerance include:

• swelling around the eyes
• rapid heartbeat
• red flushing on the neck
• chest or arms wheezy or restricted
• laboured breathing pulsing headache dizziness

I also can't drink alcohol in my 40s any more.

I'm 50

Glad it's not just me!!

Just wait till your 60!