yes, indeed, i am drunk. for the first time since august. i have no races for the next few months, and it’s about damn time i stopped being *the *sober guy in my frat house. so how bad do you think this is? personally, i plan on cycling tomorrow (2 hrs on the mag trainer) as per usual. here’s to labatt blue, and here’s to whoever invented fermentation. wahoo!
I have never even tasted an alchoholic beverage or been high on anything, for whatever that is worth.
Nothing wrong with drinking alchohol as long as it’s in moderation. Lots of studies indicate that moderate drinkers have lower blood pressure and less heart disease than do abstainers. Red wine in particular gets high points. Two drinks a day is considered good for the heart.
Having lived in both Europe and the USA, I think a big problem is that many Americans don’t know how to drink. It’s either excess or nothing at all. A twenty-one year old drinking age is absurd. Send 18 yr. olds off to Iraq with a gun to kill but don’t let them buy a drink because their underaged. How absurd. The French for example are brought up with an appreciation of red wine from an early age. In the states they hit college age and go wild with booze since it’s been denied to them. You just don’t see this to such a great extent in Europe since it wasn’t some sort of a forbidden fruit. The exception might be the Swedes/Norwegians since they’ve traditionally been a bit more puritanical in their approach to alchohol than has southern Europe. In Canada our drinking age is 18/19 depending upon the province, which I personally think is a little more realistic than twenty-one. In fact I introduced my daughter to wine at supper when she turned 16, just as my parents did with me.
I drink white/red wine, beer and rum in moderation and have no guilt about it. In fact I know it’s good for my health.
Gee, I never would have guessed Tom never touched a drink. He’s such a wild and crazy guy. 
I don’t necessarily agree that a lower drinking age is the answer. The age was 18 for me and I learned to drink in college. I learned to drink alot! Some of us were perversely proud of how much we could drink and still stand up, or even walk and talk. Thank God for bars within walking distance. It will never happen, but I think something closer to 30 might be a better age to start. Losing one’s job might be a bigger motivator to not overdo it than missing a few classes that someone else is probably paying for.
Looking back, I wonder how much of my athletic potential I drank away. Probably not enough to make that much difference in the long run; I was never close to elite at anything. But still it bothers me that I’ll never know that answer.
I love beer and red wine, although I call beer ‘ale’ because I’m one of those snotty Guinness-drinking yeastophiles.(My last batch of double chocolate porter tastes great, but the mouthfeel isn’t quite right. Drat!)
I don’t know if I’m in a serious minority here, or if I’m just willing to talk about it more, but I love the stuff, as cerveloguy says, in moderation. Perhaps not as much moderation as some, but I rarely wake up feeling the effects of the previous night’s libations. I find that two drinks does just fine after a long day and a couple of workouts. Maybe three on the weekend.
Whether drinking alcohol affects your performance negatively is one of those things that I question. Some of the people here argue that it does(period, no need to discuss), but I don’t know if they mean American style drinking which calls for a half bottle of Cuervo and a coupla 40’s, or a more convservative glass or two of cabernet. I am curious to know if there is research that shows the various performance levels of athletes, different amounts of alcohol consumption, and what the total affect is. I would guess that for the average athlete, a moderate level of alcohol consumption has no effect on performance.
Personally, I am able to complete all of my training, feel great most of the time, enjoy quality time with my wife, and so on. I think that getting loaded the night before a race will certainly affect your performance, but so will having too much of almost anything the night before a race. On the other hand, I can’t sleep at all the night before a race if I don’t have one drink. If I have one glass of wine or bottle of beer I sleep like a baby.
One observation that I have made is that when I am doing very high workloads, my tolerance for alcohol goes way down, and during those periods I will drink a lot less. I think this is probably related to my body metabolizing the alcohol much faster than it would normally due to workout volume.
“I’m one of those snotty Guinness-drinking yeastophiles…Whether drinking alcohol affects your performance negatively is one of those things that I question”
I’m a Guiness man myself, especially during winter. It always reminds me of Wednesday night pub dart league in a different time in my life.
I don’t believe that alcohol has a negative or positive impact on athletic performance. The only exception would be if you turned up to a race with a hangover. I’ve only ever done that once and would never do that again. Attended a wedding with an open bar the night before and showed up the next day to run a 10 kms. It was the “longest” race I ever ran.
From an athletic standpoint, getting loaded once will affect your next day’s training with dehydration, possibly nausea, possible lethargy, and the occasional mood swing. Getting loaded regularly will add a vast number of empty calories to your diet plus all of the above. If you still have alcohol in your system it stands to reason that your CNS and cardiovascular system would be impeded.
With a couple drinks a day your only real concern is the calories.
It’s nice to see a reasonable attitude here about alcohol and training. I was irritated by a letter in Triathlete a coupe months ago where the author stated that alcohol in ANY amount will impair training, an opinion that I presume was not based on any scientific evidence but rather a little self-righteousness. Not that there’s anything wrong with abstaining at all, but it’s not a mortal sin to have a drink now and then.
I have never drank…but back in my USCF days there was a guy on my team that would do BETTER hung over somehow…he said that he “could not feel the pain” as much when he was still half drunk from the night before…
Huh…worked for him, for what thats worth.
No sex, no drugs, no alcohol. Tom, you really need to get a life.
If you don’t promise to fix this, I am going to have to start a thread on how we can fix it for you.
Crap. It sounds like I’m off the deep end here. I drink. Man, do I love a good hoppy beer, or a great bottle of wine. (I’m looking at a case of Pinot sitting in my office right now.) I have been known to drink way too much. Thankfully triathlon has helped me cut down on my volume. Last year I abstained from January through July in training for IM. The first couple weeks were tough, but after that it was easier to stay away. I did still miss my glass of wine at dinner.
Well, now that I’m not doing an IM this year I’ve been drinking a bit more. It’s not like I’m going off and getting canned every night. When I do drink, I’ll usually split a bottle of wine with my girlfriend or have a couple of beers. There are occasions on a weekend where I may go a bit overboard. Anyway, as for training, of course drinking has an effect. But I’ve noticed when riding that, just like other workouts, when I’m hungover sometimes I have great workouts and sometimes I have bad ones. But I swim, ride, and run so that I can do other things in my life that may not be so great for me. I can eat the way I want and drink the things I want. I don’t have to obsess about my diet. The people I like to workout with are the ones who will go for a long hard ride then hang out over a couple of beers afterward. What’s the point of obsessing over every little aspect of fitness and diet if I’m not an elite athlete?? I’m going to die anyway. I’ll enjoy my life a hell of a lot more if I do the things that give me pleasure rather than if I live a long obsessively anal life. For me triathlon, good food, and moderate drinking give me pleasure. Other people’s lists are different, good for them.
As for a drinking age closer to 30, are you kidding me??? I can’t imagine being 28 and having people/my government tell me condescendingly that I’m too young to responsibly dring a beer. I fully believe that the American heavy drinking culture is the way it is in large part due to the 21 year drinking age. If responsible drinking is part of the culture and people grow up consuming responsibly, then when we ship them off to college where they’re off on their own for the first time, drinking won’t be such a big deal any longer.
For all we Americans spout against discrimination of all sorts, we seem to be totally blind when it comes to age-based discrimination. (This applies to seniors as well as “young adults”) We really are great at creating double standards.
dehydration? check
nausea? check
lethargy? double check
actually, i was quite amused just now when i got to this thread and saw my name as the author. i have no recollection of posting last night. i feel like i should be apologizing or something.
anyway, now that the thread is started, i might as well put in my $.02, which are as follows: drinking is in no way bad if done in moderation; however, as an athlete who is constantly training, i find that getting even moderately drunk is a bad idea, because it affects my training (if the next day involves a workout) and my recovery (if the next day is a rest day).
so i’ve been pushing fluids all day, and i’ll pop a few tylonel before my ride this afternoon. i’m just amused at the two extrema i was at in a 24 hour period - yesterday i had that post-swim high that i love so much, and today i’ve been making sure i know where the nearest garbage can / toilet / anywhere-i-can-puke is.
Yes, I am kidding you.
Hops Rule! IPA 4 EVA!
I’m probably closer to what you describe than I’d like. I don’t drink nearly as much as I used to(pre-training days) but still probably more than I should. I truly love beer. Not necessarily the feeling of it(though a good buzz can be fun) but the flavor, the aroma, the texture. Ahhh! I’m having one of my home brewed porters tonight! After I work out, of course.
I agree with you. I am, like many here, kind of obsessed with tris and training, but I originally got into it to avoid the many pitfalls and hazards of a) family medical history, b) generally poor lifestyle of Americans, and c) being in generally poor shape. Triathlon, or at least a high level of fitenss, has improved virtually every aspect of my life. But I still like to enjoy the finer things, and I consider good food and drink to be among them.
Regarding your age comments, we live in a fairly weird society. We want to be individuals, and be free to do what we want, but many people don’t want to be responsible for themselves, and others don’t want to give you that freedom. So groups of self-appointed protectors make up these laws that are modeled after the lowest common denominator. At the end of the day, there are loads of folks who probably can’t take any responsibility for themselves at all, and those who would be perfectly okay making all of their own decisions must suffer for it.
American culture was based on the very Puritanical sensibilities of the original European settlers here, who basically held that anything even remotely enjoyable was morally wrong. It should therefore come as no surprise that many Americans don’t know how to deal with sex, drugs, and alcohol responsibly.
pop a few tylonel
I’d stay away from tylenol - drinking alcohol (esp. large amounts) elevates certain liver enzymes which metabolize acetominophen into a toxin. Not sure how long it takes for the enzyme activity to return to baseline, but I’d stick to Advil…
"Yes, I am kidding you. "
It’s official. I’m a moron. I can’t even pick up on sarcasm anymore. I guess I’ve been coding for too long. I need a drink…
It’s funny how I got this post at exactly the same time I popped the cap off a homebrew myself! I’m finishing one of the last German Schwarzbeirs from my June brew. I’ve been teaching tri-friends to brew this year too. It’s been fun. I too avoid the debauchery of my youth yet look back fondly at the many fine beers I’ve had the opportunity to consume. For me it’s a memory of an event that just happened to be paired with the right beer the comes to life when I have it again. I remember finishing the Santa Barbara Long Course this summer and being belly up at SB brewing Co. with a samplwer of 8 house beers in front of me with 20 minutes. You should see the smile on my face in the photo! This Christmas I will host a holiday tasting with my family of Anchor Brewing Holiday Ale from 1989-94 and Siera Nevada Celebration Ale from 1991-96. A nice way to start my 2004 season of training!
“I’m finishing one of the last German Schwarzbeirs from my June brew. I’ve been teaching tri-friends to brew this year too.”
You’re my kind of trigeeks. Can I join your group? It’s Friday night and I’m sipping on my second Schneider Weiss, a German beer that I’ve never had before. My wife picked some up on the way home after work. It tastes great. Might even have a third (or fourth) before the evening ends. Good thing tomorrow is a rest day. Swim and run on Sunday.
I have never even tasted an alchoholic beverage or been high on anything, for whatever that is worth. I don’t know if I can trust someone who’s never tried anything!(substance-wise) You’re certainly suspect to me now, Tom Seriously, it still shocks me that someone as adventurous as yourself has never even been curious! Dont worry, you’re still my boy, Tom. I actually didn’t drink at all until I was 21 and didn’t drink beer until I was 23. Now, I drink so seldom that I’m feeling damn good after 2 beers. My alcohol and exercise story: Y2K New Year’s Eve I stayed out 'til about 5:30 in the morning(needless to say, I imbibed quite a bit) and then got up at 7:30 and ran a 13 mile “race.” My girlfriend at the time had partied with me and I forced her to get up and do the run as well. She really didn’t want to get up. Most miserable run of my life. Needless to say, I was in the doghouse for quite awhile after that.
Cerveloguy,
Ther best place (in the world) to try Schneider’s is the Schneiders beer restraunt on Tal Strasse, Munchen (Munich). This whole place is dovoted to, you guessed it, the consuption of wheat beers and the foods that go best with them. If ever in Munchen, I highly reccomend it!
Being the holidays, see if your wife can track down Schneider’s Dark Aventinus on her next trip to the beer store. This particular Southern German Weiss bier is sometimes called a Weizenbock because of it’s luscious malty profile that begs to be sipped by the glow of the fire, dog at one’s feet and wife in one’s lap (wearing the Mrs. Santa teddy of course).
FYI - I am also a certified beer judge. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it!
Prost! (German for Cheers!)
Karma in CA