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Getting fit, or going soft?
Over the past couple of years I've been increasing the intensity and distance of my rides to try and improve my fitness. I'm far from being a really fast rider, but I did finish the half fling in 3:01 this year, which is about 30 mins better than my time 2 years ago, so my fitness is improving. But here's the thing; in recent months I've found that if I drink more than 2 beers I get a hangover. My brother-in-law, a personal trainer, said he has seen this before with his clients - as they get fitter, their alcohol tolerance declines.
Has anyone else had a similar experience? I'd be really interested to hear from any elite riders too.
Bottom line... Am I getting fit, or is my brother-in-law trying to make me feel better about getting old and soft?
PS: I'm only 44...
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I used to be able to drink like a fish (at least 6 pints a night when I lived in the UK). Since I have been living in Aus if I drink more than a couple of beers I feel dehydrated and awful the next day. Might be getting fitter (unlikely), older (hmmm...) or just more of a wuss..
Either way, nothing to be worried about ('cept for the last one I guess).
I just think you lose your tolerance for drinking when you get older. Sad, but true.
ensure regular practice
make sure you stay fit (or piss fit as they say in hobart)
I cant drink more than 2 or 3 beers max or I will be finished the next day.
I wouldnt call myself elite, but I average 300-400k's per week on the bike and train pretty hard, and yeah my tolerance of alcohol is pretty low now. Like Dylan or Gazza (all of us Poms) before I came out to Oz I could drink 5 or 6 pints of stella on a Tuesday night and feel fine the next day for work. If I drank that now, I would be hurting the whole of the next day.
The fitter you become, the more exercise you can do, & the more fit you become.
May have something to do with age, though personally have found the less you drink, the less you can drink to be effected by it.
Ethanol is highly soluble in water and is absorbed much less in fat, so a fat person will end up with a higher BAC. i.e. It's probably not fitness.
Heavy drinkers have more active livers and may be able to metabolise up to 3 drinks per hour. i.e. Drink more.
I'm a 43 year old alcoholic!
The best thing about drinking less in my old age is that I can afford to spend more on my bikes. Nowdays i am restriced to the occasional beer and my favourite tipple, the famous "dr Jurd's Jungle Juice" .
I enter the 'elite' catagory at races, but its no different really. Before Dirtworks this year, I drank two or three glasses of red in my campervan and rolled round in 4hrs 14mins. A little of what you fancy....
Most nights I'll drink a glass of red or two after training with my meal, as will my other half, and she goes ok too.
I reckon that its the abstenance involved in getting fit that makes you a light weight, not the fitness itself.
Personally, spirits buckle me. I cant drink more than one *insert any spirit name* before I am wasted.
It's just what you get used to. I've just hit 45, drink a bottle of wine a night (wife helps by having a glass so I technically don't drink a full bottle) and find it doesn't affect my riding at all. I do slow down to half a bottle a few days out from a big race to hydrate properly.
I had 3 or 4 beers with my brother and some of the glenrock guys before the dirtworks last year and I don't think it slowed me down. I had a few bike problems in the race but strava tells me I was moving for 5:07. My brother was a bit quicker and finished around 50th overall which was top 10 for masters.
Having a few beers or wine before the race helps with getting a good nights sleep.
It's getting old and being out of practice that's making me more of a light-weight than I used to be. This just happens to coincide with getting fitter but I doubt it's related - besides being up earlier to go for a ride which makes me pay for those drinks the night before! You lifestyle also changes as you get older which means that having to actually do stuff the next day means that the cobwebs are a lot more noticeable than when younger and able to either sleep in or lounge around half the day.
Agree with ps, I had a few beers in the campground the night before the Fling, had a great night's sleep and a great day out riding.
With respect, that amount nightly sounds well above a healthy intake and more like one you could reasonably expect to carry long term health consequences.
Maybe you could try not drinking at all for a month and see what kind of difference that makes? I think most would be pretty confident you'd feel better and ride faster once you got over the ... erm, withdrawal.
Just sayin'.
Going by the fast guys who are drinking before races I'm thinking I need to take up drinking. Maybe that's the prep I've been missing
I guess body mass is also a factor - I'm 5'11" and 68kg.
So I'm going to assume I'm not going soft (as some of my mates would have me believe), it's just the reduction in drinking through increased training that has lowered my tolerance. And getting older.
Maybe I should put the money I would have spent on beer into a new bike fund?
Beers the night before a race isnt going to hurt you, and it can help with recovery as well.
But yeah Ants and others have hit the nail on the head, to get fit you drink less, as you get up earlier to train, with that comes reduced tolerance etc. Even the Pro's, have a glass of wine for dinner occasionally during the tour so yeah take from that what you will.
Now if anyone can offer me a solution to some extremely smashed legs, I would love to hear from them cause at the moment, mine feel like they are about to fall off.
Relax with a glass or two of (good) wine!
Legs falling off? This is where the beer actually helps
... hop into the esky, if it's big enough
While I'm no expert on the subject, I don't think a glass short of a bottle a day (red or white?) is a guaranteed recipe for disaster.... my gran (bless her cotton socks) drank that much for as long as anyone can remember and she lived till nearly 90.
There are probably some counter arguments that raise the benefits to unwinding with a couple glasses of Red at the end of the day? and I have even seen studies that link endurance cycling/over training with long term health decline.
So I say drink whatever and if you can still maintain a good race time (i think this will dictate the former) with some moderate training.. then your on a winner for sure!
But anyhow please enlighten us with statistics that prove your theory?
MTB or beer?-the more I drink the less endurance I am getting-quicker in small bursts aroung Glenrock but when trying to stretch rides out I turn to a heaving sweating knackered mess
I found a solution for very sore and tired legs, recovery socks and then smash the hell into them again the following day.
I'm always surprised how even when my legs feel smashed, about half an hour on the bike brings them back to life.