We’re bombarded with information about alcohol, and most
of us probably know that excessive drinking is not a good
thing. But media messages about the health benefits of a
daily glass of red wine are commonplace. SARAH RUSSELL
asks: can you be a runner and enjoy a drink? And will your
performance benefit or suffer from a pre-race bevvy?
DRINKING HIT THE news again recently with the somewhat
sensationalist headline that ‘Alcohol is worse than heroin’.
It was a statement scary enough to put you off booze for
life, even if you just drink occasionally. The research, considered
not only the harm done to the individual user, but also to others
and society as a whole, such as deaths caused by drink driving
and antisocial behaviour. Unsurprisingly therefore, but somewhat
misleadingly, alcohol consumption came out on top as the most
harmful drug in our society.
Then there are the good news stories. For every shock headline
about the dangers of drinking there is one about the health benefits
of moderate alcohol intake, how drinking red wine can beat heart
disease and that drinkers could even live longer than teetotallers.
So what are we to believe? And what’s the deal when it comes to
running and alcohol? The legendary marathon runner Antonio Pinto
(who actually owns a vineyard in Portugal) always swore by a glass
of red the night before a race and claimed it actually helped his
performance – and, with a PB of 2hrs 6mins 36secs, he should know.
Yet for others, drinking even a tiny amount of alcohol on the eve of a
race or run is a recipe for disaster.
Christmas cheer
With the festive season just around the corner
as well, many of us face partying and drinking
much than we’re used to and if you’re training for
something important, it can prove to be quite a
juggling act. There’s nothing worse than running
with a hangover or having to ditch a session
altogether because you’ve over-indulged a little
too much. On the flip side, it can also be miserable
being the sober party pooper because you’ve got a
run planned the next morning.
Although revealing, the statistics aren’t pretty.
In Great Britain, almost one third of men and
one in five women regularly drink more than the
recommended amount of 21 and 14 units per week
respectively: apparently that is 10 million people!
One in 25 adults is actually dependent on alcohol
and the UK has one of the highest binge drinking
rates in Europe. And finally, and somewhat more
worryingly, alcohol is estimated to be responsible
for 33,000 deaths each year. As someone who
enjoys a glass of wine from time to time, this didn’t
make for happy reading.
As a runner, however, the chances are you take
better care of your health than the rest of the nonrunning
population, and it’s likely that you drink
less too, if at all. There is also the mindset among
some runners that we can somehow ‘run it off’
and that we can get away with it because we’re
fit. In fact, according to the American College
of Sports Medicine (ACSM) “alcohol abuse is as
prevalent in the athletic community as it is in the
general population”.
So what exactly does alcohol do to us? How does
it affect our running performance? Should we
abstain altogether if we want to run well, or follow
the Pinto example and buy a vineyard?
• to read the full feature, see this month's issue of Running fitness
