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Don’t drink and run: an introduction to runoholism
Published on 04/02/08
by Maureen
We’ve allllll done it…
The only good time to plan a long run is on the weekend. The only good time to drink is on the weekend. Fuck.
I’m a beer girl myself, especially since moving to the city. I can see the container it came in, so I know that it hasn’t been compromised and I know the approximate alcohol content and how my body reacts to it. Cocktail can be risky in terms of strength, and mixers (sodas) react differently with me now that I drink so little carbonation in the course of a week and so little sugar. But I’ve tried a bit of everything. Here are my opinions on runoholism:
The Rum and Coke (or Roman Coke, as we used to call it in college): Not a bad option, especially if they’re not very strong and you need some caffeine going into the start of an evening. I made it 11 miles after three of them last weekend pretty solidly, although I think this or another… substance… that was in my body may have slowed the first two miles. Unfortunately, the bar I was at didn’t have diet Coke (wtf is that?) and I felt heavy afterward, and sugar crashed like CONKED OUT on my couch.
Vodka and Ginger Ale: Why did I do this? Too hard, too much carbonation, yick, nearly vomited on only a short run the next day. And maximum pass-outage after the run.
The Gin and Tonic: I have some friends who can drink this like it’s water. It’s made in pint glasses at parties at their house. It’s a relatively light beverage and to be honest, the last time I ran on it, it didn’t really feel much different from running sans alcohol. Maybe I’m adjusted to it from my days in grad school, but overall I’m a fan of the G&T on a pre-run day. I also can only hold about two of them, so I stop drinking relatively early on them.
Beer: there are so many factors here:
Dark beer (Smithwicks, Guiness, Newcastle): Less carbonation, less running-belching. Less filling. I like it.
Light beer (Harp, Leinie’s, Pilsner-Urquell, Stella, etc.) Heavy and carbonated, plus I can put a number of them away and dry myself out pretty well, leading to dehydration from the start of the run and general drowsiness in the mid to late stage of long run.
Lite beer (Miller, Bud, >shudder< PBR): Probably the worst because it takes so much to get any effect. I then piss out anything good that I drank earlier in the day and am just empty of every kind of non-hop fluid. Gross.
Drinking game beer (the kind that comes in the keg): It’s ok for beer pong, because that is a well-paced drinking game that’s usually not played for several hours and generally has no effect on the total consumed, at least for me. For flippy cup, ’tis another story. Flippy cup inolves a lot of chugging and therefore a lot of air consumption which causes a lot of belchiness and a lot of sudden drunkenness from not realizing how much you’ve consumed. Flippy cup is generally bad for my running experience in that it makes me hesistant to even start running for fear of ralphing unexpectedly during the run.
Wine: I have never consumed enough wine to feel much effect, so I don’t think I’m in to judge this one.
In general, if you must drink and run, I would say do G&Ts first, Rum and Coke as a second choice and dark beer as the backup plan. That’s my MO for the next year of Saturday nights, I think.
The run is over. Now what?
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