So how bad is alcohol?

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Comments

  • Herbsman
    Herbsman Posts: 2,029
    MountainMonster wrote:
    As far as your comment about racing, get a grip dude. Winning races takes years of training, strict diets and not havin many other commitments
    What a load of bollocks.
    CAPTAIN BUCKFAST'S CYCLING TIPS - GUARANTEED TO WORK! 1 OUT OF 10 RACING CYCLISTS AGREE!
  • mamba80
    mamba80 Posts: 5,032
    Herbsman wrote:
    MountainMonster wrote:
    As far as your comment about racing, get a grip dude. Winning races takes years of training, strict diets and not havin many other commitments
    What a load of bollocks.

    +10 there mate, MM have you any idea at all? we r not ProTour riders here.
  • Cumulonimbus
    Cumulonimbus Posts: 1,730
    I find that evening rides after a heavy night drinking are often quite fast and i have actually set PBs on occasion! However, a late morning ride after a heavy night normally starts off not that bad but then i tire very quickly. Think the good rides in the evening may partly be due to me sitting around all day.
  • pauldavid
    pauldavid Posts: 392
    I have some experience of this and can state absolutely that alcohol does affect performance on the bike. I know this because.


    A close friend of mine was knocked over by a car whilst on a night out and wobbling around in the road, as a consequence he was off his bike for over 6 weeks and on his return to the saddle found his performance had suffered.

    There we have it gentlemen alcohol DOES affect your cycling performance.

    Please be aware that we have not taken into account how much affect the kebab could have taken, this will need to be looked at in a further study.
  • Richj
    Richj Posts: 240
    MountainMonster wrote:
    My point mainly is that a tiny difference that may be brought on really is not noticable, as not everyone is a pro with power meters on their cranks and chase cars blaring real time stats into an earpiece.

    As I commented early on, when I rowed (good few years ago) I could tell if I'd had a few beers the night before before training. We'd do a couple of 1 hour ergo's a week to a controlled heart rate at a set stroke rate. I knew within a few hundred meters what I could do "fresh" and could never get within that target without letting the heart rate rise after a night of drinking. With all the numbers of the Concept 2 in front of you, you couldn't really hide from it.

    In terms of feel I could rarely tell the different when on the water, as I didn't have those numbers in the boat and these days I can't tell the difference when cycling as I don't own a powermeter.

    After not drinking for several months I made good gains in terms of numbers on the ergo's, which we always saw as a measure of fitness. Speed in the boat was always so much harder to gauge.

    Just to add, "drinking" was normally 4-5 pints on a Saturday or Sunday night with another 2-3 during the week.
  • El Grosso Bastardo
    El Grosso Bastardo Posts: 11
    Interesting thread.

    I guess what is "normal" or excessive drinking for cyclists may be very different to other social circles where 21 units in a week would be a quiet one. :roll:
  • MountainMonster
    MountainMonster Posts: 7,423
    Oh Herbsman, your lack of return posts proves a point for me.
    My London Road
  • El Grosso Bastardo
    El Grosso Bastardo Posts: 11
    Tom Dean wrote:
    Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15730339
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19079280

    Interesting stuff (not that I understand it...)

    I understood the below bit a bit (allowing for the poor English).
    Whether or not alcohol influences exercise and sport performance remains contradictory.

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