Alcohol

[Nebulous]

As I've been getting fitter and more cycling obsessed I've pretty much cut out alcohol completely. I'll go weeks / months without a drink at all and when I do drink I tend to drink less. However I went to a party last night, had a few drinks, got home very late and went out on the bike this morning.

It was absolute crap. My legs wouldn't function, I was 2-3 mph down on my usual speed and came home having cut it short at 32 miles feeling totally shot. I'm coming to the view that I just don't need it. The strange thing is that I used to have quite a high tolerance to alcohol, and could function pretty well the next day. Now, on lower levels I'm noticing / feeling it much more.

If it comes to a head-to-head between the bike and booze the bike is certainly going to come out on top.

 

[Kiwiavenger]

I think alcohol dehydrates you so could have been partly to blame

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[Becs]

Lovely stuff, I won't hear a word against it! ;-)

 

[Nebulous]

Well that was remarkably silly!

I had a day off yesterday, we had a nice day with a family barbecue - went out for a ride this morning, and again I was really struggling. It felt like I was working pretty hard, but my speedo was telling me otherwise. I had all sorts of theories overtrained (if only!) coming down with a virus, hayfever/asthma, too warm etc.

I got home - uploaded my information, spent a bit of time going through it, and eventually worked out that my Garmin is under reporting miles. So it wasn't the alcohol entirely on Saturday, and my performance hadn't fallen off a cliff, it had just tailed off slightly.

 

[ColinJ]

I got home - uploaded my information, spent a bit of time going through it, and eventually worked out that my Garmin is under reporting miles.

Eh - how does a GPS under report distance? The only way I can see is for it not to have locked on to the satellite signals properly.

 

[Nebulous]

It underreports miles, because it takes its data from the wheel sensor. It is setup to prioritise the magnet, and if that's not recording properly it doesn't give an accurate figure.

I upload the same data to strava and garmin connect. I've got strava set in kms and garmin connect in miles, just to confuse things further. So Strava says I've done 68.5 km (42.56 miles) Garmin Connect says I've done 35.97 miles. So I then put my route into googlemaps to check it, which comes up with 21.6 miles - each way.

I've had it before- where I did the same route 3 times, with differing mileage. I replaced the magnet and it fixed itself. Its a bit strange that I buy the sensor to increase accuracy, and to get cadence, and in some ways it becomes less accurate. For my commuter I have the garmin mount, but don't have a sensor so I only use gps, and apart from taking a bit longer to stop at junctions it seems to be pretty accurate.

 

[ColinJ]

Ah! In that case it is probably very fussy about the alignment of the magnet. I had similar problems with my old bike computer when I didn't have it tight enough on the spoke - it kept getting knocked out of position.

 

[dellzeqq]

Well, Susie and I got through three bottles of pinot grigio after our London to York ride, and felt all the better for it!

 

[Aperitif]

Well, Susie and I got through three bottles of pinot grigio after our London to York ride, and felt all the better for it!

There's a lot to be said for taking it easy.

 

[BigGee]

I think for some people you just have to accept that your relationship with alcohol changes as you get older and that is not necesserily a bad thing. I gave up drinking a couple of years ago. I am certainly not puritanical about it and retain a sneaking admiration with those of my peers that can still tuck it away like what we did when we was younger, particularly those that combine it with a healthy lifestyle.

Unfortunately though a lot don't do that and working in healthcare I spend a lot of my time dealing with the downsides of alcohol. I can think of many whoes care I have been involved with, including some high profile ex professional sports people whose lives have been ruined by it.

When you say to people that you have stopped drinking, people usually assume that you where an alcoholic. For me it was actually a prolnged dose of post viral fatigue which stopped me doing a lot of things I liked, especially cycling and left me very intolerant to drinking. Over a six month or so period I had to learn to say no. It is not easy as there is a surprising amount of social pressure to drink, something you may not realise until you try to stop. I have to say now that it is all behind me, I find it quite liberating.

When I think back about it I was probably becoming intolerant a long time before I even contemplated trying to stop and I was probably as well, without realising it, drinking more than was good for me. Stopping was for me a big part in getting over the chronic fatigue and back to the levels of health and fitness that I previously took for granted.

Ultimately these are all personal choices and I have no wish to preach about it other than to say listen to your body and be guided by it. Somebody once said that alcohol has given me more than it has taken away, I think it may have been Churchill. I got to the point where it was taking from me more than it was giving and I am glad that I was able to realise that and stop.

When it came to the head to head chice for me, the bike definitely won!

 

[brockers]

I've started making my own beer. Who cares about cycling?!!

 

[Nebulous]

Cracking post BigGee - I suppose I'm heading the same way, and despite the fact it hadn't hammered my cycling the way I thought it had it was still another step on that path. I don't do much socialising so that's rarely an issue, just the very occasional special event.

 

[Nosaj]

Same here, I am not tee-total but hardly drink much at all now. When I do I feel awful afterwards for most of the day on as little as two or three pints. When I was younger I was forever out on the P... but now I go weeks without a beer. I really do think that to drink a fair amount you do have to build up a tolerance to alchohol and by logic that can't make it good for you can it?

I don't like football either and work in the city where the majority of small talk is either about football or beer so I am a bit of a Pariah.

 

[defy-one]

Age has had an effect on my drinking and the capacity to drink several pints. I now enjoy a bottle of beer far more than pints and pints in the pub.
My friends and family are understanding and thankfully not under any peer pressure. Can't see myself ever giving it up, but very glad i control it, as apposed to it controlling me


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[broomwagon]

I had five pints of guiness on saturday and did 80 odd miles on sunday. I tend to go better after a few pints of liffy water