I’ve spent the majority of my adult life on the alcohol roller coaster. During that time I became a husband, father of two, had success in my career and in my athletic pursuits.
I’ve been sober for over 6 months now and the impact has been felt in all aspects of my life.
The most drastic change was the paradigm shift of no longer centering my life around a 2-3 hour “drinking window” every evening. The paradigm that my daily drinking habit put me in felt like being on a hamster wheel. Getting to that magical hour in the day where I could put a drink in my hand dulled my long term outlook. I didn’t realize how much it was affecting my ability to evolve as a person, husband, father, employee, etc.
As far as cycling related benefits:
I sleep much better, thus I recover much better. I am able to ride more frequently with more intensity and have seen my fitness skyrocket.
I am more present mentally. I don’t have to deal with the mental effect of feeling physically depleted by the prior nights drinking which leaves more mental bandwidth for the workout at hand.
I’ve lost a fair amount of weight by doing nothing more than riding more and not consuming alcohol.
I’ve realized that when I was drinking, my mindset towards cycling was to “prove” that I could drink an excessive amount of alcohol every night and still be a cyclist. Riding wasn’t enjoyable as much as it was a way to make up for the abuse that I was putting my body through by dumping alcohol into it every night. Since I stopped drinking I’ve found that my enjoyment of cycling has skyrocketed.
Your comment about focusing on the window every evening to have a drink resonates with me. I’ve also given up alcohol for the exact same reasons you listed. I’m very happy to say that physically it was nothing, but as a habit of “this is what I do in the evenings” it was a little harder to shake, but not earth shatteringly hard. Although…heading out to the garage to work on bikes still feels weird without a beer, lol.
I’m now just at the point where I want to hit a goal weight before having another drink, but then what? I’m historically an all-or-nothing type of personality, and although I do miss a bit of the social aspect, I don’t want to go back to where I was before I stopped. I guess we’ll just see.
There’s another thread about reaching 4.0 watts/kg in your 40’s (which is most certainly attainable, even in your 50’s).
As a 50 year old, and having used TR for almost 8 years, I can without a doubt say that alcohol use will hamper my fitness gains. Most certainly, it will derail a middle aged athlete’s goal of reaching 4.0 watts/kg.
As a non drinker for approx 4-5 years, I’m in the best shape of my life, mentally and physically.
I’m stopping alcohol again, at least until my Ironman (~100 days from today).
From my experience, the difference is huge - mostly on the recovery side, but that changes everything.
In 2021 I was preparing for Nice Ironman - needed to give up after the date change (Covid restrictions). I didn’t drink at all during ~3 months. I was feeling very well rested, even the days after long and hard sessions.
This year, I’m doing similar (just a bit lower) volumes of training, but didn’t stop alcohol - while I do progress, I feel tired quite often and hence train at lower intensity that I feel I could (as compared to 2021).
Alcohol definitely messes up my sleep and therefore messes up my recovery. This is probably a bigger problem for 50+ athletes than for 20 and 30 year old athletes.
Good thread this! I noticed my units increasing over the summer and my recovery for subsequent workouts struggling. I used Stoptober to reduce consumption and into late Nov sticking with it. Recovery is better, sleep is better and noticing body composition improvements. I do however believe in everything in moderation and with Xmas approaching I’m sure I’ll have a festive tipple, but mentally I’m sure I won’t be drinking to excess as I progress into my 40’s!
My favorite thread. I have been going strong since November 1 and just sleep alone is amazing not having a couple beers in the evening. Sure is tough not to stop in the local breweries while out and about town though!
I’m going to have to try out some of these non-alcoholic beers. I’m laying off the brew as well this season, but it sure would be nice to have a cold one to pretend with.
Maybe this has been posted somewhere else? But, I didn’t see it listed in the links for this thread and I wanted to share it. It’s just one coach’s study of himself, but I still think it’s interesting.
I didn’t drink until around the age of 23, and then I drank rarely. At some point in grad school it turned into a social habit, and then during COVID life it turned into a norm. I’d probably regularly drink 3-4 nights per week, 2-3 beers on each of those nights. I realized that’s been “normal” for me over the past 5 years, and recently with all the sports media looking at alcohol I’ve decided to cut it way back. I haven’t sworn it off completely, but I’m now very concious of when I drink and how much. I think eventually, I’ll stop completely.
I think it should be available, and it’s a personal choice, but I’m glad to see more people giving alcohol use a lot of thought!
I like beer but the less I’ve drank the more it affects me the next time I have more than a couple. Mostly just not great sleep and/or a little sluggish the next day. I’m pretty much down to 1-2 beers per week.
OP here…have not checked in for a while. For those who can’t seem to resist a glass of wine/beer and have trouble stopping after one I just want to say Athletic Brewing Co. non-alcoholic beer has made it easy for me. Give it a try if you like beer. I was a red wine drinker and the Athletics really took that itch away even for me. My wife still drinks a glass each night with dinner and I have zero urge.
There’s just not one god damned good thing about alcohol. Our society is sick with it. It’s so f****** acceptable and accessible it’s just disturbing.
You can do it! If you’re younger and reading this just don’t start. For me when times were bad (sick kids, furloughs, moving…) I didn’t drink. When times started to get better and money became plentiful is when I slipped.
One more time. Non-alcoholic beers have come a long ways in the last few years. Try one or two before dinner. Eat a big dinner and you’ll be surprised you won’t feel the need to drink much more.
If Non-alcoholic beers don’t curb the desire get off this board and go seek professional help. But don’t let the alcohol industry take your life away from you. They don’t care if you die or are riddled with disease. Peace.
When my wife got pregnant, I cut back drinking 90 %. (And I don’t drink much, each week I usually share 1–2 bottles of beer with my wife.) We got to sample some non-alcoholic beers. I think the taste is not quite the same, but once you don’t insist that the taste is exactly the same, there are some very good non-alcoholic beers out there.
That is good insight! Thanks for posting. I book marked the site for further subject reading…
While any amount of alcohol is toxic and does your body zero good you obviously can control yourself. As can my wife. For whatever reason my consumption bloomed into a bottle a night and a lot of feeling bad about myself. Maybe more indicative of a problem was wondering if I had a problem? I still don’t know as I could quit (with a crutch) overnight with no withdrawal symptoms, however, it was getting hard to not open a bottle every night. What pushed me over the edge was reading about heavy drinkers. I fit the definition and that’s all that it took for me to wake up.
Anyways, NA isn’t for everyone but, perhaps it can help someone else like me.