Beer: A Recovery Drink?

Boy… getting back into blogging has been a bit difficult. After taking a month off to move, I’ve started new hobbies and made myself busy somehow. My only down time is the beer I treat myself to every night. It’s my favorite way to celebrate a workout well done… but is it a good way?

I’ve heard many times (from different people) that as a runner one of the best recovery drinks is beer. Which sounds fantastic and you may be willing to believe it right out the gate because, lets face it, beer is really good after a hard run. On the surface it seems like a good choice in recovery drink because it can be high in carbs and is liquid… which are the two things you need to replenish after you’ve hit the pavement for an hour or so. Here’s the catch… beer is not actually high in carbs. The average can of beer only contains 14 grams of carbs.

Do you know how many carbs are in a serving of chocolate milk? On average, chocolate milk contains 26 grams of carbs per cup. That’s almost TWICE as much. If you consume chocolate milk instead of beer after a race you also minimize the negative effects of beer as a recovery drink. Such as:

• Beer is a diuretic, which is obvious if you’ve ever had one too many and tried to keep from ‘breaking the seal’. It’s also obviously not a desirable effect if you are dehydrated. Which you generally are after a run.
• Recovery is actually slower after consuming alcohol of any kind. Why? The overloading of the liver to process toxins slows its processes in aiding the recovery of the entire body as a whole.
• Alcohol disrupts your sleep, making it that much harder for your body to recover completely overnight.
• Alcohol disrupts protein synthesis and if you habitually use beer to recover, it will affect your muscles.

So… in conclusion… keep your recovery drinking to the non-alcoholic variety and enjoy a nice, cold, glass of chocolate milk. Chocolate milk is considered one of the best recovery drinks according to athletic nutritionists. The calories and portions of important nutrients for recovery are similar to marketed specialty recovery drinks.  It also gets a bonus from me for being an actual food rather than concocted in a laboratory or something.

And don’t ever workout with a hangover if you can help it. The negative effects are multiplied by the alcohol toxicity in your blood as well as an extreme state of dehydration. Just skip the gym and do what the rest of us do… swear to never, ever do that again.

Oh! Protein!

Interval Running

Running has many benefits for your health, we all know this.  Did you know that running intervals can be more beneficial for weight loss and training than running a straight mile?

Intervals are where you run a bit and then have a rest section and then run again. Currently when I run intervals I have 2 minutes of a high-energy run followed by one minute of walking.  I repeat that pattern 10 times, completing my workout in 30 minutes.  With an interval run you are not covering as much ground.  For instance in a 30 minute straight run I generally cover 3 miles, in an interval run I cover around 1.5 miles.  So if why do I (or should you) run intervals?

The benefits of any running is that it’s a tough cardio/aerobic workout that gets your heart working overtime and can be done anywhere at anytime.  Being able to run a full 3 miles straight is great, I would never complain. To take your running to the next level, to make you a better runner, it’s a good idea to add the intervals.  Interval training works your heart and muscles to another level because of the rest portion.  Running fast for 2 minutes I spike my heart rate tremendously and my body goes into overdrive. When I do my 1 minute rest my body then works on recovering itself and going back to my basic state.  Repeating this process multiple times effectively exercises my body in a different way that a straight run. The rest portion is a mini cool-down every interval.

Intervals increase endurance, cardio thresholds and muscle strength making them good for any racer training for an event. They also boost metabolism because your body never plateaus in the calorie burn required during the run. Running straight for 3 miles, at some point your body does not require as much energy to continue forward momentum. So you burn more at the beginning getting up to speed and getting comfortable with the run.  Now imagine having to continually get back up to speed more than once… makes sense right?

Now my intervals are very different in speed and not very quick.  I do them more for fun than anything else, because running the same thing every other day just gets old.  So reaping what benefits I can when switching things up is good for me.  My brother’s wife runs intervals on treadmills in which she sprints flat-out for 30 seconds, walks briskly for 30 seconds and repeats.  Some people sprint for a minute and then slow down to their normal run pace for another minute.  The pace and time of the intervals are up to you, the benefits will be the same.  Just work with what you are comfortable with and remember to have fun!

Happy Running!