My Relationship with Alcohol

OK, I’m not here to preach, but rather to discuss the things that I do for my training. I used to be a fairly consistent drinker of beer, wine and whisky. There was nothing I liked better on a weekend than winding down with something to relax and chill out, and particularly the evening after a long Sunday run. Things changed a couple of years ago and I have never looked back.

I suppose I never had a particularly healthy relationship with alcohol. Every couple of months I would over do it and wake up full of regret. On those mornings when I woke up with a bad hangover or just did something stupid the night before, this would be followed by 3-4 days of depression. This was not a great prescription for successful running. In February 2022, I made the decision that I simply couldn’t drink anymore and I haven’t had a drink in two and a half years. I can honestly say I have never woke up and said, “I wish I was drinking last night.”

The Benefits of Not Drinking Alcohol While Marathon Training

The benefits of quitting drinking has been life changing for me. This is most obvious in my marathon times, but life in general is much better. To keep this on-point though, I’ll give you my top four areas of training that quitting alcohol has benefited.

1. Sleep

Anyone who knows me, knows I have some relatively unorthodox routines. I like to get to bed early and get up early. When I was drinking, getting out of bed was something I simply didn’t want to do. If I had a few drinks the night before, I preferred to lie in my bed and would only reluctantly get moving. These days, I get up when I wake up and look forward to the day ahead. I am full of energy and refreshed. Most importantly, I sleep amazingly well. I can now function quite happily on 6-7 hours of sleep because the quality of sleep is so much better than it used to be. My head hits the pillow at 10pm and the next thing I know is that it’s 4:30am and time for my 20 minute bodyweight routine.

2. Weight

This benefit is two-fold. When I began my weight-loss lifestyle it was recommended to not drink my calories. That usually meant things like fizzy drinks, juice, and yes, alcohol. So there is the calorie benefit of not adding excess calories to the daily intake. On a weekend, six beers could add almost 700 calories or more. The same goes for wine and whisky. 

But here’s the hidden benefit, not only was I not getting the calories from the alcohol, but the food I would inevitably consume while drinking, or when I had the buzz on. Those calories could easily be in the thousands per night. The benefit or cutting out alcohol from a weight standpoint were obvious for me.

3. Overall Physical and Mental Health Improvements

With better sleep and less junk food in my life, my overall health has benefited. This isn’t limited to physical health as I’ve never been happier or more content than since I quit alcohol. The difference is actually quite remarkable. It takes so much more to get me aggravated these days. My stress levels are down and I’m much more tolerant of things in general. Stress and anxiety has been reduced to a very low level in all aspects of my life.

4. Energy

As I mentioned earlier, I have so much more energy these days. From the moment I wake up in the morning until I hit that point at about 10pm when I start to feel tired, I am full of energy. Motivation doesn’t seem to be an issue either. I have things to do and I just do them. This includes running and strength work too.

I’m not recommending everyone stops drinking alcohol altogether. What I do recommend is that if your target marathon is important to you, 16 weeks of abstaining from drinking will only help. So far, it has helped bring my time down from 3:06 to 2:54 all things being equal.