. The facts: Alcohol is a diuretic that can lead to pre-race dehydration. Alcohol is also a depressant with many attributes that could seriously hurt athletic performance. For many runners, even one pint can cause stomach upset and other problems the morning after.
Did the two pints help Frank Shorter win the gold? I believe the answer is yes. I have quoted (the parts I chose to remember) from the running and beer article while sitting at the bar many a pre-marathon evening. Heck, it makes for a good bar story and justifies my beer drinking. I have in fact, drank a beer or two before each of the 40 marathons I have ran. (None of the 40 did I win) I am sure Frank had a pre-race ritual of drinking a couple beers and his system was used to it. He probably over hydrated to compensate for the fluid loss from the alcohol. Actually, the drinks may have allowed him to fall asleep avoiding the sleepless night that often comes before major competition. Im sure the many 100-mile weeks of running helped, along with some genetics.
If you believe something will help your performance, it will. If the information is presented in a logical, believable, convincing format that makes sense to you, it will work. If another person looks at the same information and sees flaws in the logic, it wont work for them. It comes down to confidence in the things that you choose to do. Does this mean it is all mental and not physical? Not at all. When you have confidence in the actions you choose to take, you will take them very serious. Good examples I have witnessed to this are with marathon training schedules and diet plans.
I hear testimonial ads about products that raise your metabolism and allow you to loose weight without exercise or a change in diet. I have discussed these products with experts in nutrition who assure me the only way to loose weight is to burn more calories than you take in. That is to say, eat less or exercise more. The rate of metabolic increase related to these magic supplements is insignificant (at best) and would not account for weight loss of more than a pound per week. Are those giving the testimonial lying? I doubt it. Once convinced and invested in a product, we pay closer attention to our weight. Once we start getting on a scale each day, its natural to pay more attention to what we put in our mouth and our activity level. I equate it with running on a track or a course with marked miles. I pay attention to splits times and am more conscious of my pace. Do I run faster on a marked course with the same perceived effort than at a slower pace on an unmarked course? The answer is yes.
In Galloways book on running, Jeff Galloway presents a marathon training plan that is well explained. The plan touts marathon success with hardly any running each week other than one long run. The long training run goes up a mile each week, eventually getting to a point that you are required to run 26 miles, in training! I was convinced the plan was ridiculous, only to hear testimonials by runners who followed the plan to the letter with great results. Could they have been more prepared for the marathon? I surly believe so, but the confidence in the program made it work.
Loose 10 lbs. in 48 hours. Run your fastest marathon ever on 30 miles per week. Take a minute per mile off your training pace by doing breathing exercises. Drink beer and run faster! Ill be damned, it works!
Run fast and take chances,
Randy Step
"... Perhaps the genius of distance running is its supreme lack of utility. It makes no sense in a world of space ships and supercomputers to run vast distances on foot. There is no money in it and no fame, frequently not even the approval of peers. But as poets, apostles and philosophers have insisted from the dawn of time, there is more to life than logic and common sense. The runners know this instinctively. And they know something else that is lost on the sedentary. They understand, perhaps better than anyone, that the doors to the spirit will swing open with physical effort. In running such long and taxing distances they answer a call from the deepest realms of their being -- a call that asks who they are ..." - Kevin Tiller, Sydney Australia
