Friday Q&A: Alcohol in Sports Drinks?
Q: Should I put alcohol in my sports drinks?
A: Of course not, it will ruin the taste of the alcohol.
Alright, admitily I am cheating with this week’s Q&A mainly because I am so lazy and haven’t had the best week in terms of running. But this came across my radar screen this morning and was too good to pass up.
Apparently some Swiss genuises got authorization to see if drinking alcohol would improve performance. The results? … Wait for it … Yep, you guessed it:
A group of Swiss investigators have shown that adding a small amount of alcohol to your sports drink produced a “significant decrease” in performance while forcing a higher “heart rate response and perceived exertion.”
Shocking I know. But you ask, about about my beloved Red Bulls? Well as long as you leave out the vodka, you’ll be okay, in fact better than okay:
On the other hand, a highly regarded British team found that caffeine added to a sports drink improved an endurance time trial performance by 4.6 percent when compared to a carb-only sports drink, and by 9 percent when compared to water. Those are big numbers in sports performance.
So there you have it, save the drinks for after you finish your run and you’ve earned a nice beer, and stick with the a good ‘ole cup-a-joe before your runs.
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