Tuesday, November 11, 2008

CAFFEINE VS BEER

I just read the article on Velonews about the Australian study that post-ride caffeine can help speed muscle recovery. They say more study is necessary. It won't be meaningful to me until they do a side-by-side comparison to beer. I can drink more beer post-ride than coffee, plus it will let me take a nap afterward. Golly, it was 30+ years ago that, as a disciple of Dr. George Sheehan, I believed what he wrote about beer being a good carbohydrate-replacement drink and experimented with running 4 three-mile loops and consuming a beer after each loop. To tell the truth, that didn't go too well, but the Aussies will need some powerful statistics to get me to switch.

2 comments:

  1. u r blog Is very nice

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  2. Runner's World has had some similar advice for a while - in favor of caffeine and beer. If I remember properly, the deal with the caffeine is it constricts the blood vessels, reducing inflammation damage. Beer has the carbs, of course, but also good B vitamins from the yeast.

    But, why say "or" when you can say "and"? As any self-respecting college student can tell you, the combination of coffee and beer is a nice, relaxed buzz, perfect for staying just alert enough to keep up with the score of whatever sporting event is on the TV while you have that nap.

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