It’s a common ritual among my running buddies. We run, then we drink. And we’re not alone. There’s the famous Hash House Harriers, with chapters around the world, which calls itself a drinking club with a running problem. Among runners, coffee is perhaps the only beverage more popular than beer.

My friends and I often joke that we’re carbo-loading when we split a six pack together, but once in a while I wake up groggy and wonder: Could my drinking habit be hurting my running?

Being a former scientist, I had my own theories about how drinking and running mix, and I couldn’t resist putting them to the test. The Colorado Mesa University had just opened the Monfort Family Human Performance Research Lab, a state-of-the-art exercise-science facility that seemed like the perfect venue to explore alcohol’s effects on running performance. My friend Gig Leadbetter, Ph.D., coaches the school’s cross-country team and is an exercise scientist at the Monfort Lab. He’s also a home brewer and winemaker and, without any arm-twisting, agreed to put together a study for Runner’s World.

In our study, individual results varied but, overall, beer and running mixed fine.

RATING OF PERCEIVED EXERTION (RPE)
Quantifies how a runner is feeling
Hypothesis: If alcohol harms glycogen replenishment, RPE should climb higher, sooner (and at a faster rate) on the Exhaustion Run following real beer.
Result: RPE did not significantly differ between the two trials.

Takeaway: Moderate beer consumption following a run did not make runners feel worse on their next morning’s run.

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RESPIRATORY EXCHANGE RATIO (RER)
RER tells us what percentage of carbs and fat is being used as fuel.
Hypothesis: If alcohol harms glycogen replenishment, runners should use up their carbs more quickly and therefore use more fat at the end of the Exhaustion Run following the real beer; RER should go down.
Result: No metabolic differences in RER between the real beer and placebo trials.

Takeaway: Moderate beer consumption did not significantly alter the availability or use of carbs for fuel the next morning.

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RUN TO EXHAUSTION TIME (RTE)
The amount of time the runner lasted on the treadmill, running at 80 per cent of his or her maximum
Hypothesis: If alcohol harms recovery, runners should feel depleted sooner after drinking post-run beers, therefore reaching their exhaustion points sooner during their next runs.
Result: Men reached exhaustion points 21 per cent sooner the morning after drinking real beer (compared with placebo beer); women took 22 per cent longer to reach exhaustion after real beer.

Takeaway: Men performed worse the morning after drinking a few post-run beers, while the women performed better. But given our small sample size, these results should be taken with a grain of (margarita) salt.

For more results, pick up a March 2012 issue of Runner's World at newsstands or your nearest Coles.