Last week or so I’ve been drinking. Rest week is ending…short power build starts wed with a ramp test. Going to have a big margarita now (ok probably 2) and watch a bit of Z Nation. Then back on the wagon starting tomorrow.
I’ve sort of decided this is a sustainable pattern for me. No drinkijg during training blocks, aside from special occasions or an occasional cheat day. I’ll treat myself to some nice whiskey or some belgian beer on rest weeks.
Yes - me.
Money saved is great and I’ve dropped 4KGs already this year just by cutting booze and training consistently.
I’ve got no real desire to pick it up again just yet - although if Wales win the Six Nations then a celebratory beer might be hard to avoid!
Totally agree - this is what made it finally click for me - sober for nearly 18 months now and no desire to go back after years of unsuccessfully trying to ‘moderate’.
Still going over here as well. Drink a lot of LaCroix. hah
I’ve found this thread to be really informative. I’ve always had a problem with the alcohol off switch…one drink turns into 5 pretty easily. Had a minor meltdown after drinking too much on vacation, poured out the rest of the whiskey bottle and had a good talk with the wife who is on board. I have a 2 drink limit now with all the booze locked up. Can’t drink it if I can’t get to it! I found a good substitute to be 1oz of tart cherry juice concentrate in a glass of diet lime tonic water. Thanks all!
Wimps.
Try the ‘Stopped Drinking Coffee’ club…that’ll really test your mettle!
Wow, dude.
I’ve been slowly phasing it out of my life for years really. The hardest part for me are social scenarios where everyone else is drinking. I have to be careful of depression so alcohol really has no place for me now. Riding is better without the hangover.
I’m a long time cannabis user and I’ve even cut down on that massively. Go figure, respecting your body and mind makes a difference. Keep it up!
I think about how these extra things we use to cope effects me the following day: how is this going to make me feel in the moment versus what it’s going to feel like the next day. When you are able to step back from these small decisions and gain that perspective it really helps. My riding and life has improved.
I quit ‘school night’ drinking and i quit drinking by myself.
So it has to be at least with the wife or with company.
I’ve started going more towards quality alcohol too (whiskeys; bourbon, scotch, etc) along with stouts, porters, imperial stouts. Therefore it also reduces the amount that i drink and makes it more like an appreciation thing than a “getting a buzz” .
Quitting altogether could be a good thing but the different in cals ingested would be marginal.
Enjoyed this thread as well, and with some of the other sober alcoholics here (20 years this month for me), am now and then astonished by how the non-alcoholics here can read a little, do some arithmetic, and then just stop using alcohol because they’re losing some watts and maybe a place or two in group rides. For those of us who were losing spouses, jobs, families, health, freedom, almost our lives, and still couldn’t quit until half dead, that common sense is just not in our repertoire. That’s why it’s a pretty big deal to us — if a bore to others — when we finally do find that we can not only live without alcohol, but much more happily.
For both groups I’d like to pass on a remark by a sponsor in my first months sober, when I was turning myself inside out trying to figure out whether I was a “real” alcoholic (after 35 years of daily drinking!) or just an unhappy habitual drinker with life problems (ha!). They said, “Does it really matter? If you’re not an alcholic, you don’t have to drink. If you are an alcoholic, you have to not drink.”
Along the same lines: You run into a friend at a restaurant, and alongside the dinner plate are two neatly trimmed stalks of celery. “Say, Josephine, what’s with the celery?” “New Year’s Resolution. I’ve decided to limit myself to two pieces a day.” Does she have a celery problem?
If you do have a problem quitting, welcome to the club! There’s help, as others here have said, and it saves lives — as well as watts.
love your user name! I appreciate the advice. Common sense aside if you’re addicted no amount of common sense can help. It takes an incredible amount of effort ad help to kick an addiction of any kind. So far so good I’ve been having an occasional drink but only one. The off switch has always been the issue for me. Remove the ability to have more than one and I don’t have more than one it seems 
8 months of no drinking as of today! My wife and I are expecting baby #3 to arrive next week—-drinking and 4:30am rides just don’t mix well for me at this point—and I prefer riding! I really don’t miss it. I’m shooting to make it to a year at least and then go from there—not sure I’ll be jumping back on the wagon though.
That’s amazing @agbatten!
Three months and change here. Curious if I can go an entire year. Don’t miss it either. I do have some beer in the fridge, but no temptation to crack one.
I’ve been racing these past two and a half years. This past 18 months a 100% trainer road devotee!
Did reasonably well in a number of stage races in 2018 and came within 1 point of joining Cat 2. Decided to try no-alcohol for the first time in my life (occasional beer and wine drinker, nothing excessive!). Went into 2019 Season and came second in my second race. Three weeks later and I came top ten in three out of four races in a three day Cat 2 stage race (my first at Cat 2). I reckon giving alcohol, (even if it was only a small amount), made a real difference. And its not easy… I really miss the wine with the wife!
I stopped drinking last November after feeling progressively worse, whenever I’ve had any.
Not missing it a single bit.
yessir. I used to always go sober for racing season (jan 1-sept 4), but then I was drunk from sept 5-dec 31.
I’m cyclical now. I go 90 days sober, and then have one to two days with delicious beer. It’s been working really well for me.
Thanks for sharing!
I’m currently back in an abstaining phase, timed to coincide with the 8 weeks of specialty leading up to my A-race.
I was going through last year’s training diaries and while I don’t drink a lot, I felt I left a lot on the table with the summer gin and tonic/glass of rose/pimms.
I cut out alcohol 2 years ago after a few gout flare-ups. The last one left my 35 year-old self hobbling around with a cane during a romantic holiday with the wife. The pain was centered around my big-toe joint. My Dr told me I could go on medication or try to loose weight, clean up my diet, and drink lots of water. I choose the natural route- lost 45 lbs and started racing bikes. I still have the occasional drink, but I make sure to wash it down with plenty of water!
I brew beer… for many reasons… I limit myself to 1 a night a few more over the weekend… I taste test a lot of short pours… my doctor says that I’m okay just watch it… I applaud you sir for your accomplishment my wife has 16 years sober… I also try to take a night or two of not drinking if I can help it but when quality is at stake it’s what I got to do!