Certainly, for many organized sports like rugby, soccer and football this is pretty common. The ‘team’ nature of the enterprise encourages it in a way the ‘individual’ nature of running would not.

Yes, it’s less common for runners to drink in such amounts after workouts but certainly there is some amount of excessive drinking after an event – particularly longer events such as marathons. It’s a celebration and, for many, a long awaited reward for the many many weeks of work. I know I waded through quite a few beers after the Tuscon Marathon in December.

And that’s what caught my eye about this study. In our case we immediately decided to run another marathon in a rather shortened training window. Did that day of celebration have an effect on my ability to rebound and limit my ability to “cash in” on my conditioning? After reading this, I have to say it may have been more of a factor than I originally considered.

While this study may have findings that apply to runners and other endurance athletes, it’s certainly not designed to address the particular nature of drinking as it applies to our sport. And I think holding it accountable in such a manner is asking too much of it.

But there is a fertile ground for study on the affect of even moderate amount of drinking on performance over time and, if nothing else, this study certainly piques my curiosity on that score.