DRAFT Magazine

Or at least live a lot longer.

Whether you raced this weekend, overindulged with friends, or both, you’ve done your lifespan a favor.

Flickr photo by Chez Worldwide

Recently, two independent studies extol drinking and running for promoting longevity.

Time magazine picked up on a paper that found that heavy drinkers outlive teetotalers. This goes beyond the conventional wisdom that moderate drinkers are the only ones to experience health benefits from alcohol consumption. This finding holds true even after controlling for several outside factors, such as socio-economic status and number of friends.

According to the article:

Abstaining from alcohol does actually tend to increase one’s risk of dying even when you exclude former drinkers. The most shocking part? Abstainers’ mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers… These are remarkable statistics.

While heavy drinkers outlive those who abstain completely from alcohol, moderate drinkers still have the lowest mortality rate. Over the course of the 20-year study, more than 69% of the never-drinkers died, 60% of the heavy drinkers died and only 41% of moderate drinkers died.

Of course, people have been aware of the health benefits of beer a lot longer than this study — maybe even longer than we thought. Turns out, ancient Africans drank beer to soak up natural antibiotics nearly 2,000 years ago, long before the modern age of antibiotics in 1928.

Meanwhile, Men’s Health UK just published an article on how to live to 100. In that article, Dr. Thomas Perls, director of the New England Centenarian Study, said that running five times a week has been shown to add 16 years to your life. Genes may play a part, he said, but 70% of how you age is due to your lifestyle.

So to paraphrase a semi-famous line in the book “Born To Run” - ”You don’t stop running and drinking because you get old; You get old because you stop running and drinking.”

Crossfit is known for its brutal, usual workouts that leave your muscles screaming at the end.

Now here’s another novel exercise to add to the Crossfit database, courtesy of the Milwaukee chapter: The one-armed beer push-up.

“It’s debatable if drinking a beer while in a one-handed handstand is as difficult as drinking while doing a pull-up,” said Crossfit trainer Ryan Atkins.

This is not the first time Crossfit has ventured into beer exercise territory. On Crossfit message boards You can find talk of the Pull-up Century Club Drinking Game, beer and burpees, and beer as recovery drink.

And of course, others find creative uses for kegs.

The Beer Belt

We all know that beer is scientifically better than water for running.

So why not replace your water hydration belts with one for beer?

Now you have the 6-Pack Drink Holster.

“You’ll never be out of reach of your next cold one!” the product promises. It retails $4.95 and comes in black, pink and camo colors.

Take one on your next long run, and you’ll be ready for beer the minute you’re finished - if not before.

You can also find a fancier “hops holster” from a really scary looking website.

Thanks to Frank and Mitch for the heads up.

…to pedal while you paaaaaar-ty.

Breakin' the law?

Europe seems to have something against beers on bikes.

We reported a year ago that the Pedal Pub — the multi-rider, pedal-powered bar on wheels — had originally come under fire and then faced an ongoing battle in Amsterdam.

Now Germans — of all people — are rising up against the tourist-filled Pedal Pubs, complaining about “indiscriminate peeing,” noise and nuisance for pedestrians and motorists alike. Municipalities throughout the country are trying to ban the bikes.

Meanwhile, the self-propelled mobile tavern continues to gain popularity stateside. The Pedal Pub in the Twin Cities, for instance, just opened a new route.

You hear that? We embrace beers and bikes. Suck it, Europe.

Thanks to Joel for the heads up.

Sara Santiago is one of the baddest badass beer runners I know.

Yes, that’s her scar, after she had brain surgery and a titanium plate inserted into her skull. This was only four months after she appeared on this blog.

“Quite simply, I love delicious beer, and I love running, hiking, and having fun outdoors with my husband and our kids,” she said back in January.

Her goals: “I’m interested in finding the balance. I’m interested in drinking beer. (Related: Running is not optional.)”

Little did many of her friends know at the time she was dealing with a brain malformation that caused the bottom part of her cerebellum to grow out of her skull and into/onto her spinal cord. In other words, her brain was literally expanding out of her skull.

(Sara is also incredibly smart. Coincidence?)

For someone who relished being so active, she was having trouble with balance and it had become “hard to walk or hold my children.” I can’t even imagine what that would be like.

As a gesture of support before her surgery, friends of hers ran a heart, as outlined by their GPS. (I did too, though mine looked more like a liver than a heart.)

Then Sara had surgery and earned the hell out of that scar. She wasn’t completely better, but vowed “with gratitude in my heart and all of the beautiful people in my life, I will achieve 125% every day.” All was right with the world.

Now she has to go back in for more surgery. This time on her spinal cord. The date is less than two weeks away.

This time, friends ran a couple different course outlines for her, including a beer run. This is a beer mug (looks a little like Wisconsin, doesn’t it?) from fellow beer runner Mike Collins.

This made Sara very happy. She wrote on DailyMile: “I love beer (because it’s delicious). And they love me. And now I’m crying again. I am so blessed. These wonderful friends make my life awesome. I love them all so very much.”

I again ran a malformed route, this time one that somewhat resembled a bar of soap. So I hope my blog can more clearly convey what my GPS could not: We love you Sara, and we wish you the speediest of recoveries so you can get back to business. (aka running and beer.)

So everyone raise your glasses to one major badass. Cheers, Sara!

Later gators.

I’ve always said there’s nothing better than a cold beer after a long run.

Beer popsicles

I was wrong.

If you’re in New York you can order a Tecate beer popsicle from The Diablo Royale Este saloon. The not-so-secret recipe includes syrup and lime juice inserted into the can and frozen for four days. Then they cut it in half and serve it up as a push-up.

Or if you’re a little more ambitious, you can make your own.

If it’s a really hot day, I might bring one of these on a run with me.

Thanks to Jen and Chinatown Run for the heads up.

I have always been an advocate of gear and gadgets that make it easy to integrate beer and a healthy, active lifestyle, including the shower beer holder of the last post.

Maybe I’m getting old and curmudgeonly, but I’m not sure the world needs a bike seat-mounted bottle opener. The Road Popper retails for $40.

I understand that some bike people like to trick out their ride to be distinctive, with spoke cards, custom paint jobs or what have you.

But there are already more pragmatic options if you need to crack open a beer at your bike.

What’s your verdict on the Road Popper: Unnecessary urban hipster indulgence, or helpful aid for beer cyclist?

Thanks to Troy and Mitch for the heads up.

How many times have you finished a sweaty run and wanted both a shower and beer immediately? It’s the classic Beer Runner conundrum.

Well, now you can have both.

Instructables.com posted a simple, two-step tutorial to create your own shower beer holder.

Genius.

Via Nathan

It’s almost time to say goodbye to RAGBRAI 2010, and I didn’t get to blog nearly as much as I had hoped. But if I did, I really wouldn’t have experienced a true RAGBRAI, am I right?

(Actually, I was dealing a lot with the aftermath of the flood at my house. But I like to sound dangerous.)

Not to worry if you missed out, a full recap of my ride will appear in an upcoming print issue of DRAFT. With that you’ll get to meet the colorful characters and charming situations of Iowa that I’ve grown to love, such as:

Team RoadKill

The guy biking from Montreal to Argentina - who took a detour for RAGBRAI.

Bananaman

Leisure suit dudes

Naked pond dives

Epic flippy cup tournaments

Why one team got banned from RAGBRAI

Day drinking with Team Bad Boy

…And many, many more.

The tweet at the top of this blog comes courtesy of a member of Team Trouser Mouse. And he’s right, some of their antics might best be left unsaid to protect the not-so-innocent.

So I’m sorry you won’t be getting the 100% full story. I guess for some things, you really just had to be there.

Team Definitely Savage Obviously Not Subtle

First, an apology goes out to the ladies of Team Definitely Savage Obviously Not Subtle. They were gracious enough to do a video interview with me in Pocahontas, Iowa (”The Princess City”). But after two hours of trying to convert the file outside my campground, I gave up.

Suffice to say the interview boiled down to this: 1) Beer is good. 2) Biking across Iowa with beer is even better. 3) You should be here. 4) If you’re not, be jealous.

A few more miles down the road I ran into the Wilson family of six — all on one bike. They were incredibly friendly and talkative when I pulled alongside them, despite the fact that they had to haul a bike, a tagalong and a trailer up hills. Greg Wilson told me that was still easier than trying to coordinate babysitters for all of RAGBRAI. They just passed 1,300 miles of training together when I met them.

The Wilson Family -- all 6 of them

In the tiny town of West Bend we came across the World’s Largest Grotto, a surreal sight in the middle of cornfields. And right next to thousands of cyclists holding beer. The massive structure had petrified wood and $14 million worth of stone. One cyclist remarked that “the priests must have been on acid when they built this.”

West Bend Grotto photo by Jeff Miller

I met a nomadic young engineer named Willy who has bike toured 8,000 miles in the last five months, including a zig-zagging 4,500-mile trip from New Orleans to San Francisco. His buddy, Brett from Denver, was riding with his dog Moxie Crimefighter in the back of his bike. Coincidentally, Willy went to a conference rival of my high school in Wisconsin. Small world.

“I hope I’m not offending you,” Willy said at one of our rest stops, pulling out a paper bag-covered bottle. “But I’m not drinking beer. I’m drinking 40 proof fortified wine.”

Today’s short 60-mile ride was a brutal 103 degrees with no cloud cover or shade, making the beer at the end especially crucial to our survival. Thankfully, we were welcomed into Clear Lake with shouts of “FREE BEER!” Never has those words sounded so sweet. Turns out, a local bought a keg for bikers to entice them to pay $10 for a shower. I think it was working.

Until tomorrow, I leave you with this mobile public service announcement.