Getting Fit - Occasional Smoker

hothead

Hello,

Trying to get fit after a few years off the bike. Im 30 and I am a smoker who is finding it hard to stop.

My question is do you think its possible to ride, attempt a few 10 TT while i still have the odd fag? I am sure it sounds a silly question but does anyone else smoke and ride?

jibi

This has been asked before and yes there are quite a few who smoke.

I try not to have a fag for a few hours before a TT, kills the lungs, and the oxygen carrying capacity of the red cells.

But on club runs I have been known to have one at the cafe stop.

I do wish I could stop though, just to save the money , it is so expensive now, just like any addiction.

cheers

george

Crapaud

hothead wrote:
Trying to get fit after a few years off the bike. Im 30 and I am a smoker who is finding it hard to stop.

Yep, I'm a smoker too. I've tried numerous times to stop with varying degrees of success. I once managed it for 3 months and it made a huge difference to endurance and recovery.

I've always done distance as opposed to speed so I don't know how it would affect TT's, but it will make a difference. The odd fag won't make as much difference as the amount that I smoke. I wish I'd never started (where have I heard that before?)

I'm psyching myself up for another attempt on Monday! Like Jibi, it's more a money thing - what could I do with neary 3000 pounds?

manick0de

I don't mean to hijack the topic but I quit a week ago and If anything It's harder to breathe on the bike. My throat gets sore and I start coughing up flem. I had a few fags a couple of days ago (for old times sake) and the next day I could breathe fine?

SteveR_100Milers

I gave up for good 4 years ago, and started riding again last year. I am still coughing up gook from the years of tar that I inhaled, and exercise will only encourage the expulsion of the crap more quickly and more obviously. So take it as a positive sign. I cannot now imagine smoking and cycling - my lungs hurt anough during a 10TT, if I smoked I should imagine they would be ripped.

Fab Foodie

Gave up nearly 2 years ago having smoked (mostly roll-ups) since about 18 years old until 42. Certainly breathe more easily now, and cycle at pace with a lot more ease.
It's really worth quitting to get performance improvements.

GentleGiant

Apparently, Eddy Merckx used to smoke during his racing career, so it can't do you that much harm.

SteveR_100Milers

GentleGiant wrote:

Apparently, Eddy Merckx used to smoke during his racing career, so it can't do you that much harm.

he is rather at the extreme end of the normal distribution of effects of smoking on human health. So you are claiming that IF you ride like Eddie, then smoking is OK....? What about the rest of us who cant hold his back wheel... :?

Fab Foodie

Wasn't Mario Cippolini known to drop to the back of the pack for the odd cigg?

david 142

Odd cigs?

Isnt that accusation actionable? :twisted:

Fab Foodie

david 142 wrote:

Odd cigs?

Isnt that accusation actionable? :twisted:

Crapaud

Jibi wrote:I try not to have a fag for a few hours before a TT, kills the lungs, and the oxygen carrying capacity of the red cells.

It takes 24 - 48 hours for the carbon monoxide from the ciggies to be expelled completely.

I went to a smoking cessation class and had mine measured with a CO breathalyser - and it's scary! It's a wee hand-held thing with LEDs: 2 green, a few amber, quite a lot of red and a small screen that gives a readout of the CO in parts per million. When I blew into it all the LEDs lit up, the screen lit up red and started flashing, and an alarm went off!
Reading: 79 ppm! This was nearly double anyone else in the classes reading. A quick google later that night tells me that 100 ppm = nearly dead. (400 ppm and you'll die in seconds)

Now that I've given myself that reminder, I'm off to buy my last pack.

The CO also thickens the blood making it more difficult for the heart to pump the it around the body. I started using an HRM recently. It'll be interensting to see what difference not smoking, in a weeks time, makes. I'll report back!

Dorian Gray

Fab Foodie wrote:

Wasn't Mario Cippolini known to drop to the back of the pack for the odd cigg?

Yes, and Cipollini also had a habit of jumping into the Saeco car as soon as the road started going uphill! The two observations are probably unrelated but they do reveal the kind of cyclist he was, i.e. an anaerobic monster who had little need for a supreme aerobic capacity.

Smoking is bad for cyclists, surprise surprise. But there is a huge yet often ignored difference between smoking one with your espresso and burning through twenty a day. That said, getting serious about cycling is a really good way to give up smoking; really helps the motivation.

jibi

Nice to know Cippo wasn't serious then.
He could have been really good.

george

Dorian Gray

I enjoy a few cigarettes a day myself jibi, so I'm not preaching to anyone (or not meaning to anyway). Before I got a road bike I smoked a lot more, hence my comment about cycling helping motivation.

And of course Cipo was amazingly good but he definitely wasn't serious! Can you imagine Armstrong having a crafty toke before a TT? Or Rasmussen in the Alps?

Eating these can't have helped him either.

in the wire

the plastic ones are good

basha

46 years old, smoked for 30 years about 20 a day. got back on a road bike after around 20 years off. Did around a mile and thought my chest was going to explode, could hear my heart beating in my ears, Must have been around 200 BPM.

Been off the weed about 7 months, now cycle around 50 miles easy, Lungs feel like new, heart rate well down, average is about 147BPM
Dont want to preach coz i loved the fags, but i love this new feeling even more.

GO FOR IT< DUMP THE WEED INCREASE YOUR SPEED

thatlondon

I used to smoke and race when I was in my 20's and I have to say that it wasn't until I gave up that I realised how much it can affect your performance.

Unfortunately this was only 10 years after giving up the bike, now I have ditched the fags and bought myself a new bike. I have to say that I feel a hell of a lot better, Id be lying if I said I don't miss cigarettes I liked smoking. The thing that stops me is trying to get fit to race next season.

Every-time i fancy a cigarette I think about my average speed and now I care a hell of a lot more for the bike.

The problem now is I'm on 20 miles a day to stop the cravings

Give em up, ride harder and feel better.

Nic

aberfeldyweather

Stopping is a question of motivation and not really "being able" etc. If i said that the next time you lit a cigarette a man would come and put a bullet between your eyes (from a gun etc) then you would never smoke again.

ie with the "right" motivation anyone can stop.

I know that is slightly off topic but most often folks don't want to stop until the motivation of death becomes the dominant factor.

It is also difficult to light cigarettes on the bike

Garry71

I smoke 20 a day and will be using my upcoming bike purchase as motivation to give up.
Smoking affects my performance to the extent that I now have to avoid having a fag before climbing 4 flights of stairs at work.

I'm trying to decide between a mountain bike with easy low gears, or a road bike which means I'd have to work a bit harder uphill. I think the road bike would be more beneficial to me.
I managed a day without smoking this week, and I felt more alert and lively, and didn't even notice the stairs at work!

Smoking really is a mugs game.

Garry

dazzawazza

I can't stand smoking until I have a drink, then it all changes.
I'll never quit drinking, but have considered patches when I drink. Anyone tried this?

in the wire

patches never replace the craving

Shadowduck

Garry71 wrote:

I smoke 20 a day and will be using my upcoming bike purchase as motivation to give up.

I did it the other way round (stopped smoking first) but this can be a real help. I've been participating in more and more sport since quitting, pretty much for the first time (voluntarily) and finding I really enjoy it! Knowing I'd have to stop all that if I started smoking again is the reason I've actually stayed off the things this time! Eighteen months-ish and counting...

Since nobody's mentioned it yet, Allen Carr's "Easy Way To Stop Smoking" got both me and my darling wife off the weed. I read the book in a day, smoking throughout, then put both the book and the cigs down and haven't looked back! Not everything he says clicked with me but enough of it stuck to do the job. Worth a look if you're trying to quit and other methods aren't working for you.

(edited 'cos I guessed the wrong spelling for "Allen")

thatlondon

One way I found quite successful to give up was to follow these easy steps

1. Go out to the pub drink and smoke 20 more cigarettes than normal (difficult these days so take advantage of the weather and find a beer garden with an umbrella) and the at least 5 pints more than normal (shots and wine acceptable remember the rough equivalent of 2 units per pint, double or glass of wine).

2. Find the dirtiest most unhygienic kebab shop and order an extra large donna with chili sauce. (Apologies to Vegies all late night vegetarian food i.e chips, will not have the same effect). Remember you will be stupidly drunk so any food establishment you go to will seem like Claridges. If they let you in anywhere posher than a late night cafe serving the mentally ill, drug addicts and local gangsters then go back to the pub you have not drunk enough.

3. Go home and have a couple of beers / wine / whiskey before bed, add a couple of cigarettes and maybe eat the thing that used to be cheese that has been lurking at the back of the fridge for ages.

4. Go to bed, if the room is not spinning the moment you touch the bed get up and have a drink and a cigarette.

The aim of this whole procedure is to ensure that you wake up with at least a two day hangover.

5. Wake up feeling like if someone was to repeatedly hit your head with a hammer it would be preferable to the way your head actually feels.

6. Immediately have a cigarette.

You should feel repulsed by the thought of the cigarette, once the smoke hits your lungs you should get ready to run for the bathroom.

If the first four above steps have been carried out successfully then this feeling of nausea and repulsion to cigarettes should last a couple of days. You will not have the craving for a cigarette as it will make you immediately sick. And the usual grumpiness associated with nicotine withdrawal will not be apparent as you will be concentrating on getting rid of the hangover from hell.

There are certain side effects of this however, the process will cost probably the same as a hypnotist. Your partner will most certainly not speak to you for about a week, this can be a bonus as after 4 days you should be well enough to get out on your bike.

WARNING:
I am not a doctor, nor have I pretended to be a doctor nor have I ever watched casualty, the flying doctors or vets in practice.

The above steps could damage your health, relationship, friends, and result in personally injury.

You may partake in the kind of drunken misadventure that makes a news report on how binge drinking is a blight on the UK's town centers.

By law I am obliged to state that it has been proven by past events that only a complete fool would follow my advice.

Nic

Mark Alexander

GentleGiant wrote:

Apparently, Eddy Merckx used to smoke during his racing career, so it can't do you that much harm.

:roll:
I'm not convinced

Gambatte

My tip. If you're going to quit. Consider yourself a non smoker, not an ex smoker.
Don't go out with three quids worth of change, so you can get a pack of ten.
Don't stand outside with the smokers.

Hardest bit for me was the compulsion to buy them in the newsagents or garage.

I'll not say good luck quitting, if you want to do it, you'll do it.

I smoked 20 years thought I had tried to quit for the last 15. Its only when I finally did that I realised how much I'd conned myself.

TheNomad

I get more worried about ash flying into my eye whilst riding than I do anything else when biking!!!!