I'm training for a mararthon but still smoking

I got a place for London  .............................

Always mean't to give up the fags  when I got one

but finding it really hard?

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Comments

  • i am too ! dont think we will be the first or last to have done it !!
  • image Been a smoker for years and on week 2 of latest quitting effort. Ran a few marafuns including London a few times. Even lite up before and after a few races just to wind people up. I'm a bad person. image
  • I'm sure your not Cake I lit up afte my first half marathon- didn't really care

      Lot of peeps at work smoke and run was just windering if they were strange but now think they're just normal]

  • why?

    when i cam run 13.1 mile as compared to my friends who smoke and do no excersisewhy is is disgusting?

  • Come on, there's something hilarious about crossing the finish line and lighting up! 

  • Mr Puffy: Sounds like the makings of a hamlet cigar advert.

    *image of someone stood 1 step over the finishing line lighting up*

     "Happiness is a cigar called hamlet, the mild cigar."

  • Mr. Puffy wrote (see)

    Come on, there's something hilarious about crossing the finish line and lighting up! 

    True story - mate of mine ran London back in the 1980's and finished in 2h35 and his feet hurt so much they were bleeding so when he crossed the finish line he said to the nearest policeman "give us a fag mate" whereupon said copper pulled out a pack from his top pocket and proffered one and lit it for him.
    There was my mate, bleeding toes, sat down, shattered, having a fag to relax image
  • Smoked for years and also in the middle of another attempt to quit, currently in the grumpy stage, Always looked forward to the end of a race so i could have a cheeky smoke at the end
  • It's not really the running part that is disgusting mate.

    I will leave the thread at this, before I make some real enemies. image

  • image No ememies but might start putting links up for Bill hicks. image

     Agree smoking is disgusting hence why trying to quit. Anyone got a fag? I'm gagging for one after reading this. image

  • VikW wrote (see)

    I got a place for London  .............................

    Always mean't to give up the fags  when I got one

    but finding it really hard?

    This is a great opportunity to give up, please make the most of it. Your lungs will thank you in those last, gruelling miles.
  • I know thats why I'm going back on the patches tomorrow!!!

    Glad I'm not the only one Flatfooted- keep it up!

  • Hi Vik

    sorry you are struggling> I have trined for stuff and smoked 30-40 a day and tried to stop numerous times. To me -you are best doing the psychological work first and then stop. I have got a free download of Allen Carr's Easyway To Stop Smoking which has really helped me. I will find the link. IMHO patches are for trousers.

    It is disgusting as most smokers know and feel. The thing is comments about it being disgusting and will kill you do not help a bit.

    good luck

  • here you are. It is free so nowt to lose. If you read it , it will help a lot at worst and maybe even stop you.

    http://www.pdf-search-engine.com/the-easy-way-to-quit-smoking-allen-carr-pdf.html

  • Stopped smoking 7 weeks ago, its easy all in the head, really 3 days of hell then easy street. What is hard is staying quit, done it maybe 5 times over 18yrs, even did 2 yrs once.

    But smoking is not that hard to stop you just have to be in the frame of mind to do it, and go in determined. Going cold turkey works for me but try the patches or gums, but once you do you feel great and your running and endurance will improve.

    Good luck guys and gals, it really is hard for the first 3 days and then it does get easy. One way of keeping stopped is what ever you spend on cigs you put in a jar, and when you have enough buy a pair of new running shoes or a new garmin , then u have something to show rather than smelly breath and clothes. lol.

    I mean it give up your running will improve

  • i have tried to stop smoking, managed a few days, but what i have decided was just to cut back, expecially mornings and lunch times before running or races. I  give myself a nice fag after as a reward, people at work think i'm crazy, but i love the dizzy feel after a big workout and then outside light up and the nicotine goes straight to the brain, fancy one now! :[)
  • Andreia, ive smoked my way around half a dozen marathons and even more Ironman races, im not proud of it but its an addiction ive thus far not been able to control.  Ive tried giving up numerous times and made it no further than 3 weeks.

    Im currently planning my next attempt with the help of champix which im starting on Monday.

    Good luck with your running and kicking the ciggies.

  • HillyHilly ✭✭✭

    I can understand how difficult it must be for you as I remember 13 years ago the same feeling of trying to give up and always never quite doing it.  Then one day my lung collapsed and I've not touched one since.  For a year I had lung problems with a further collapse and at times thought I'd permanently damaged my lungs as there was talk of having to have a major op at one point!   Since then I've really improved with my running but I do wonder if the smoking has prevented me really reaching my full potential.  Give up, your lungs really will thank you and you'll be a much better runner for it.  Smell the fresh air, not the stinking smell of fags! 

    You might think you can run and smoke and I'm sure you can, but there will still be damage going on inside.  It's kind of counter productive really isn't it to smoke and run.

  • If you've not got the willpower to give up fags for 3 months, explain how you will have the willpower to train on cold wet nights.
  • Hilly wrote (see)

    I can understand how difficult it must be for you as I remember 13 years ago the same feeling of trying to give up and always never quite doing it.  Then one day my lung collapsed and I've not touched one since.  For a year I had lung problems with a further collapse and at times thought I'd permanently damaged my lungs as there was talk of having to have a major op at one point!  

    You might think you can run and smoke and I'm sure you can, but there will still be damage going on inside.  It's kind of counter productive really isn't it to smoke and run.

    on a personal note, I had a collapsed lung when young and didnt stop the ciggies. I carried on for a further 28 years and now have mild/moderate COPD. During this time I had the "willpower" to train through winters but not manage to "give up" for more than 3 months. Truth is that it is an addiction and though it affects your health badly and will defo affect your running (I find it much harder as a smoker), it has little to do with how much willpower one has(many in the know , know this for  a fact) .

    As Hilly says you wil;l keep damaging yourself whilst smoking. Running wont stop the damage nor lead to some mysterious force called "willpower". We all have will and power to use it (it is not a value judgement). You could argue it took willpower for me to smoke after being diagnosed with COPD.

    I am a couple of months of them following a long journey of discovery about what my smoking really is and what methods work and what are useful for selling "products" and ideas eg patches  and  " willpower" - if patches dont work , blame is placed on you for having "no willpower" rather than the effectiveness of patrches-clever eh?

    I would always say stop the damn things in whatever way but dont tie it in with other activities in a conditional way.

  • but i actually enjoy smoking, i don't do often, its a stress release for me and a companion to my drink!

    i know it's bad that is why i have cut down, from 20 a day to 5 a day sometimes only 3 a day. i have given up a lot of free time with training so i don't want to give this up

  • Worth pointing out that the only thing in fags that won't kill us is the nicotine. It's the Carbon Monoxide, cyanide. etc that's harmful. So if quitting is something you want to do the patch's or gum are a lot safer even if you never wean yourself off them.

    God I want a smoke now. Barlist throw us a fag? image

  • true Cake BUT the only reason we smoke is Nicotine. Tea leaves are a lot cheaper-see how long you last on them. Nicotine itself can leave your body in 3/4 days. If in wrong frame of mind, though, you can crave it months after it leaves. Patches et al cant deal with the "mental" stuff. Mind if I had to be addicted , I would prefer the patch over ciggies anytime. Tried it once or twice but ciggies always ended up my main means of dispensing nicotine in myself.

    Withdrawal symptoms from nicotine are mild -what makes one pull their hair owt is still mentally wanting one and feeling deprived. Patches or not, if you aint ready mentally, you will suffer when you stop.

    Best of luck on your quit also btwimage

  • *throws a malboro light to cake and keeps one for her self* enjoy i'll join you! image
  • It's even my brand must resist cancer stickimageimageimageimageimageimage must!image
  • SezzSezz ✭✭✭

    Smoking is disgusting.  It stinks, you probably stink after a cig.

    If you really wanted to give up, you would and could.  But you don't really want to, so you won't.

  • To all the non smokers who say stop, it ain't that simple mate.

    Smoking can be very enjoyable, but ultimately it will probably kill you. Like a lot of other drugs.

    To all the smokers who still do, find something you want to do more, like get your race times down.  It's a great motivator.

  • I started running 20-odd years ago with the express purpose of getting the motivation to give up smoking.  The problem was that it had the opposite effect - running made me fitter and so in my mind "justified" my continued smoking  - and I carried on smoking for the next 12 years!

    I finally gave up in 2002 and have never looked back.  I now feel healthier, better about myself and my running has improved beyond measure.  I met my (vehemently anti-smoking) wife in 2003 and doubt she would ever have given me a 2nd thought if I'd been a smoker.

    All the old adages are true - if you really WANT to give up you will.  It aint easy but it really is in the mind.  The thing is you have to want to and, as I experienced, running can make you complacent about the damage that the cigarettes are doing.  As for me, I regret every one that ever passed my lips - I suspect you will too when you succeed in giving up. 

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