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Any smokers on here? What are your best times?
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As a teenager doing sports lots of school mates smoked including my brother who was just as good as me at running, running low 2 min 800m etc. Not just smoking baccy either!
They all faired ok but guess only a few years at most smoking didn't have much effect but it's quite crystal clear it will hinder performance -
As for the drink / smoking comparison - that's bullshit, lots of people here drink and run fantastic times and I'm tee total never really drank ever and would say I could safely say smoking would be worse..
You have no will power clearly with the "I've largely given up drinking" but say that then makes your training suffer, then go to day you smoke either because it's cool or you like it - which I'd say is embarassing..
Regarding cancer / unfortunately both my dad and grandad have late stage emphysema - dad still smokes but grandad gave up 20 years ago and has only just been diagnosed - doesn't that say something!
I'm sure if you asked then though they will say they wish they could have had a few seconds of their PBs than living longer
I also wonder how many professional athletes smoke 15 a day or light up before events...
Clean lungs would boost performance - don't need experience, just need a brain to look at scientific facts
The old strawman argument doing the rounds here.
This was the best reply, and it rings true. When i say i enjoy it i look forward to a smoke after my run and it gives me motivation. People putting words into my mouth and saying things like "you just need a brain" are not helpful imo. There are many smarter people than me that smoke, it is addictive, pipski is right. Ican live with the expense and the smell and the antisocialness of it. The health problems are a worry that i cannot put off forever however, and now i am running i have an added interest in knowing what i could acheive runningwise if i quit. Sadly i smoke more now i dont drink as it is a hit, and i feel i need a hit, whatever it is. I drink copious amounts of diet coke and eat loads of chocolate since i gave up drinking tooas they are a hit, sad but true. pipski is right,i would love to pack it in, just need to find a way. Will look at the allencarr website.
£250 for the allencarr thing, with a money back guarantee, though i dont want to get my moneyback. I am very very close to biting the bullet and giving it a shot, 18 july is the next available session.
Have ordered the allen carr book, and then perhaps have a go on the seminar if necessary. Cheers for the heads up pipski
Basher honey, I know loads of people who have read the books and didn't manage to give up. I also know quite a few of my friends who went to the clinic and did give up. It doesn't work for everyone, but go on, give it a go. I'm backing you all the way. Smoking became more of a chore for me, than a pleasure. Going outside the office in the freezing cold, because I had to smoke...was a chore. I didn't really give a hoot about the health side or money.....if we did, we'd never even start smoking. I wanted to stop because it was holding me back in my fitness and it was a pain in the arse. The meeting will give you 5 hours of reasons of why you don't need to smoke and it will feel easy to stop smoking. You will not be giving up....because then you will feel like you're missing something...You will stop smoking instead. Afterwards, when you have times of weakness, you will think back and certain things that the therapist said to you, will ring true and you will get over it. If it's any consolation, I actually like the smell of someone lighting up and I am not anti-smoking. I'm just pleased I don't have that burden on me, any more. You will smoke throughout the whole 5 hours and you will smoke your last fag at the end. And with regards to you having a hit out of having chocolate and booze, I am completely the same with wine. I drink way too much wine but it's all about us having addictive personalities....that's why we run! I would rather be fat and drink too much than ever ever smoke again....if you knew me, then you would appreciate the fat part, because I run to keep my weight down. Oh go on Basher, it's your time now....I wish you so much luck
Didn't this Alan Carr chap eventually die of lung cancer?
That's some irony.
I'm a long-term ex-smoker but I have relapses, e.g., 3 days smoking around a boozy wedding weekend recently. Quite apart from any long-term effects, smoking immediately begins to tie up your ability to transport oxygen to muscles and hinders the transfer of CO2 out.
Carbon monoxide (CO) binds preferentially to the red blood cells (hemoglobin). Normally, hemoglobin is dumping CO2 (used oxygen) back to the lungs in a fraction of a second with across the lung's membranes, with each breath. CO, on the other hand, sticks to your hemoglobin for a halving time of around TWO HOURS! That means the fags in the day accumulate CO in your blood that could take days to get rid of when you stop.
The immediate effect on me is I run shit times. going on heart rate and speed: I'd say around 10% worse. So I recently ran a 10 mile race at 1:12ish. If I had smoked for a couple of days before my VO2 max would drop by 10% and it would be 1:19ish. This is a huge drop, way more than any tweaks to the traning regime at my point of training (running for 9 years). If ever there's a short-term motivation for getting back on the wagon, that's it.
My best mate used to be a pretty heavy smoker, but from what I'm reading here he's been through exactly the same experience as Pipski, finally kicking the habit after doing the Allen Carr course (...having previously not had the will power to get through the book. Maybe it was the double-entendres.
) Everything Pipski is saying is stuff that my mate tried to explain to me after being on the course; it seems that his fundamental mind-set towards smoking was changed. Having now got through a couple of years without a single cigarette since doing the course, and how well I know him, I really can't see him relapsing. So it's got to be worth a go. The health benefits speak for themselves so no lecturing required there. 
Quite.
Ultimately quitting's about living longer, not running faster.
FYI......I've never relapsed and none of my friends have and I know that none of us ever will. The course talks about relapsing and makes it easy to never relapse. It also kicks off by saying that they won't waste our time talking about how bad it is for our health or expensive smoking is, because we all know that it is and we all smoke. It makes stopping smoking really easy...I remember the course as if it was yesterday, but it was 20 years ago!
Quite apart from the health risks, smoking is bloody expensive these days isn't it? Think of the amount you could save for a great pair of running shoes.
the one thing i took from the book was that smoking just isn't natural. when people say they can't give up, it's rubbish - you were never designed to smoke in the first place. I read the book after i gave up and have to admit I didn't finish it either but that one bit of advice did stick with me.
Did you use the pages as cigarette papers?
I read the Allen Carr book. It does work but I was very prone to relapses and in the end it was will power alone that got me through - finally - after 30 years.
nah - I actually work in marketing for one of the world's largest tobacco companies so papers are quite easily accessible should i ever need them!
Ah, you're a merchant of death! (winky emoticon here)
I packed up smoking using the nicotine patches. Took a while, but I managed it in the end. I smoked for about 30 years so the damage is probably done. My times have improved a bit since packing in the weed but most of all I feel a lot better.
Believe or not, there are 'smokers' who smoke and 'smokers' who don't. There are are also 'non smokers' who smoke and 'non smokers' who don't.
I'm a 'smoker' that doesn't smoke. I've never smoked regularly. In fact, I've probably smoked less than 5 cigarettes in my life.
However the last time I smoked one I had cravings for another eight years.
🙂
The Allen Carr book worked wonders for me, puts a totally different perspective on it! Totally confused now as to why I polluted my body for 5 years
Gave up nearly 6 years ago, 2 days before #1 sprog was born and haven't had a fag since. Never looked back and wish I'd never started in the first place.
The interesting thing for me is that I'd always found it impossible to give up before that attempt with lots of cravings, itchy lungs etc... but that time I had no issues at all. One day I was a smoker and the next I wasn't, simple as that, with few and mild cravings etc... I didn't use any patches or gum, had no zyban, read no books; it was as if a switch went in my head. If I could tell you how to replicate this, I would.
Good luck stopping.
Gaz
I imagine that was a big bloody switch!
Basher it sounds like you have very addictive tendencies what with the inability to drink in moderation, the need for chocolate etc to get a 'hit'.
I knew someone very similar who started challenging it and gave up the various binging (smoking, drinking, sugars) too late and paid the price.
Before he died he managed to alter his mindset, you need to think of long term satisfaction over a short-term hit. A tough thing to do.
I was a long term smoker then part time social / pub smoker, up until August 2013.
Pre August 13 PB's 5k: 21:13 10K:44.55 HM: 1:46.58 marathon: 4:19 (3 years running and multiple attempts at these distances)
post August PB's 5k: 19:32 10K: 41:58 HM: 1:34.30 Marathon: 3:39.51
Enough said really.
I truly regret the day I picked up one of those horrible things, and started my 15 year on and off revolving door relationship with the cigs.
A lot of fellow runners here and at my club look at with with utter disdain and disgust when I tell them I used to smoke, like im some sort of pariah. It is what is is though, and we regret the decisions we make in life. The main thing is I made a conscious decision at my mates wedding in August last year (in a bit of a drunken stupor mind) that I am either a runner or a smoker, not both. I chose running, and haven't touched one since. I am positively looking forward at my new smoke free life, and enjoying setting PB's in pretty much every race I run now as my lungs gradually get back to some sort of working order.
I have a lot more money too, and every 3 months I dont smoke I usually treat myself to a flashy new pair of running trainers, and I've got some wicked new jazzy trail shoes lined up in August when I hit the 1 year milestone.
Anyway good luck to you Basher, I know the struggles all to well, but im sure you'll quit when you have that life defining moment that I did at my mates wedding, and you wont look back and will get the buzz that I currently enjoy from getting faster and faster each week.
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Ha! Yes, it was a bit of a lifestyle change for me...
Gaz
5 smokes on Tuesday. Only 4 yesterday.