Any smokers on here? What are your best times?

And how much of an improvement do you reckon packing up smoking would have? I do about 15/day as a guess, cutters choice roll ups.

5k/21:29, 10k/44:30, 10 miles 81:30, HM 1:52:30, Marathon 4:47

Training harder than I ever have done currently and hope to take at least an hour off my marathon time at Stevenage in November.

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Comments

  • If those are your times as a smoker you could do pretty well if you stopped.

    But why not stop anyway? It's a flthy habit. 

  • Screamapillar wrote (see)

    But why not stop anyway? It's a flthy habit. 

    So is bad spelling image

  • Seriously though, those are half-decent times, so just think what you could do with a clean set of lungs.

  • BasherBasher ✭✭✭

    Does it make much difference to times though, anyone on here stopped and improved? 

    I don't stop because I like it, why do you think so many people do it?  Did a 10 miler in welwyn once was running round before the start looking for a light, asked one guy saying how i couldn't find a light anywhere, he said "well yes, because us runners know it gives you cancer".  I just thought what a pr1ck, glad I beat him.

  • I smoked for many years, but never really ran as a smoker.  I used to play football etc, and was always gasping for breath (but then I was quite unfit as well as being a smoker).

    As for how much time you'll shave off if you quit.  How long is a piece of string? Maybe 2 or 3 minutes off your 5k time?

  • People have, yes. I expect some of them will be around soon to tell you about it.

    Pudge - it isn't bad spelling, it's bad typing image

  • All my running PB's date to my days as a 40 a day Marlboro (reds) smoker, and after my best London Marathon time (4:08) I was asked by mates had I stopped for a Hamlet on the way round.. I hadn't but I did light up walking from the baggage lorries to Horse Guards to meet the OH 

  • JohnasJohnas ✭✭✭

    I was a smoker until dec 2011. Same as you - about 15 a day. the following are my PB's as a smoker vs non smoker. speaks for itself really 

    5k: 18.30 vs 16.33

    10k: 39.18 vs 33.15

    HM: 1.23.13 vs 1.14.45

    Mara: 2.56 vs 2.42

  • BasherBasher ✭✭✭

    Nice one johnas, seems like you were tiptop even before giving up.  I haven't got near my potential PBs so far anyway (whilst smoking).  Want to do sub 19 5k, sub 42/10k and 3:30 marathon.  i've given up drinking, largely, since christmas and that has made far more difference than giving up smoking ever could.  

  • JohnasJohnas ✭✭✭
    Basher wrote (see)

     i've given up drinking, largely, since christmas and that has made far more difference than giving up smoking ever could.  

    how do you work that out if you havent actually given up smoking? trust me, it's the best thing you could do. giving up booze will help you loss weight in my experience which will help towards faster times but running is an aerobic activity - smoking will benefit you far more.

     

  • skottyskotty ✭✭✭

    6 in an hour.

    66 in a day.

  • BasherBasher ✭✭✭

    johnas:  because when I drink my training is very hit and miss to say the least.  zero consistency hence my disappointing marathon times.  would never have kept up the necessary training to get my 5k and 10k times down since christmas if i was drinking.

  • JohnasJohnas ✭✭✭

    fair point although you could try drinking in moderationimage

    Doesn't sound like you're ready to give up the tabs though.

  • If your lungs aren't working to their full capacity (and, if you're a smoker, they're not and are only ever going to deteriorate) then you are always going to be limited. Booze or no booze.

    The impression I get is that you would like to improve your times but are looking for a way of doing it without giving up smoking.

  • BasherBasher ✭✭✭

    I just wanted to hear others' experiences thats all.  I'm not gonna give up smoking any  time soon, yes that is true.  Unfortunately I struggle to drink in moderation johnas.   image

  • Have you tried e-cigarettes?  All the goodness of nicotine, without the hazards of tar....apparently. 

  • PipskiPipski ✭✭✭

    That was my thought exactly Screamapillar.   Basher, I was a smoker (20 a day) from the age of 13 to 23.   I then gave up to become a fitness instructor, because I was lighting up, before and after a class.  I was never a great runner when I was a smoker, I didn't have the confidence I have now, now that I don't smoke. I would never have the level of fitness I have now, if I smoked.  I think smoking limits you to how fast you can run.    I just want to say one thing though....most people smoke because they are hooked and not because they enjoy it, as you say.   Most people would prefer to be a non-smoker.   You think you enjoy it, because you are hooked on it.  I used to say exactly the same thing about enjoying it.  If you a desperate for a fag and you can not have one, you feel wound up, tense, aggitated etc.   When you have a tab, you instantly feel relaxed, calm, normal.   A non smoker never ever feels this level of stress, because they are always feeling normal....therefore, smoking actually makes you feel tense, wound up......I know you are probably going to tell me to sod off and that you didn't ask for a lecture on giving up smoking....but if you are interested in stopping then visit an Allan Carr clinic http://allencarr.com/.  A therapist came to our office when I was 23....I have never smoked since.

  • Snap!Snap! ✭✭✭
    I gave up Dec 2011. It's made no rap difference. Disappointingly.
  • I'm also a 15 a day smoker (cutters choice roll ups as well... weird). I used to run a lot when I was a kid and a non-smoker, then gave up running and took up smoking (smart move).

    That was some 13 years ago, 15 cigs a day everyday and no running at all.

    Started running again two weeks ago and did my first 5km race/run on Saturday in 20:15. 

    I'm planning on giving up at some point soon (smoking not running), but probably not for a few months. I expect my 5km time to be significantly quicker by then so it'll be interesting to see if giving up reduces my PB further.

  • so it seems to me to come on here and just brag that you are a smoker who can run average times.......

     you have stated that you don't think smoking has that much on an effect on you and that you think that anyone mentioning the link between smoking and cancer is a prick

    you talk like everyone who smokes does it because they like it..........the majority of people I know who smoke do so because they can't seem to give it up........

  • skottyskotty ✭✭✭

    Perhaps races should introduce additional smoker categories and you could all compare times.

    London Marathon could allow GFS entries.

     

     

  • Snap!Snap! ✭✭✭
    Gfs?

    Smoking is a stupid thing. I'm ashamed I allowed tobacco companies to con me into buying their addictive shit for over 25 years.
  • I certainly think if you want people to tell you to carry on as you are you really have come to the wrong place. 

    Never mind the horrible dieases that lie in wait futher along the line, if someone told you you could run a 14 minute 5k would that make you stop?

  • Snap!Snap! ✭✭✭
    And I used to say I enjoyed it. Which was bollocks, on reflection.
  • make more sense if you come on asking for other wankers who run..I want 15 times a day but it doesn't affect my running times.....

    any other wankers out there who run and what are your PB's/....

    my PB is 42 wanks in a day and its because i love it not because I'm addicted because I'm too cool ro be addicted to anything

  • Snap!Snap! ✭✭✭
    42? I'm getting friction burns just thinking about it.
  • Snap!Snap! ✭✭✭
    I gave up Dec 2011. It's made no rap difference. Disappointingly.
  • PhilPubPhilPub ✭✭✭
    Snap! wrote (see)
    42? I'm getting friction burns just thinking about it.

    Rather bizarrely I remember an interview with Damon Albarn in the NME where he said he used to use a Vosene shampoo bottle with the bottom cut off.  I imagine something like that with enough Vaseline applied you'd probably get away with 40+.

  • Snap!Snap! ✭✭✭
    I'm struggling to see how that would work.
  • StiltsStilts ✭✭✭

    Jesus.  Smoking accounts for 80-90% of lung cancers.  By the time you get diagnosed with lung cancer it's usually too late and you will probably die.  And you're worried about effing pbs.  Wtf

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