WOW!! Quit smoking 3 days ago. Some of the improvements are incredible.

Your sample size is too small to conclude that your resting HR has dropped by this amount. Furthermore, there will be no immediate significant improvement in performance.

Nevertheless, you've made a key decision with regard to your long-term health and quality of life -- congratulations!

The reduction in levels of carbon monoxide in your blood has lowered your heart rate. You now pump more oxygen.

You're still in withdrawal.

http://smokefree.gov/withdrawal

I hope this doesn't ruin it for you, but then again this way you won't be discouraged and smoke again when your HR goes back up again.

I became addicted to tobacco products at the age of 12 working on a golf course. The smell of a golfer smoking a Winston or Camel while it was hot outside smelled so dang good. Same with expensive cigars. Cigar tobacco (the imported class stuff) really smelled amazing.

However, I hate the taste of both cigarettes and cigars. Isn't that weird?

Happy quitter!!!!!!!! wrote:

In 3 days, my resting HR has dropped from 64bpm to 48bpm. I find this immediate improvement incredible. I was a 30 a day smoker. My PR's are 39.44/10k and 1.26/HM.

Could someone explain how this big of drop in HR happened so quickly and will it keep improving?

How big of a performance improvement could be got from a HR drop of this much and the other associated benefits?

Is a HR drop of that much significant?

Why do you think a lower heart rate is necessarily an improvement?

Peta called wrote:

Happy quitter!!!!!!!! wrote:

In 3 days, my resting HR has dropped from 64bpm to 48bpm. I find this immediate improvement incredible. I was a 30 a day smoker. My PR's are 39.44/10k and 1.26/HM.

Could someone explain how this big of drop in HR happened so quickly and will it keep improving?

How big of a performance improvement could be got from a HR drop of this much and the other associated benefits?

Is a HR drop of that much significant?

Why do you think a lower heart rate is necessarily an improvement?

Thanks for all the info guys.

Yeah right wrote:

Peta called wrote:

Why do you think a lower heart rate is necessarily an improvement?

troll. No 30-a-dayer can run a half marathon in 1:26__

Why not? Either they can or I am some sort of outlier. The former is alot more likely.

I noticed a very similar drop - also your rate of perceived exertion falls so steeply overuse injuries resulted in my case. It's not the drop in CO - bronchiodilation has a huge effect, as does the drop in BP from vasodilation.

However, both bounce back after a while, as noted above. But if you're running, the benefits are quite amazing.

Seriously though, watch out for soft tissue injuries. Your cardiovascular performance improvement is from an artificial dampening of performance, so your new level of fitness is too much for your tendons and ligaments to keep up.

I was a regular smoker and runner during the 70's. Once, I

traveled to Dallas for the White Rock 1/2 and did not smoke for 48 hours prior to the race because I was with friends

who loathed smoking. That day, I set pr's for every distance from 6 miles to the end at 74:38. 78's had been my best up til then.

I started smoking a few weeks ago, and I sleep much better now.

Happy quitter!!!!!!!! wrote:

In 3 days, my resting HR has dropped from 64bpm to 48bpm. I find this immediate improvement incredible. I was a 30 a day smoker. My PR's are 39.44/10k and 1.26/HM.

Could someone explain how this big of drop in HR happened so quickly and will it keep improving?

How big of a performance improvement could be got from a HR drop of this much and the other associated benefits?

Is a HR drop of that much significant?

1) Seems very trollish.

2) Who the hell smokes anymore? If you are for real, good for you for quitting.

3) I don't think you can yet say you have "quit". For now you just haven't smoked in a few days. Not sure how long you have to go before you have actually "quit", but I've known people who didn't smoke for as long as a year or more and then went back to it and were hooked once again. RESPECT your addition to tobacco and don't be cavalier about the fact that you have "quit". I think ex-smokers should be "recovering tobacco addicts" akin to recovering alcoholics.

i can probably run ~1:18 at current consumption (only slightly lower)

Happy quitter!!!!!!! wrote:

Thanks for all the info guys.

Yeah right wrote: troll. No 30-a-dayer can run a half marathon in 1:26__

Why not? Either they can or I am some sort of outlier. The former is alot more likely.

Flagpole wrote:

I think ex-smokers should be "recovering tobacco addicts" akin to recovering alcoholics.

You mean like fatalistic and helpless? Dependent on an imaginary helper for support? Looking over their shoulder for the rest of their lives?

The best way to kick an addiction is to mean it. Time is not a factor.

Wrong again, Flagpole.

I quit smoking and have no signs of relapsing.

I also ran a 1:20 half as a pack a day smoker. It never seemed to have a noticeable effect on performance.

Bad Wigins wrote:

Flagpole wrote:

I think ex-smokers should be "recovering tobacco addicts" akin to recovering alcoholics.

You mean like fatalistic and helpless? Dependent on an imaginary helper for support? Looking over their shoulder for the rest of their lives?

The best way to kick an addiction is to mean it. Time is not a factor.

I didn't say anything about alcoholics anonymous, so no 'helper' was implied. Alcoholics have danger of relapse with even just one drink several years after the stopped drinking. I have found the same to be true with a few people who were smokers, kicked the habit for a long time and then got back to it.

Time IS a factor as the more time you are away from the behavior, the more likely it is that you will continue to be.

Captain Obliviousness wrote:

Wrong again, Flagpole.

I quit smoking and have no signs of relapsing.

I also ran a 1:20 half as a pack a day smoker. It never seemed to have a noticeable effect on performance.

You as an individual might not, but MOST former smokers will struggle with it...some experts have called nicotine harder to kick than heroin, so you may be an outlier. My observation remains correct.

Flagpole wrote:

1) Seems very trollish.

2) Who the hell smokes anymore?...

$35 BILLION in annual profits says that probably somebody does.

lol. I know it's just one small data point........I go to Vegas a few times per year and it seems EVERYBODY there smokes.

Flagpole wrote:

1) Seems very trollish.

2) Who the hell smokes anymore? If you are for real, good for you for quitting.

3) I don't think you can yet say you have "quit". For now you just haven't smoked in a few days. Not sure how long you have to go before you have actually "quit", but I've known people who didn't smoke for as long as a year or more and then went back to it and were hooked once again. RESPECT your addition to tobacco and don't be cavalier about the fact that you have "quit". I think ex-smokers should be "recovering tobacco addicts" akin to recovering alcoholics.

Good post. Seriously, this guy is either a troll or is deluding himself. He stopped smoking for 3 days and is feeling like he is on cloud 9? That doesn't add up.