Posted this in another thread that is about to fall off the second page. Any Cardiologists or Physiologists on here that might be able to say if this is plausible?
For the last 28 years, I have been conducting a yet to be published experiment on the physiological effects of dipping on running performance in non-elite male runners. I should probably mention that this is an "experiment of one."
I have concluded that dipping tobacco has neither a positive or negative effect on running PERFORMANCE in the long term.
Dipping tobacco has shown however to increase the mean HR in my experiment subject during the first 10 minutes of running for a given pace. This however has no impact on either perceived effort or time to fatigue (ttf).
All kidding aside, I do believe that nicotine can be used to elicit a performance enhancing effect on running if used in a certain way.
I have been dipping longer than I have been a runner, During 22 years of running, I have made countless attempts to quit. What I have discovered is that my pace and perceived effort at say 145 BPM within one hour of dipping is the same as at around 135-137 BPM when I have not dipped for several weeks. You would think that running the same pace at the same perceived effort would be a big advantage but it does not seem to be. In a 5K, My HR still maxes out at the same level at about the same pace. The only conclusion that I can make is that the vaso constricting effects of nicotine perhaps cause the heart to have to work harder (beat faster) to deliver the same amount of oxygen.
I also suspect that this may result in some enlargement of the hear in much the same way that untreated High BP can and this I believe is where the performance enhancing effect comes into play. There appears to be a period of time of about 7-10 days after stopping dipping where all of my runs are faster, at a lower average HR and the perceived effort for that pace is much easier. This effect diminishes over the 7-10 days and beyond the 10 days, my HR will be lower during the first 10 minutes of running but my pace will no longer be faster and at a lower perceived effort.
I am thinking that during the week after quitting dip the Heart is still slightly enlarged and possibly is able to pump a higher volume per beat while at the same time the arteries are no longer suffering the vaso constricting effect of the nicotine. Bigger pump is able to push more volume through bigger pipes.
Unfortunately I have only raced one time where I think this may have improved my performance. I have run the Pikes Peak Ascent somewhere between 3-12 times. All the times were closely grouped within a range of 3:06 to 3:16 with the exception of one outlier of 2:51. The year I ran the 2:51, I did not have a dip for about 12 hours before the race. I am not sure of the half life for Nicotine or how long before the vaso constricting effects would disappear but I do know that on that day, I felt like someone had given me a third lung. I got to Barr Camp and felt like I was just warming up. In all fairness, I should also mention that I had Sashimi the night before that race and have never done that before either. This is pretty sad but I have never had the will power to abstain from a Dip for that long before a race again. Pre-Race jitters cause me to say ah, what the F and I take a dip.
As far as I know Tobacco is not on the Banned Substance list and I have long thought this would be a neat thing to do a controlled study on with a large enough sample of runners who dip to make the data reliable.
I'll tell you what, if I was a Ritz or a Hall or Wheeting, I would seriously think about experimenting with it. I wonder though if an elite or bubble athlete were to start using nicotine, if their training WOULD suffer because their same size pump is now pushing through narrower pipes? Obviously over time, the Heart would adapt and if my theory is correct, enlarge. I don't know how long it would take for those adaptations to take place and the runners performance might decrease until it does.
After typing that out, and reading back over it, it seems pretty stupid and dangerous to have been doing something that may have enlarged my heart.
Any Cardiologists/Physiologists think there might be something to my theory?
Sorry for the long rambling post but I am suffering some insomnia at day 15 of my umpteenth quit attempt.