Running and Marijuana

Just ran a solid session of 1600/1000/600/400/4x(200+100), with 1x400 hill between each of the first four reps, now I'm blazin up and crackin the brew. Good times.

mmm, proof pudding wrote:

Think of how good you would have been without the weed. Too late. You'll never know :((

Quickly, prove that it had a deleterious effect and that he would have been better off without it.

Quickly prove that it did not, and that he would not have been better off without it.

You see, you cannot, that is why he said "You'll never know :(("

You are dealing with a human here, there is no way to ever test this for one individual, but I am always stunned when somebody perks up and claims that 10 cigarettes a day doesn't hurt your lungs AND a lot of other cells in your body.

If it was good for you, wouldn't world class runners have to be smoking?

162430 wrote:

"I've never smoked and never will."

This much is absolutely obvious. Close-mindedness is a much more serious character flaw than pot-smoking. You admit to having absolutely no firsthand knowledge of the drug, yet you still feel that you know enough to draw this conclusion:

"it's not really him, it's the drug."

This is one of the silliest statements that I have read in a long time. Hopefully, you are trolling. I know plenty of potheads who are not laid back, do not make funny jokes, and do not have an ever-present sense of humor. It sounds to me like your "friend" has a pretty good personality. You, on the other hand, are clueless.

Once you smoke there are three outcomes:

- you never smoke again and it doesn't really influence you, positively or negatively.

- you continue to smoke consistently and it doesn't ruin you, but erodes your health.

- you continue to smoke and it ruins you.

I have seen plenty of all these examples in life. Maybe this guy doesn't want to be any of them? I know I never wanted to be a chronic pot smoker, and I never wanted to be one of those loser pot smokers who are really affected. Therefore I never started. Pretty easy to understand really.

Closed-mindedness isn't part of it for me.

Have you ever had sex with a man? I have not and never will. Does that make you closed-minded?

It's medicine Yo. THC makes life far more tolerable. Running too.

Both sides that have emerged in this thread have a grain of truth. Smoking weed is not PHYSIOLOGICALLY addictive, and has not been shown to cause any PHYSICAL damage to the user. Many people-- I would venture to say the vast majority of people--will smoke weed, enjoy themselves, and come out no worse or even better for it. That said, some people will smoke weed and it will ruin their life. Whether it is harmful or not depends a huge amount on the circumstances.

If smoking weed prevents the user from achieving their goals, if smoking weakens the user's connection with the outside world, if smoking encourages isolation and depression, or if smoking becomes an addiction--YES, an addiction, although not physiologically addictive you can still be addicted to weed just like you can be addicted to food or porn--in these cases, smoking weed is harmful. If the user continues to live a normal, happy, productive, well-adjusted, intelligent, and social life, then there is no problem with smoking weed. You should just be happy in that case that he's not doing something actually harmful, like drinking alcohol.

his coach told him to run "high" mileage

A few nights ago, the night before my long run, was at a party, decided to smoke instead of drink to have a good time. Woke up the next morning 6 AM, feeling great, no fuzzy head or dehydration. Had a great run.

Yes, it is not the best for your health, but it has been conclusively decided that it is better than alcohol and even coffee. So if you are drinking coffee, don't bash the better stuff.

No, I have never had sex with a man. I also don't make snap judgements about someone who has. Did you even bother to read the explanation that I provided for calling the OP close-minded? It does not seem like it. I though that it was "Pretty easy to understand really."

For example, I would not feel compelled to call you close-minded based on your post. Do you not see the difference between your attitude and the OP's? I understand the point that you are trying to make, but it is weak.

newname wrote:

Quickly prove that it did not, and that he would not have been better off without it.

You see, you cannot, that is why he said "You'll never know :(("

You are dealing with a human here, there is no way to ever test this for one individual, but I am always stunned when somebody perks up and claims that 10 cigarettes a day doesn't hurt your lungs AND a lot of other cells in your body.

If it was good for you, wouldn't world class runners have to be smoking?

I was simply asking the person to meet their burden of proof. He made a positive statement that pot hurt the guy's running, but offered no evidence of it. Notice I didn't say it had a positive effect. It could have had no effect at all, though I didn't say this either. I only asked the person to substantiate his claim, which he admits he cannot do by saying "You'll never know." It's a classic flawed argument, cum hoc ergo propter hoc, saying certain slow times occurred during use of pot, therefore they caused those times.

By asking me to prove the opposite you are demanding proof of a negative, i.e. that absence of supposedly faster times is proof of pot's negative effects, a logical impossibility since so many other potential causes exist and the result of which (times which might have been faster) is only theoretical.

Marijuana can help runners disassociate from pain and can trigger similar feelings to the runner "high".

I was a fairly decent D1 XC/T&F runner: (1:52, 3:53, 25:03). Never smoked in college, started after I "retired" from running. I was burnt-out and found that without running, I was full of energy and anxiety. In some ways, smoking replaced running. I became very successful in my career and maintained my physical fitness, to some extent, with other forms of exercise.

After nearly a decade on the bench, I've taken to running competitively. Smoking helps with my mental recovery, which in turn helps my physical recovery. Ever have anxiety before a race? Ever have digestion issues? Trouble sleeping? Discomfort from overtraining? Lack of appetite? Physical exhaustion?

Well, IMO marijuana helps those issues that runners commonly face. Sure... if you fail to filter the smoke, your lungs will have some work to do. Just the same for runners who workout near major roads or those that run in big cities like New York or LA. Could you imagine training near Mexico City? There are plenty of options for filtering pot smoke. Perhaps we should focus on local air quality issues, before we consider the harm that comes from few puffs of smoke.

As for negative feelings that some users feel. Those vary widely. Modern strains have been developed to address specific psychological reactions. I personally prefer organic indica strains. With the ideal strain, I have absolute mental clarity and simply receive a calming benefit with a slight uptick in my mood. Pre-run, post-run, during your run... it's all fine.

Alcohol is so much harder on my body. I drank every week in college, while running competitively, and no longer touch the stuff. In hindsight, I wish I didn't drink while running in season. I was really harming my internal organs and overall health. Alcohol is a poison.

MJ is a medication. Chill out, smoke a fatty, and hit the road.

I've smoked it for more years I care to admit. There were years I didn't smoke at all. I can see why people like it. I can see why people dont.

I smoked some this morning before my run. I'm 54 and a late starter to running, 33 when I started. Three years ago after my marathon pr of 3:01 I had to stop running due to a groin tear. I took 11 months off with no running. This is my 2nd year back. Last year I only ran about 25-30 mpw. This year I bumped it up to the low 40's. I ran 4 races last year and my best was 6:42 pace for 5k. The other 3 I didn't break 7's.

This morning I went to the track to do a time trial. I felt like I was getting faster of late and wanted to check it out. This was the first time on a track in nearly 3 years and have never strapped on the racing flats since my comeback. I get up real early and have to wait for it to get light enough to start running. I got stoned a few times while waiting. I warmed up in the parking lot. It was still dark. The goal was to break 6:30's for 3 miles or 4800 meters. I felt pretty good while warming up so I thought I had a chance even though I've never ran this fast in 3 years even in a race. I laced up the racing flats after dusting them off. I started out with a 6:22 first 1600. Then 6:21 for the 2nd for 12:43. Some high-school kids started converging on the track during my last mile so I had to deal with them a bit but ended with a 19:17 for 4800. Nice! I guess the weed didn't bother me on that run.

I wanted to do a time trial this morning on the track.....then I got high and forgot to take my dog out to the bathroom. My dog shit in my kitchen. This is what happens when you get high. Shit gets in your kitchen. Oh and you forget to run. More importantly shit ends up in your kitchen.

hashtag wrote:

I wanted to do a time trial this morning on the track.....then I got high and forgot to take my dog out to the bathroom. My dog shit in my kitchen. This is what happens when you get high. Shit gets in your kitchen. Oh and you forget to run. More importantly shit ends up in your kitchen.

Next time, roll one up and take it on the road while you walk the dog. Do some drills, get loose, bring the dog home. Head out on the road for your workout.

Write that down on your hand for Sunday.

(Don't wash hand, until after run, then you can wash hand)

runners gonna vape

hashtag wrote:

I wanted to do a time trial this morning on the track.....then I got high and forgot to take my dog out to the bathroom. My dog shit in my kitchen. This is what happens when you get high. Shit gets in your kitchen. Oh and you forget to run. More importantly shit ends up in your kitchen.

It's not the weed. It's your shitty outlook on life. I shit just fine this morning. Thanks for reminding about it because that was, besides my run, another amazing event during this fine day; I dropped a two-footer at least, could be a record, no shit. It all curled up like a giant cobra. Wow.

They say, (they, who's they?) that good (or bad) things come in threes. Well I've had 2 good already today and the day isn't over yet. Maybe I'll hit the lottery for a mil or 2 tonight. That would be some cool shit.

record holder is right... for a distance runner pot is better than cigarettes, put affects the brain more rather than the lungs...

Nope wrote: A lot of my pothead friends had the same 'munching all day, playing video games, laziness' habits before they smoked pot. Pot just reinforced those bad habits.

^ This!

The problem is that the parents of all my pothead friends won't admit that their kid was lazy to begin with, so they blame his poor grades and lack of motivation on pot, pot, pot, and then they pay tens of thousands of dollars (no joke) to send him to rehab, where he gets to meet other pothead kids who he'll be friends with as soon as he gets out of there. I've seen this play out with at least 5 pothead friends I know.

The lungs are amazing organs and can filter out marijuana smoke quite easily. I recently have had mediocre training levels (40 miles/week), and smoked a few fattys and bong hits. I ran a sub15 road 5k a week ago. (new PR) Definitely no impact on performance so far. I felt very relaxed and without worry prior to the race, probably because I am living life to the fullest. I AINT GOT NO WORRIES

moderation wrote:

THC reduces tension - physically, mentally and especially emotionally.

This aids in the entire recovery side of training.

And pot is like anything else. If you have some self discipline it is no problem at all.

In fact, it is hypertensive physically; just check your pulse and blood pressure before and after ingesting THC.

You have to understand that THC retards performance in the short term for an endurance athlete, there is just no rational scientific debate otherwise. HOWEVER, if you understand how to use it to increase proprioceptive awareness and are able to volley that into additional athleticism, it is an easy argument as to how THC has the potential to be massively performance enhancing in the long term, but not while using it as it absolutely leeches physical vitality.