Trollymon wrote:
It's like weight training for your lungs.
Favorite po-dunk road race I ever ran, the female winner was smoking a cigarette during the awards.
To be fair, the winners of that race also picked up a dog at the mile mark and ran 3 wide across the finish line.
becker wrote:
vo2killer wrote:I smoke a pack and a half a day and was wondering how much i would improve if i quit.I am 25 and have been running for 2 years.My pb's are 36/10k,1.20/half and 17.32/5k.Anyone have experience with this?
I've been running for years and there have been periods where I have smoked a pack a day, periods where I smoked a pack and also smoked gram(s) of weed in a day, periods where I only smoked gram(s) of weed, periods where I smoked cigarettes occasionally, and periods of no smoking whatsoever.
I hardly ever smoke before running anymore but am referring to periods where I have done both concurrently
In my experience there is no doubt that smoking detriments performance (cigarettes more so than weed). During the periods when I'm smoking I can still run workouts and hammer out 60+ mile weeks but I can tell that my body is handicapped.
It feels as either my blood isn't carrying as much oxygen or my muscles can't process it as well. This may not be what is actually happening physiologically but it makes sense to me.
Regardless, I know that when I'm not smoking at all I run faster, and feel better doing it.
My PR's are pretty similar to yours... 5k 16:45 10k 35:00.. both set while not smoking. I would assume that if you quit smoking and kept everything else the same within 6 months you could bring your 5k time down 45+ seconds and 10k time down at least 1:15
On a side note, contrary to what people have suggested on this thread, I have noticed that smoking affects anaerobic far more than aerobic. By this I mean I can feel lactic acid build quicker and quicker fatigue from anaerobic workouts when I'm smoking where I don't see nearly as big of a handicap during a long interval workout (800+) or tempo runs
Just the kind of info that i am looking for. Anybody else have experience with this topic?
Read "The Ghost Runner" to find out how tough your really are. It's all been done before.