Smoking & Cycling

[Wolfzazi]

I used to smoke for 2 years, majority wacky tabacky. Until i kept getting winded on the windy hilly 10km route to work and back. It used to take me and hour and a half to make it to work, then i managed to lower it to around 30 mins after quiting. I quit 3 yrs ago for that reason only, getting winded everytime was too brutal! The hills and headwind will do that to you with a heavy mtb rushing to work not to be late each time. Cigars were tasty and now that i think of it, you don't inhale it like the way back previous poser said. But then again, theres the second hand smoke from when you puff it, definetely not going there. By the way now i can do that same route on my road bike in under 15 mins. Quiting only has good sides, the only thing i smoke now is the road

 

[sleazyvagabond]

has anyone seen that postcard of a roasted turkey with a cigarette stuck in its behind with the caption "Any Ass Can Smoke?" crude,but i knew just what my co-workers thought of my habit.

 

[thor]

hello all,
I have smoked 30 years and the cycling helped me to give up smoking and stay away from it. since, I am cycling on a daily basis in and around London and I feel like being born again. Endurance sport and smoking is a bad combination. I am very happy that i have made the step in a healthy direction. In the Uk nicotine patches are free of charge, they helped me to get over the most difficult first 3 months. Good luck to anybody who considers giving up smoking.
thor

 

[codjh9]

I can't even believe smoking is a question! Of course, the younger you are the more you may be casual about the subject. I've seen mtn. bikers smoking after riding, and it was all I could do not to just scream at them.

Let me put it this way. My brother died 3 years ago right after turning 56 due to lung (and kidney and perhaps bone) cancer. My dad died a little more than a year ago from emphysema. I've had bladder cancer twice, but not for the last 4+ years (I'm doing everything possible). Maybe this will give some guy reason to quit: do you know how they remove a bladder tumor? Well, there's one obvious way 'in' - think about it. And if that makes you squirm enough, I've endured many checkups, where they look in the same place.

Smoking is fine if you're Superman, but for us mere mortals, it's like Larry Hagman (the actor) once said - 'it's like putting a loaded gun to your head'.

 

[flipper]

I'd been MTB'ing and smoking since '98 and always managed to convince myself that the coughing fits were just a normal part of cycling.
Whilst getting checked over by the doc in March '04, (being the third chest infection in three months) my doc said "Phil, your smoking career ended today".
Now, I had never attempted to give up in the past but, and I'm only guessing, but maybe it was the fact that someone in a position of authority told me to quit, but it worked and I haven't touched one since.
I've found out that the coughing fits aren't really part of cycling after all

Everybody's different and plenty struggle with quitting....a friend's sister now has to carry an oxygen bottle everywhere and she's still smoking.

Some of the advice in this thread is great. Keep trying, you'll quit if you really want to.

 

[sleazyvagabond]

this may be a repost,but i have actually seen people smoke thru a trach tube.i smoked for a long time and have been quit 12 years. a lot of damage has been done. johnny carson supposedly quit smoking 10 years before his death. he got to where he could not play tennis anymore. i am prety sure he would have traded all those smokes for a few more sets. a lot of us will work till we can retire,and not get to enjoy it cause we are real sick.

 

[Monte730]

Resurrecting an old topic, but, after reading I find myself not wanting to smoke anymore. Come to think of it, it is justt plain nonsense. Thanks guys./img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif

 

[Charles25]

[SIZE=10pt]i quit 4 years ago after smoking for 15 years. i bloody loved smoking but it got to the stage that every cigarette was accompanied by total psychological doom about the consequences, and i hated that i couldn't get through the day without one.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]I quit when i moved to a new flat - i made the decision not to smoke indoors, it was on the 5th floor with no lift. A couple of days after running up and down i just quit.[/SIZE]

One of the best things that got me through was a list of what happens after you have a cigarette; after 20 mins. heart rate returns to normal, after 12 hours Carbon Monoxide levels return to normal, 2wks-3 months risk of heart attack drops and lung function improves ... was like a checklist.

It totally transformed my level of fitness, as well as my ability to taste and smell. and my clothes didn't totally reek

 

[jazzz]

I also really enjoyed smoking (started in 1977) and the more it became socially unacceptable the more i enjoyed it, every smoke was two fingers to the health fascists, i rode to the coast (90 miles) with my friends twice a month in the summer and sat outside lovely old pubs with a pint of "Horse slayer" or what ever the local brew was in one hand and a smoke in the other.
Then the cough started, i would get out of bed at five, creep very quietly to the bathroom, from there tip toe down stairs, fill the kettle slowly so as make as little noise as possible and, whilst it boiled, roll myself a smoke, carry coffee and ciggie and ashtray to lounge, put BBC news 24 on, light my roll up and wake everyone in the house up with the coughing, I have an Autistic step son and waking him up at ten past five meant that's when everyone else woke up, not so bad from my point of view as i was off to work half an hour later but not so good for everyone else.
That last packet of tobacco was gorgeous, nothing will surpass it so I'm not going to try. I smoked everywhere that you're not allowed to, cinemas, trains, hospitals. i know that was the most ludicrously selfish way of giving up imaginable but smoking is the most ludicrously selfish way of committing suicide imaginable so it made sense at the time.
In February this year i swapped the rolling tobacco to concentrate on my three year old Giant Bowery(Fixie) and there is a difference, in June we rode to the coast as usual (on an SCR), then we got on a ferry and rode to Paris (300 miles,Charity thing) from Paris we rode through Normandy and drank local Cidre and beers, 600 miles in seven days with tent and all luggage with us.
34 years i smoked and a much neglected fixed wheel bicycle cured me in a week, I know I bang on about Fixies now but i'll likely see my children married and with kids of their own, if you're so bloody minded as i was about smoking get a fixie instead, you will be able to work of the anger caused by no nicotine (I rode to Uckfield and back,48 miles away at three in the morning) you will get to shout at people who talk **** about stuff they know nothing of (see any of the forums on Fixies) and you will get very fit indeed.

 

[alienator]

......or you can just use any bike to get fit and quit smoking, whether it's a fixie, a singlespeed, a multi-geared bike, or whatever.

 

[Crooks]

Smoking is very injurious for the running and the cycling.Actually itr directly effects on the stamina and breathing that is why it also effects on your cycling stamina and speed too.
seo consultant

 

[Froze]

Never smoked while riding...actually, never smoked ever, and that goes for cigars too, but I did use to smoke some weed back in my crazy youth days, but the last time I did that was from 18 to 22 and only on Friday and or Saturday nights along with consumption of alcohol, I'm now 58. I also haven't drink since 22 except for the occasional imported dark beer which may be once or twice a year.

 

[OTownRaider]

Originally Posted by bmph8ter .

I smoked for the first year or so I started riding seriously (read got good bikes), and had for 9 or 10 years before that. I actually used to smoke while we were out mountain biking and still smoked all my friends. I've always been fairly fit, so that may have something to do with it. It's now been 310 days since I quit, and the aerobic differance is quite large. I noticed it the most on long steady rides. On shorter climbs, I would just mash & go anaerobic so it didn't (doesn't) matter much. But on quicker (15MPH+) road rides & can breathe better and it rocks!!

Totally agree. I read Allen Carr's "Easy Way To Stop Smoking." It works. You will notice a difference in your rides almost immediately with steady improvement. When you are ready, stop.

 

[danfoz]

Originally Posted by OTownRaider .

Totally agree. I read Allen Carr's "Easy Way To Stop Smoking." It works. You will notice a difference in your rides almost immediately with steady improvement. When you are ready, stop.

The book works for some. It worked for me on a 10 yr habit. But I know of a couple of folks who didn't have much success with it.