Smoking

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Sherm
I agree meehs. I'm in good shape and can hold my own with most on either a road or mountain bike...but I'm a man who likes to brew his own beer and partake in a little fun now and again. No harm in that FYI...If you ride a MTB, you would love the Thursday evening ride through the crazy tight singletrack at the Belmont Plateau (see the Will Smith song "Summertime". <A place called the Plateau is where everybody go.>😉 It's weird because it's in the city, yet there's some of the better singletrack I've ridden (technically speaking). Log piles, ravines, water crossings, tree-splits to ride through...just terriffic. After the mock race on Thursdays, the fine Philly microbrews come out and we all chill and chat. It keeps the culture cool and the people together.

See, now that's my kind of ride. Sounds like a blast!

You know how some people say their bodies are a temple?

Well, mine used to be a pool hall.

I quit smoking for a year and a half, then decided that I could smoke "occasionally."

Well, eventually I got to smoking whenever I went out to clubs. So I decided that I would only smoke when I drank.

Within a month, I was a chain smoking alcoholic.

Finally I quit for good by putting up a solid, mental block against smoking any tobacco whatsoever -- no cigars, pipes, water pipes or cigarettes.

If you smoke, even just a little "socially" you run a great risk because SMOKING IS HIGHLY ADDICTIVE. I've heard ex-heroin addicts say that quitting smack was easier than quitting smoking.

For anyone interested in quitting I had great success by reading Allen Carr's The Easy Way (to quit smoking).

Yes, a book killed my 10 year habit. Best part you get to smoke while you read it. Apparently 2/3 of the people who read it have quit by the last page. I was one of them.

I totally agree about the herbal effect. Not saying I recommend it but it does put me in a zone when I partake prior to a ride. And, again, not that I recommend it necessarily, but it puts a cool spin on the ride without impacting performance. Just say no. Wink wink

Same thing happened to me in the beginning of this winter. I was going on my bike and the weather was cloudy. Suddenly it began to flow and the rain became like cats and dogs after 15 minutes. I was afraid a lot because I had some business appointments at home and couldn't stop on the way. I began to paddle quickly but became wet and shivering as it was very cold. I was feeling headache and cough after reaching which caused chest infection later. I relieved after fortnight by using a lot of medicine and bedrest.

When I started smoking I had already given up cycling for cars and girls (when I was a teen). In the following 35 years I never again rode a bicycle, drank and smoked (heavily) daily, did literally no exercise other than walking around the pits at the drag strip, and wound up becoming a gelatinous middle aged health risk with shoes. I quit smoking cold turkey (using Nicoderm which worked perfectly for me) this past New Years day. Within a month I noticed that I no longer coughed my lungs up every morning. Inside another month I noticed that stairs had gotten easier even though I had gained almost 20 lbs since I quit. I kept feeling better and better, and finally it got to where I couldn't sit still. At that point I started walking every day, at first a mile (and even that was in half miles sections so my legs could catch up), and then 2 miles, and then 2 miles straight through at as fast a pace as I could muster. Soon, I wasn't even breathing hard after 2 miles and my heart rate wasn't increasing enough to really do me much good. I can't run due to a knee injury, and walking farther daily was starting to become a time conflict for me considering the comparative lack of benefit.
That's when I rediscovered cycling and bought a Trek DS hybrid and started riding the local rail trails. Much like walking, at first I couldn't go very far without an occasional short rest for my legs, especially on even the slightest uphill grade. Now, only a month and a half after starting riding, I'm going anywhere from 10 to 15 miles a day as time permits, and will certainly increase that when spring arrives. My legs still burn on hills, but my heart and lungs are keeping up just fine, and I find myself seeking out hills rather than trying to avoid them. For the first time in my life I crave exercise! I truly cannot believe how quickly my lungs recovered - 35 years of 1 to 2 packs a day (occasionally more if enough drinking was involved) has surely done plenty of damage, but I feel like I've never smoked at all! A friend gave me a recumbent exercise bike to keep my legs and heart going through the winter. Strength (weight) training is my next step, to begin this winter as soon as I can free up more of my schedule. I may even add road biking to the mix come spring...
My 20 lb weight gain from quitting has become a 40lb loss overall, 20 lbs less than when I quit smoking. My new found inner strength has me eating much more healthy foods and I have set a goal to lose another 60 lbs, no matter how long it takes. That would put me at my high school weight for the first time since, well, high school. I am now 51 and feel better than I did when I was 30!
I don't care how long a person smoked, they will be amazed at how quickly they recover when they quit. In my case, even if I get diagnosed with lung cancer 10 years for now, at least the coming ten years will have a higher quality of life than the last 35 did (at least in terms of health). I've already outlived at least a dozen of my non-smoking friends, so I am obviously lucky. Hopefully the big C word will never be added to my med history.

Well that was an obvious good decision. I really don't understand how people put things like this together. It's like junk food and fitness. It's like you must be totally brainwashed to think anything like this goes with a fitness lifestyle.

If you wanna be good at cycling, don't smoke. If you want your life to be better in general, don't smoke.

Tell that to the guy with a WC and a bunch of Giro stage wins. 😄

I never smoked or drank anything in my entire life, i'm 28 now. I've never had the urge to do either and why risk becoming addicted just to try something ?