Road Cycling - Smoking and Racing

First post from Tommy in Belfast . sunny Ireland here. As a 40 a day smoker who still races regularly, can anyone in here give me the motivational secret to quit. I begin every morning saying ..no more and then convince myself that if I refrain from smoking an hour before a race...then all will be well. Are there any other smoking cyclists here...or am I the last of a dying breed?

Welcome to the Forums, Tommy.
I stopped smoking some 30 years ago. But I didn't tell my self I was quitting. There was a full unopened pack in my pocket and when the urge came up, I just said, I don't want to open the pack now; I think I'll skip this one. So I quit one cigarette at a time until that pack was mangled and ready for the trash --unopened.
I'm sorry I don't have a magic formula for you to follow, but this one worked for me.

The real secret is, of course, you have to want to.

Originally posted by TommyLamb
Are there any other smoking cyclists here...or am I the last of a dying breed?
MAn... I love it when they feed me straight lines like this.

Look, you know smoking is stupid. You know what it's doing to you. You should also know that you are permanently damaging your lung capacity. If you continue to smoke, even if you have decent lungs now, you will not be able to continue to race. The damage will be done.

There's your choice.

Amen Velocipedio-

I quit a little over two years ago. I've made great progress in increasing cardio-pulmonary capacity, but I am still below where I should be and I am certain that I never will get it back. STOP NOW!!! I know it's hard, but it's a lot easier than dealing with lung cancer. I know, I have a friend younger than I (smoked for less time too), that lost a lung last year, and is very concerned about his long-term prognosis.

Sorry for the rant-

Thanks for the replies guys. At 47 I keep telling myself the damage is alraedy one..very negative I know. Lat week I did a 1-07-03 for a 25 mile time trial. This weekend I head for Dublin to ride the Wicklow 200K. It's an endurance event with eleven majoe climbs some of them over 5 miles long. Wish me luck...the great Sean Kelly is also riding. I'll sit on his wheel for the first few miles and think back to 1971 when I raced against him as a junior and finished in the same bunch....to be young was very heaven

Go on the patch. Hell.... I would go back on the patch, it was so much fun.

Nicotine replacement therapy is what got me to quit. Very effective. Also, I have heard wonderful things about zyban.

i quit cigerettes 14 years ago i quit pot 3 years ago. if you need motivation visit a hospital and or spend time with patients that are suffering from cancer and emphizemia it is not a pretty sight. its slow and ugly death

Ive watched 2 loved ones die a slow mercieless death due to smoking

on a realated issue i have a friend that never smoked a cigerette in his life. He as many people in my generation did smoked tons of pot.

it was when he moved to Colorado he was having trouble adjusting to the altitude short of breath etc. so he went to see a dr the dr read the test results and told him to quit the cigeretts my buddy jumped up and said " hey I ve never smoked a cigerette in my life!" the Dr looked him right square in the eye and said," well then you had better start eating brownies"

Here's a thought for you - ride in an American Cancer Society Bike Ride. Talk to people there that have experience cancer and lived to tell others their story. You could start cutting back now and, with some determination, be smoke free by the time you ride. The folks there can be your motivation to stay smoke-free. It won't be easier, but you'll feel a hell of a lot better about yourself. Good luck!

They got you to believe the tobacco companies lies that smoking makes you a better person.

If only you could believe their other lie. "Smoking is not addictive."

I've never smoked but I grew up in a smoke filled house. Not a pleasant experience.

I do hope you'll find a way to kick those dirty things. I know it's a tough thing to do. Please keep us informed on how you're going with it. All the best.

Originally posted by catfish
i quit cigerettes 14 years ago i quit pot 3 years ago. if you need motivation visit a hospital and or spend time with patients that are suffering from cancer and emphizemia it is not a pretty sight. its slow and ugly death

Agreed. A visit to a terminal cancer floor or hospice should be mandatory by at least the age of middle-school, imo. No one "just dies" from cancer.

I quit cigarettes using patches after reducing my smoking by having a pipe of an evening instead of cigarettes.

Good luck.

Richard

Welcome to the forum. Don't recall seeing any other Irishmen here... you may be the first!


Originally posted by TommyLamb
At 47 I keep telling myself the damage is alraedy one..very negative I know.

Wrong. As long as you're smoking it will continue to damage your lungs. When you quit, they will immediately start healing. The sooner you quit, the more complete the recovery. Use the patch. Chew gum. Whatever it takes...

Nobody will believe your stories about your cycling accomplishments when you're sitting on the edge of a hospital bed with hoses hooked to your nose, wheezing for breath, and a Pall Mall in your nicotine stained hand.

Good luck... we're with you!

If at age 47 you can still ride and race and smoke two packs a day, count yourself lucky or blessed--BUT NOT FOR LONG! As you face up to the process of aging, your quality of life becomes very important. I know a guy pushing 80 who does at least one century a week in addition to daily rides. He's doing it on double hip replacements, but he couldn't do it with emphysema! Carrying that tank around and not having much breath sort of cuts into your cycling fun.

I quit smoking between 3 and 4 packs a day 25 years ago. I had all kinds of lame excuses for not quitting: (1) I would gain weight (Yup, I did: one pound!) (2) I would not be as creative or productive as a writer (Truth: without playing with cigarettes my hands were free to type more. I wrote more, developed greater skill, and made more money).

It's very hard to quit smoking in Europe. The smoking culture is very pervasive. Even the eastern United States is very different from the west. The incidence of smoking in California is considerably less than in the rest of the country. That is because the citizens authorized the state to increase cigarette taxes and use the money to provide public education (mostly through advertisements) which tell the truth about tobacco. It's a very ugly truth. Since the state has started telling the truth, smoking has decreased here. Of course, high prices due to taxes and making it illegal to smoke in bars, restaurants, and public venues also help reduce smoking.

If you have the will to still be racing, you have enough will power to quit a deadly addiction. Check out the methods available for quitting and find the one that suits you best. Good luck.

Rich

I'm not going to deliver a harangue about the evils of smoking, since I hate when people do that. I know it's a terrible habit and not easy to give up. All I can say is that the benefits of quitting greatly outweight the benefits of smoking! I noticed the difference in lung capacity almost immediately, and I was never a heavy smoker. In fact, I was always a very light smoker and as for pot, stopped smoking that years and years ago.

Recently, I was visiting my mother and she smokes- sometimes when I visit her I'll smoke the occasional cigarette as long as I'm not riding the next day. But I've become less and less tolerant of smoke, it bothers me a lot more than it used to since I'm never around it anymore. So I took a couple of puffs on one of her cigarettes and I was eewwwwww! Why did I ever do this??? What was I thinking? When you don't get anything out of it anymore you wonder why you ever bothered and how on earth you got hooked, but it shows you how addictive the things are.

Tommylamb,

This will probably be long. You will have to find your motivation and when you do, you will stop. Now what worked for me........ twice.

My father died at 49 with throat cancer. At that time, I was a heavy smoker for 5 years. When I returned home from school, and saw him in the hospital it shocked the hell out of me. I threw a whole unopened carton out the window. Cold turkey for 4yrs.

I had surgery on my right hand from a MTB accident 3 yrs ago. It keep me off my bike (road or MTB) for 8 weeks. Stress at work was building up. No riding to vent and the pressure was getting to me. A friend came over and had a extra cigar. Needless to say pick the stuiped thing up. Hooked again.

Last Tuesday night I received a phone call from my best man. A close friend since I was 16 ( I am 30). Last year he was told he had colon cancer. After six surgeries and countless treaments it spread like wild fire. His phone call was about 4 minutes to ask one last favor. To please take care of his wife. 4 more tumors were found and is losing the fight.

Chris is 33 years of age and will not make his 34 birthday. He had long blond hair, and is 6'2" and in good shape. He currently has no hair and is 72 pounds. His body is scared from operations, skin is burned from radiation, coughs up blood, and can not eat. IV only. Yes he smoked until a year ago.

This is my motivation and challenge. I tried Zyban (wellbutrain) and it made me a fruit loop. If you go that route, research it. I am doing the patch and a lot of gum. My wife, family, friends, and co-workers are a great support group. I am luckly. You have to have a support group.

Without the deaths of loved ones, I doubt I would have quit. I wish you the best of luck, it is tough but the cravings will pass. They only last for a few minutes.

Now it is time to dust of my bikes and start riding again :)

Quit. Plain and simple. Like anything else, you have to want to though. You have to be through with it and decide that you are done. It's been around 14 years for me. It is truly amazing how nasty they taste yet we smokem' anyway...

The best of luck to you.......

Yep, that's the thing, you have to be really ready to make the leap- really, once you get over to the other side you'll be astonished at how easy it was.

I quit when I had an asthma attack and still tried to smoke in the middle of the attack. Can you imagine? I couldn't breathe but I was still trying to suck cigarette smoke. Went through 3 whole packs without being able to inhale at all and it almost killed me in the process. Kept buying packs saying to myself, I'll smoke this one better. Sick huh? I spent an entire week like that and finally wound up in the hospital on oxygen with two collapsed lungs and intraveneous steroids for over a week. Those steroids made me gain 13 lbs before all was said and done. Anyway, That made two weeks without nicotine. After those two weeks, the physical addiction was mostly broken but I could easily have gone back to the habit because of the rituals like coffee with a ciggie, ciggie after meals, etc. It took around another 3 before I stopped having cravings and could go back to doing things that I used to do sucking on a ciggie.

I have COPD but can ride 25 miles. Not bad for someone whose lungs are supposed to be shot. I still have asthma attacks and simple colds still put me in the hospital because they go straight to the lungs but in between those events, I can do anything anyone else can do. I have no regrets and really don't miss them anymore. The smell of cigarette smoke disgusts me.

Lung cancer isn't your only worry. That's the fast way to go. There are slower ways like COPD. It doesn't just happen to old people. I'm in my late 40's. The story about the hospitalization, that was probably my 20th hospital admission. Just do it.

I was having cough, and cold and all those kind of silly sickness, I visited my doctor and he asked me to have an x-ray, and he has the result of the x-ray my doctor told me do you want to live longer, I said yes, then quit smoking, Have quit smoking and I am a very healthy individual and haven't got sick for the last 30 years , that would merit a knock on the wood "knock knock', I quit smocking in 1972, have not touch the stuff eversince:lol: :lol: :roflmao:

I notice that since I stopped smoking, I hardly ever get sick or get colds. In the years before I stopped, I noticed that trend as I began smoking less and less. I had a cold late in December after not having a single cold for two years! It really does make a difference in your immune system.