Observe

Do you guys know anyone that does this? Basically I've been bike messaging for a year so I built up my strength, fell in love with the cycling world and wanna take it to the next level..but the thing is I smoke a lot and im 35

Jarrettsin

You just found another good reason to quit.

Tyestick

You can compete. Although, you won't be competing at the level you want, unless you decide to kick your habit.

Machka 

Yep ... it's certainly possible to participate in competitive events.

But I don't imagine you're going to do as well as you could if you didn't smoke heavily.

Looigi

You can compete. IDK how much of a performance hit it will be, but back in the say pros used to smoke.

AlmostTrick

Maybe don't smoke during the race?

berner

I used to smoke a lot when I was 35 also. I sure wish I had quit then when quitting would have done more good.

Bandera

You missed it by nearly a Century.......

-Bandera

12strings

One thing to consider is that "back in the day," cigarettes had less chemicals then now...cig companies add lots of things to make them more appealing and more addictive...rolling your own from straight tobacco would actually be a step in a healthy direction...

fietsbob

Somebody has to be the Lanterne Rouge .. https://s512.photobucket.com/user/bik...redla.jpg.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzV9qWBjvCM

hueyhoolihan

sure you can compete! even intravenous drug users compete.

Marcus_Ti

Bingo.

OP, how high (sorry) you can compete depends on how much lung damage you've already done....and on how much you continue to do.

Stucky

Didn't Eddy Merckx smoke?

JohnDThompson 

Yup.



Doesn't mean it's a good idea, though.

JanMM

Not so much.

Corben

Opie. You my friend are a nicotine addict. You're destroying your lungs and heart for something your brain wants.
Stop the tobacco use and pick up some nicotine lozenges. Use them when ever you crave. Then gradually replace with mints. Stay away from the gum.
Once you feel what a difference not smoking does for you you'll handle kicking the addiction better.

pankewr

I smoked for 20 years and tried riding, than I quit...I noticed a huge difference. Do yourself a favor and give nicotine products up, I was paying the government money to kill myself (tax revenue).

StanSeven

Cigarette smoking decreases the ability of your blood to deliver oxygen. The smoke has carbon monoxide which attaches instead of oxygen. It also constructs your blood vessels.

I don't know how much it will affect your cycling. But I used to smoke and had to run in the military. When I quit, I also increased the running. I can't say how much was smoking and how much was improved fitness but my two mile pace was 1.5 minutes per mile quicker.

ModeratedUser17082018

You know what's coming next . . . quit before you have a major medical issue. It will happen.

I waited and paid the price in the emergency room with a major heart attack. After a month I came home and still wanted to smoke but knew that was a dead-end. I started using e-cigs and tapered down to 0% nicotine in 3 weeks. Now, 18 months later I still use the e-cig but not often and not much.

Take the short cut (omitting the emergency room trip) and at least change to e-cigs with 0% nicotine. You'll quit one way or the other, but my experience is that anything is better than a heart attack (or worse). You have options.

Wolf Dust

It doesn't matter how strong you think you are now, smoking and also chewing tobacco has a huge adverse effect on your cardio-vascular...I know because I used to do them both years ago. For several years I only chewed and didn't ever smoke. I thought that chewing wouldn't affect my breathing, heart rate, and stamina...but boy was I wrong! So glad I kicked it. BTW I did it by going to Nicorette gum, which also was not easy to quit.

Add up all the money you will spend on cigs in a year and then fantasize on what bike you would buy if you saved that money...like a reward to yourself for being smoke free for a year. Every time you have a craving, go ride the hell out of your bike, or do jumping squats instead of lighting up...endure the agony of wanting to smoke, the hardest part only lasts a week...endure it! Imagine the endurance you'll have on your new bike in one year. You WILL kick ass at the races!

ModeratedUser17082018

No disrespect intended, but this has been the failed path of millions of smokers. Using an e-cig and 0% nicotine is an alternative that works for some.

Wolf Dust

None taken.... I guess I should have made it more clear that I had to go through three phases getting off nicotine.

*Phase one was replacing smoking with chewing, but chewing I heard can actually be harder to quit than smoking because there is way more nicotine in chew. But it eventually eliminated the puffing/inhalation craving, however only to replace it with a new one. I tried many times to stop chewing cold turkey and couldn't, and then I did phase two.

*Phase two was deciding to start chewing Nicorette gum, which I ended up doing for five years. It was a struggle at first, but I began this phase with an awsome week long camping trip all by myself in order to help keep my mind occupied...it worked, but I chewed the hell out of that gum for the whole 5 yrs.

*Phase three was deciding to quit Nicorette, which is where the cold turkey part finally had to happen. This was when my body had to go through the actual nicotine withdrawals. The first week I had agonizing cravings about once every couple hours, but they only lasted about 5-10 minutes each time. There is no other choice...you simply endure it, and once I had a week under my belt I knew that going back would be the stupidest thing imaginable. I still had random cravings for months, but it was easy to push through these after the first week. I did become an extreme Trident chewer in the process however...probably for life.

Each box of Nicorette comes with instructions on how to gradually ween yourself off of it in like twelve weeks or something, but I actually never tried it. It took me a long time to decide that stopping Nicorette even mattered to me, but, of course, I'm waaaay glad I did it!

Stucky

Heavy smoking is definitely bad, and will shorten your life and reduce the quality of the years you have, by causing lot of health issues....

But I think smoking in moderation is probably not bad; could even be good for you. (IF you can do moderation- I'm talking a few cigarettes a day or even sporadically).

Most things in life are not as black and white as people make them out to be. Rarely does it have to be all or nothing.

In Italy, smoking is still very prevalent- and yet Eye-talians live quite long, and one doesn't see the levels of smoking-related diseases there as we do here in America- which, I believe is largely because Italians smoke in moderation, and also live a healthier overall lifestyle. (My grandparents were from Italy. Many of their children- including those who have smoked for 7 decades, are still alive and very functional in their 90's!- But they never smoked 3 or 4 packs of cigarettes a day; a pack of cigs would last them several days)

Me? I'll enjoy a cigarette only on rare occasions. Once or twice a year, I may buy a pack- and it'll last me for a week. Other times, I'll bum the occasional cig from my neighbor or my sister. Moderation is the key to most things. (The addiction thing never got me- I believe people are addicted to cigs only because smoking is pleasurable. If I smoke more than a few cigarettes over the course of a day, I get sick of them and don't want any more)

Wolf Dust

Yeah, sometimes I put my mouth around the exhaust pipe of a running car and take a drag...just one though...and I only do it sporadically, so I'm sure it's a good thing for me. Just sayin'.

JanMM

"Moderate" smoking can cause the same health problems as "heavy" smoking.

Cigars are no safer than cigarettes.
And no one knows exactly how dangerous vaping is.