Question on switching

[JLOT02]

So I vaped for about a month and felt fantastic. Then I lapsed for the last month. During this month I have been training for a 5K. All while still smoking (not during training). Although I have seen significant physical and cardio gains I am a little reluctant to switch back to vaping with only 9 days until the race. I was not trainibg while vaping. I'm not worried about cravings and withdrawal. The LT takes care of that. I'm worried about the urban legend of an initial decrease in lung function immediately after quitting/switching.

I know that air is better than vapor is better than incomplete combustion but don't want to jeopardize my progress by making a smart decision for my health (ironic huh)

Anyone have anything anecdotal about cardio improvement or lag following switching? Need someone to push me over the edge so I can push myself over the finish line.

Thanks

 

[The Rebel]

It's been a while since I smoked and it's been a while since I trained for anything more than neighborhood walk with the dog. But I will share an experience I had some time ago when I was in high school. I ran track and smoked. Not as much as I did later on in life but enough to be addicted. My event was the mile and I averaged around 5 minutes 50 seconds. We had an important meet coming up so I decided to ditch the smokes to help improve my time. I almost couldn't finish the race. I lost all stamina and endurance. I managed to huff and puff my way around the track but I was dead afterwards. Finished near last, quite embarrassing. Went back to smoking and ran a great race at the next meet.

Now I'll share my theory and you can take it as just that, a theory.

Quitting smoking is a shock to your system. You are taking away something that your body has become accustomed to having every day. That forces your body into defense mode and shifts it's resources towards the recovery and repair stage. This is taxing to the body and energy that you would use in a race or other physical activity is redirected to begin this recovery. So those extra stores of energy that you rely on to carry you through to the finish are gone, used up trying to repair the damage caused by smoking. So you crash, hit the wall, bonk, whatever they call it these days.

Like I said, take this with a grain of salt. I am not a professional and I do not play one on TV. These are just my opinions and we all know about opinions. It's up to you to decide to continue with the smoking and run the 5k. Or you can switch and see what happens. Maybe nothing, maybe something. Either way you do it, I would hope that you make that switch soon and stick with it. vaping didn't do it for me. Loved it but always felt that something was missing. I switched to Swedish snus about three months ago and haven't smoke since. Still a health risk but it's a lot lower than smoking and I feel 100% better than I did before.

Good luck in your race, both of them.

 

[kiefurs]

I'd say treat the day after your 5k as the 'rest of your life'...heck, if your anything like me, you love cigarettes (I always will, but I knew I had to stop and I know I cant start again!_)...This will enable you to celebrate your completion of the run without feeling like something is missing....... if it were me and I just completed a run that I'd trained for, I'd feel like I earned myself a beer or two, and theres nothing finer with a couple of beers than your last ever cigarettes!!

Then you can get busy with training for your 10k run with the totally fantastic e-cigs, and put all that tobacco crap behind you

All the very best

Keith