November 18th, 2009
I finally took everyone’s advice today – I put the HR monitor strap in a storage box under the bed and immediately felt better for it. However, I still was dissatisfied because I am someone who needs to know Why. Why was my HR higher these past couple months? I was near admitting I must be overtrained, though I didn’t fit any of the signs. I just needed a reason for it and tonight, I found it.
I was looking at the calendar and figuring out when the disparity started. It was soon after my last Half, the PDR. OK, so did I blow a heart fuse in that race? No. Did I start taking a new supplement? A new allergy drug? No. What I did was, on Sept. 27th, one week after that race, I quit smoking pot.
Spending some quality time with my good friend Google tonight, I learned that right after smoking pot, your HR becomes elevated for the next couple hours or so, that’s commonly known. But what isn’t so commonly known is that if you’re a chronic user, which I’m embarrassed to say I was, it has the opposite effect. It lowers your HR, not right after smoking but all the time.
Presented with excerpts from books and medical studies that finally answered my question Why, I’m finally able to put the overtraining fear to bed, that wasn’t it at all. This study in particular focuses on marijuana users after a month of monitored abstinence and has this to say in the Results section (I’ll make it green in honor of weed):
“Heart rate for the marijuana subjects tested at 28 to 30 days after admission was significantly greater than the values obtained within 72 hours of admission.“
The average rise in resting HR after a month of being clean was 10 beats (8 for the Light users, 12 for the Heavys). That’s a lot! And it explains everything.
While I’m being honest here – because what the hell, maybe somebody else can benefit – aside from one two-month break, I’ve been a pothead the whole time I’ve been running. I should qualify that because I never actually ran stoned (well, I did once and didn’t like it), but it was an evening activity that I enjoyed for a long, long time. I would say I qualify as a chronic user because I did it most every night, though using that study, I’d have been considered a “light” user by the quantity I took.
The funny thing is, I had made a jokey mention of it to my Sub3:20 friends a few weeks ago, thinking that getting off pot could have contributed to the HR weirdness, but I only meant it in the psychological way that not having a stress outlet might make me more anxiety-ridden, not that there would be a real physiological thing going on.
I only wish I’d have been into HR stuff last year when I was prepping for Steamtown. I took a pot break back then too but only wore my monitor once throughout that whole cycle, so there’s no data to compare, maybe I would have figured it out sooner. No matter, I won’t have to do this again. I want to be a the best runner I can be and smoking will never help, so I’m off the stuff for good. OK, maybe an occasional party toke, but no more pothead Flo. Tense Flo is where it’s at from now on! Just kidding. No I’m not. I hope I am, this tense shit is for the birds.
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Damn, Flo. I had no idea. I am just glad you’re not going to use that stuff anymore. That shit is for the birds!!! I think your running will hugely improve once all of it is completely gone from your system.
Good decision Flo. You’ll sail through post-race drug testing now. And didn’t that famous marathoner Yul Brynner once say, “Don’t smoke!”
Thought long and hard about this one. First off, I am so proud of you for giving that stuff up. I imagine after many years, that was very difficult to do. I am also impressed that you have been so successful w/ running, but that could be my naivity to drug-use. It makes me very excited to think about how much more you can improve now that the drug is out of your life. If you are this fast now, think of what you can possibly be! EXCITING stuff.
Thanks for having the courage to admit all this on the blog. I really hope someone else can learn from this situation.
Thank you for sharing this with all. Like everyone else, I’m very very excited for you!
PS: Soo glad I found your blog. Inspires me to get down to my own…
Herb is going to be disappointed that you’re breaking your date.
Seriously girl – embrace your inner anxiety. Dealing with anxiety has been one of the great challenges of mankind. Without it there would be no pot, Jack Daniels, Xanax, yoga, Yanni, etc. Hey, at least you weren’t a chronic Yanni listener.
Congrats? Seriously though, good move. It can only help you in the years to come with your running. It does take courage to get up and stand up and say what you have. You never know what people feel about recreational drug use etc. and what opinions they may form of you because it’s now something that you did as opposed to still do. Does that make sense?
I am proud of you;-)
Wow – everything is on Google – 10 beats? I am FLOORED.
Good for you !
Thanks for the support guys. For the record, I’m never shy about my foibles because I know I’m not alone in having them. And I have had my own share of judgmental thoughts in the past with an ex-junkie I used to work with at a restaurant. I remember thinking she must be a trashy person for having been on heroin. Wouldn’t you know, the next year I’m living on an island, doing crack (for real).
It was then that I realized sometimes things just grab you and take you, it’s not because you’re a bad person. I was very lucky that my crack period only lasted 6 months, though I had to leave the island to separate myself from it. Incredibly, that’s all it took, I never wanted it again. Maybe the 24-hour bouts of self-loathing helped with that. :-)
Anyway, that was many years ago. But like my friend Ron said in the Sub 3:20 thread, good thing I’m not wanting to run for public office, lol.
Damn Flo, I mean DAMN! You leave me speechless…..not so much for what you did in your past time, but for sharing it, recongizing it’s effects, and taking the stand to make a change. If only all of us could be this damn honest with ourselves. Seriously, next to your name in the dictionary has to be the word COURAGE.
I’m glad you got this HR business figured out, and now won’t be dealing with this come race day. The bigger story here though is this new direction you are taking. I’m sure it won’t be a piece of cake. Hell if you make running your full time addiction, the others are right, I can’t wait to see what you are capabale of. Flo just another check mark for why you are such a freakin inspiration.
P.S. If you ever do want to go into public office I am sure we can venture out west some place and find you a friendly district to your past “habits”. :-)
That’s interesting.about the HR. Let the new addiction displace the old! So now the only smoking you be doing is smoking your AG at Philly! Good Luck!
Public office? Our Governor Arnie has smoked some weed in his time I think, not to mention steroids in his bodybuilding days.
Wow, I never knew. I am too in the boat of glad you gave that stuff up.With the money you are saving you can run Chicago next year.
totally interesting discovery. I too had been wondering what was causing your jump and didn’t think it was over training either, never would have guessed that was it.
If you run for office, I’d vote for you. I love hanging out with crack head deviants.
I’m surprised too. But not in the “omg you’re a pothead” sense – I too have been very friendly with the stuff in my bygone years. But considering how seriously you have taken to the running I would have thought that would be the first thing to go. The thought of bringing anything into my lungs other than O2 makes me shake in my Brooks. Yikes it’s got to be as bad or worse than smoking cigarettes.
Thank you for posting this. As an occasional lurker here, I’ve been impressed with your level of dedication and its good to see that even the most dedicated people aren’t doing things “100% healthy” all of time time. (I don’t know how else to put it.) As someone who has run a couple races hung over (or in one case, still drunk, though in all fairness it was a new years day race ;p) I always wonder about this when I see the super serious girls out there….
Progman, it’d be as bad or worse as cigs if you smoked the same amount but since potsmokers smoke way less (unless you’re in the Heavy category in that study, whew) it’s not apples to apples.
And I get what you’re saying that you’d think I’d have been done with it sooner, but when I went off it for 2 months last year for Steamtown I didn’t notice any difference, which is why I figured “what the hell” and returned to it. The only difference I can put a finger on this time is the higher HR (ironically, from quitting) but that’s enough to say ok, I’m done. Plus, I’m at a different level with my running now, so even if I don’t notice the difference, I’m sure my lungs will be happier.
Angryrunner, funny blog you have! I wish this subject was something that could be talked about, goodness knows I searched for info on pot-smoking runners when I started, but the only place you can find posts about that is on LetsRun since it’s more anonymous then other forums.
There’s only one other person I know, a local runner friend, that I was able to chat even a bit about it, though nothing really in depth. I’ve occasionally made small mentions about it in this blog but was a little scared of really saying something, only because the shit’s illegal. But now that I finished off every last leaf, lol, I figure there’s no danger in speaking out about it.
Stevi, you give me waaaay more credit than I deserve, courage doesn’t play into any of this, it’s all selfishness. I want to be better at this running thing and that’s the only reason I’m doing it. ME ME ME!! But you’re sweet as a button.
…as are the rest of you cool cats.
Whew, and I thought we were going to have an intervention pre-Philly! You were the last to find out that that was the cause in the increased HR. That is the exact study we were going to present to you. I’m glad you’ve sworn that stuf off mostly. It is for the birds you know! XOXO Jackie
I read the study. It is really interesting. I would be temped to keep logging the heart rates but be relaxed about what it says. Just keep it for reference of weed vs. no weed and how it begins to lower again or not. I am guessing you will be able to push your max heart rate higher and that is very exciting. I am happy to hear it is not over trainings, because that does suck.
AdventureArtist, good point, I’ll continue to keep track of HR to see how and when this resolves. Now that I know the anomaly has to do with repair (not breakage), the worry is gone and I can be objective about it…what a mental release!
You bring up an interesting point about the max HR, it’ll be interesting to see if there’s an upward shift. My MHR was recorded at my first 5K in 2007 and never hit that high again. I started wearing the monitor a lot this year and saw some strange HR results in that I did a 5K, 10K and Half and all were closer in HR than one would expect for the varied distances. I even posted a question about it on the forums to ask why this would be. Might very well have been the parasympathetic effect of the pot. (I learned big words during yesterday’s research)
I do wonder a bit if the elevated HR will pose a problem this Sunday. I’m not really worried but I have to acknowledge that there could be some fallout since a higher HR isn’t exactly optimum. But no matter, I am peaceful now and ready to race.
Bring it on!!
Glad you figured it out now and can have some peace of mind for the race. A little over 2 days to go!!!!!!!
Very interesting. I’m not sure why you quit and won’t pry into that, but I imagine you will find some nice increases to your paces after a while as your lungs heal up. I smoked cigarettes (I know, worse than pot) when I was first getting back into running and although it was possible, it was really tough. After I quit, I saw a huge improvement in the distance and speed that I was able to run. It wasn’t instantaneous, but it did happen rather quickly. I hope (and expect) that you’ll find similar results now that you’re not inhaling smoke into your lungs.
(Sorry this comment was about lungs, not the heart. I’m no good with that HR stuff.)
Flo, I’m sure you’ll be fine Sunday. I guess you’re not wearing the HRM, but if you are, don’t be alarmed by early higher than normal readings. Run by feel/pace, not by HR.
Re finding one’s maximum HR… This is much more difficult if you are very fit (as you are). The HR likes to stay “low” if you’re fit. It’s easier to find a true maximum if you don’t run for a couple of weeks, then do a test. If not, you at least need to be rested and then run something relatively short but at high intensity, building to a sprint finish.
Also, there’s nothing you can do about “improving” maximum HR. It’s pretty much fixed, and does decline over the years. Still, that’s nothing to worry about – for example, that Canadian runner Marilyn has a low max HR and runs at the elite level.
With the different distances, the average HRs could be similar, just because of the time the HR takes to build up. In a 5k, the first 1k is well under average HR. Also, if you haven’t been doing lactate tolerance-type training it’s hard to run at a high HR in short races.
Ewen, good post, cool to know MaxHR is more elusive the fitter you are. I would like to see it again one day though. :-) No HR strap for Sunday, I’d love the data but want a free ribcage.
Just to clarify about the Max “improvement” remark: I know max HR is fixed and goes down with age, so I wasn’t thinking in terms of miracles, but if pot was making my HR a bit lower than normal, it is possible that it was inhibiting the full range. I have no emotional attachment to my Max HR, wouldn’t bother me if it shrunk 20beats as long as I’m running the same, this is all just fun sciency musings.
The thing with those races was my 5K (which I had done some 5K specific workouts for beforehand) had the same HR as the Half and was lower than the 10k…gotta admit, that’s unusual. Was a hotter race too, which would supposedly bring HR up more as well. But again, it’s not a worry, I just like knowing Why.
You know, I think you might have vaguely alluded to it on some random BQ ladies discussion a long time ago, but had no idea that it was a regular habit for you up until recently. Good for you to commit to leaving it in the past. You’re right, plenty among us have done things that seemed like a good idea at the time, only to realize later that it wasn’t such a good idea. Maybe this will get someone reading your blog to think about kicking their own performance detracting habit(s). You’re just going to get faster from here on out!
(Oh, and glad you appreciated my “you put your weed in there” clip yesterday…I almost didn’t post it but figured you wouldn’t be offended.)
It’s a relief knowing why — of course you can reset all your HR data after the big race if you want to continue using HR as a training tool. As for smoking, I tried playing the guitar once when stoned (this was more than 20 yrs. ago) and the effect was my right hand “forgot” to play on occasion. It was like “oh yeah, you need both hands to work in coordination to play this thing.” So there you go, a musician who doesn’t smoke.
A reminder: Plug in any devices that need plugging in. Don’t want to get a “Low Battery” message on your Garmin (as I did this morning on mine).
Have fun.
As per HR. I had a few chats with Coach Roy Benson. He is currently working on a book about HR training. I do not think it will be out until late next summer but that is a big area of research for him.