I have recently quit smoking, and im going into the military and im going to need to be able to run 1.5 miles?

Question

i have tried running after i quit smoking, and that didn't work out too well. I found myself at a great shortness of breath. Will my running help me improve to be able to run the required 1.5 miles. And if not does anyone have any suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

-Cory

Answer 1

You have to run this in the shortest amount of time possible I assume, and well to be honest your lungs have been damaged probably permanently so if you do run to try to improve your chances it may help alittle but I highly doubt it

Answer 2

Are you a couch potatoe ? than first you have to loose a bit of weight  and keep training. it wont work overnight. Concratulation on quitting .Excellent

Answer 3

For anyone who has not exercised their lungs with running there will be shortness of breath. Smoking may have added to it, but a sedentary lifestyle is what causes most peoples problems.

You can train your lungs by training smart. Instead of attempting to run 1.5 miles right away, work up to it. Start a slow run, for 100 yards for a few days then increase the distance, until you can run the full mileage.

I am an ex smoker over 20 years of 3 packs a day. Now, I trained and ran and still run in marathons. I started by training short distances and increasing the distances.

I also do what is called run/walk training. That is where you run a distance and then fast walk the same distance. It trains your lungs to keep breathing while using all your leg muscles, a different group of muscles for walking and different for running.  

I found this a better alternative than running until I was out of breath and then stopping as alot of people do.

I was trained this way by an ex military man turned marathon coach.

Good luck

Answer 4

First off, excellent job in quitting smoking, and thank you for serving your country!

Work up to 1.5 miles. Walk it first, then walk it twice a day, then run a little and walk the rest, then run more and more.

You will be surprised in a few weeks how much better you feel. You will smell and taste things you haven't for a long time.

Whatever you do, stick with it, and don't give into temptation (ever). It takes a tough person to stay away from smoking, the weak wimp goes back to them.

Good luck and God bless!