"Wetmore skinny" wondering about the smallness of the CU team of 1998

... Just want to make something clear. I didn't run for CU. Just stretching at Pott's field after a track workout, back in the days when the track was open.

I'm a big fat guy now. ;-) ... and old too. I ran much faster then. At one time I was down to 138 ... but that was way too skinny. Most of my PRs were when I weighed about 145, seemed to be a good weight for me.

6'4" 144

Can anyone beat that one?

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I think there is a good range for each individual runner based on their build. I'm 5'10, college senior. and have ranged between 138 to near 160 in college. Most of my PR's have come when I'm in the 145 range. When I was under 140 I was probably in calorie deficit during summers I would routinely be over 70+ miles a week. Between my freshman and sophmore years when i was 155-160 I had been injured, lifted weights alot more and had too much beer, pizza and wings. I didn't really run well until I got back down in the 145-150 range.

I've seen 5'7 160lb guys, 5'6 120lb, 6'2 130lb,6'3 165ish guys all win races. Sometimes it's just good training and really good genetics.

Skinny Fast RUNR wrote:

6'4" 144

Can anyone beat that one?

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Ya, the other way, 5'8" 155lb, I'll hit 160 durring track, when I switch pushups and sit ups for acutal lifting.

This is what bothers me about a lot of coaching philosophies. There is no one way for anything. Every single person is different when it comes to how they should train, how much they can eat,how much sleep they need, along with just about everything else. Some people can eat all day (some kenyans for example) and still be super thin and super fast. Other people have to be careful about their diet and their weight. It's like that with everything.

Doug E. wrote:

In RWTB he has one of the guys (running ~80-100 mpw) on a 2,000 calorie diet. Can that really be healthy at all? I realize that at 6'2" 169 lbs., that I'm a big guy by running standards, but I don't think that I could go that low, and still run well.

2,000 calories is just right if you have weight to lose. If you weigh 10 lbs too much, you have an extra 35,000 calories at your disposal. If you are burning 3,000 calories a day, it is not difficult at all for your body to extract the extra 1,000 calories from your big gut.

The key is that as you get closer to your ideal weight, your body has to work harder to extract those extra calories from fat. You have to gradually increase your caloric intake to keep from having an energy deficiency. When you get to your goal weight, it is extremely important that you eat exactly what you are burning off to stay at your ideal running weight and have the energy you need to workout and race at your best.

Even if you are extremely skinny, you still have 5 or 6 lbs of fat or close to 20,000 calories in your body that you can draw on for a short time if needed so you don't keel over and die.

So whats Wetmore look like? He better be one skinny dude if he's telling his runners to skip lunch. Has he ever tried to run high mileage and skip lunches?

Never mind, I found a picture of him, couldn't really tell if hes skinny or not, but he's not fatty.

Wetmore is skinny for sure...Also, regarding the fine line between light and frail, Wetmore has had an alarmingly high number of stress fractures in his athletes, which would cause me to believe they are not getting something right, whether it's diet-related (one might suspect) or not...By the way, I'm 6'2", 162 or so. Probably around 10% body fat. Think I'd do better dropping a few?

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I've been a big "fan" of these boards for a long time. There have been millions of stupid posts but this one is one of the worst. Get over it guys. If you train hard you NEED to eat when you're hungry. Choose healthy foods and eat it when you're hungry. I by no means was fast (just sub 30) and one of the bigger guys on the team (6'0 150-155). It comes down to putting in the work, being anorexic for a semester is a cheap, sick way to get faster. This topic is one of the things that pisses me off about distance running.

If you want to get faster stop posting on this site and go for another run!

thats what i use to think i always stayed at 140 regardless of fitness (5'9") but i recenetly started eating super healthy (same calories...but way more fruit and vegatables, no junk food and the same amount of protien/.meat) and now i am at consistantly at 132 and running about 30 seconds faster for the 8 and i just feel better...more energy less soreness...a HEALTHY diet is the best...it will alow you to lose weight, people think because they run they can eat whatever they want but its just not true, you can't eat wahtever and not get fat, but if you eat SUPER healthy you will be the ebst runner you can be.

I hope you're not referring to my last post because you just restated what I said. Choose healthy foods. All I added was "eat when you're hungry". When you're hungry your body is telling you it need more energy to continue rebuilding muscle and supply your body with what it needs. I NEVER suggested you eat whatever you want. Although that IS what I did when I was running.

sdfghsfgb wrote:

i'm 6'4 and 155... i'd say that im skinnier than all of you bastards

Well, you are now--but when I was still a runner I went 6-3, 148 (for years).

Even at that weight I really wasn't very lean, just skinny.

Buffs wrote:

In Running with the Buffaloes it talks about Wetmore being quite concerned with his athlete's weights and wanted them to be very skinny, and often skipping lunch. How did these guys apparently not eat that much but run so much. I'm interested because at 5 9 140lbs I'm not super skinny or that big, but wouldn't mind losing a few. Like Viren said "I want to look like a plucked chicken". Any insight?

On what pages does it say that Wetmore wanted a certain ht vs wt ratio? I remember Goucher being quoted in the book as eating a real small amount at lunch, as a bigger meal lead to stomach upsets during the PM workout. I think most serious runners can attest to the fact that you cannot eat a big meal and then expect to run a hard repetition workout or race 3 or even 4 hours later. I believe that Wetmore was more worried that the runners ate too much at lunch time and this led to less than desirable workouts in the afternoons...

i have a serious question. if i am already pretty skinny even for a runner how often should i weigh myself? some people think weighing in on your scale every morning is being compulsive and you should only weigh yourself at max once a week. what do you guys think?

And why do you need to weigh yourself to begin with? I probably weighed in once every two months (in college) at most and now almost never.

Wetmore doesn't say anything so scientific as a ht vs wt ratio, he says condom stretched over a skeleton. What does that tell you. Weight and stories about weight are a constant drumbeat in his program. I would imagine that Sarah Slattery is his idea of perfection.

CT_Runner wrote:

Vigil is also concerned about the weight of his runners. I don't know what he says to them, but when I saw him speak at a clinic once, he made a comment to the effect that a day you don't run is a day you don't eat.

I ran for Vigil and I never remember him being concerned with weight. I always equated that Vigil particular quote to lifestyle, i.e., we eat everyday, so we should run everyday. It was never meant literally.