Does it take longer to adapt to faster pace of high mileage on heavier weight?

aging and weight makes it more difficult yes.

Be patient and listent to your body

Interesting question. I like to think that training with excess bodily weight will just make me that much stronger once the weight melts off. But I never stopped to think about how that weight would over-tax my musculoskeletal system. So, hard to escape some strains and doms, slowing down progress. If you run slower, with higher cadence, to decrease risk of injury, you don't progress fast enough. Maybe you should only shuffle faster on very gentle slopes once in a while to stimulate more muscle fibers - until your system is ready to handle the work?

Solinsky ran 90-100 mpw in HS at 6 min pace at 170-180 lbs.

After college, he ran professionally 110-120 mpw at 5:40 avg for easy runs. None of his team members was able to keep up, and that included guys like Tegenkamp. He said, his big-boned body allowed him to do the crazy workload/mileage and prevented stress fractures.

There is also a lot of research showing that higher weight = lower chance of stress fractures, due to stronger bones and the additional muscle mass protecting them.

Now, if that excess weight is just fat and not muscle, it's a totally different story of course.

Solinsky is an anomaly and as you mentioned big boned. 175 wasn't big for him. OP has the same bone structure as before and weighs 20 more lb. He will need to slow down to maintain high mileage.

With regard to your question, my response is that those gained pounds really composed mainly of fat instead of muscles. I havent gained a single pound of muscle at all.

Lose weight, run very easy until some pounds come off. Make sure the increase is slow. I put on 25 lbs before coming back to running, there were many injuries of trying to come back too fast. Don't do what I did.

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

Solinsky ran 90-100 mpw in HS at 6 min pace at 170-180 lbs.

After college, he ran professionally 110-120 mpw at 5:40 avg for easy runs. None of his team members was able to keep up, and that included guys like Tegenkamp. He said, his big-boned body allowed him to do the crazy workload/mileage and prevented stress fractures.

There is also a lot of research showing that higher weight = lower chance of stress fractures, due to stronger bones and the additional muscle mass protecting them.

Now, if that excess weight is just fat and not muscle, it's a totally different story of course.

Solinsky never weighed more than 175 in HS (according to a RW's story on him) and his racing weight as a pro was listed at 160. Besides he's tall at 6-1 - what puts the weight portion in perspective. If he weighed 200 lbs or was 5-9/5-8 at that 175, and was running that kind of mileage without getting injured - now that would be very impressive.

Also, you'll have to provide some research that "higher weight = lower chance of stress fractures" with elite distance runners. It's my understanding that higher weight regardless of muscle or fat is a much more higher risk of injuries with elite distance runners doing high mileage due to the increased impact forces. It's the main reason why so many East Africans are skin & bones as they virtually have very little impact forces and hit some incredibly high mileage weeks.

YARLY wrote:

Solinsky is an anomaly and as you mentioned big boned. 175 wasn't big for him. OP has the same bone structure as before and weighs 20 more lb. He will need to slow down to maintain high mileage.

Not to mention his history of injuries.

Back to the question: Yes, so just lose at least 10 pounds before considering upping the mileage. Also in the meantime, do some cross-training to stay aerobically fit.

He might have quoted runner connect research on that.

https://runnersconnect.net/more-weight-more-injuries/

I don't know but running long absolutely sucks and my body wants no part of it.

kenyahigheweeeeefefa wrote:

He might have quoted runner connect research on that.

I've seen that article before but I'm talking about elites and the article doesn't address that. Elites need to be as light as possible - their high volume and higher intensity of training dramatically increases physical loading on their lower extremities. Carrying excess weight simply increases the risk injury with these elites. Remember Leo Manzano? He was 115 lbs on 5-5 frame and he was a 1500 guy. Same with Centro - 5-9/132. Rupp is fairly tall for distance runner at 5-11 but light at 135. Both Kipchoge and Osako are 5-6/115, which is smaller than many college female runners! This isn't groundbreaking research and I'm sure everyone understands the lighter the better for elite runners (body type is a big genetic component for elites).

"But watch the first people to cross the finish line and you'll see that there's one common denominator of long-distance dominance: size. Almost without exception, elite marathon runners stand 5-foot-7, give or take two inches, and weigh 140 pounds, plus or minus a few pounds."

"There is a reason that most elite marathon runners are of moderate height and very thin," says Richard Hughson, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Waterloo and former world-class distance runner. "Running at high speed requires a lot of energy. Just imagine running with two two-kilogram weights in your hands or tied around your waist. If a marathon runner is four kilograms overweight, then he or she must carry that extra 'useless' weight for 42.2 kilometres. Therefore, all elite runners will have as little fat, bone and even muscle as possible."

"Athletic performance can boil down to physics, with body type determining how well you will do out on the track, or the court or the pitch. When it comes to running, smaller individuals with slight frames will almost always do better than their bigger, bulkier peers, no matter how good their biomechanics or training. With less load to carry, smaller runners are simply lighter on their feet."

"In addition, larger runners are more likely to be sidetracked by injury, Prof. Hughson says. "The pure physical loading on the skeleton, muscles and tendons is determined by the mass and velocity. So, heavy individuals will exert much greater forces on their bodies. Now, multiply those forces by the number of steps – not many in a sprint but of very high force, versus very many for the long-distance runner even if of lower force per step – and you end up with a recipe for trouble," he says."