lol Symmonds channeling matt_london_413. Runs 57s 400m, calls it his "best ever" considering body weight.

Facts and Logic wrote:

jamin wrote:

10s slower than his PR but he says it's faster from a power-to-weight perspective

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceVfeTaIbSc&ab_channel=NickSymmonds

This is really, really sad to me. I don't care that he's not as fast as he used to be (though 36 ain't geriatric lol) now that he's older, that's to be expected. But I'm a significantly bigger guy than him, and 57 was what I ran in middle school...

I didn't run in college so my 1:56 800m in senior year was my peak, and here's a 1:42 olympian who I had and have a higher BMI than trying to claim that 57 is a good 400m time...

I'm not knocking a 57 since natural talent is a big part of running, some people have to work very hard to get there, but for a man who ran two 51s back to back.... um what?

There is a huge under-estimation of just how hard it is to run a 400 or anything longer than that when you're over 20 lbs heavier than ideal bodyweight for your height.

Nicks running weight like he said was 162 or something. So now he's 183. Most of you don't realize how hard this is to do because alot of you are at your ideal running weight based on your frame structure and height so you never tested the difference.

I'm sure he can go a few seconds faster then this if he really wanted to but the difference is so great that you're going to be struggling to do 10 seconds slower than your fastest 400. So obviously this was a tough race for him. If it wasn't then i'm sure he would have just jogged a 53 second 400. But he didn't. And no he's not that old. That has nothing to do with it. It's just that he's too heavy now for his frame and the 400 is now diffulcult.

For 5'10 tall and that type of frame you would want to be at 158-171. Anything over that is going to be tough to run a 400 in.

paris2024hawk wrote:

400M times don't really seem more impressive based on bodyweight unless your over 200pounds. 183 is not unusual for a sprinter, Fred Kerly is 205 with a 43.6 400m. 183 could be closer to nicks natural weight, it would not be impossible to be faster than he used to be with more weight. He 'best' 400 should not be that much slower.

Kerley is also 6'3 tall. This is where a height requirement comes into play. His 205 lbs isn't really impressive at that height.

Each inch taller I calculated equates to about 8 lbs of bodyweight.

So Kerley is the equivalent of a 6'0 tall 181 pound 400 meter dash runner. It's really not that heavy for his height.

Pretty sure John Regis was around 5ft 9 and 200lbs. Olympic 200m silver medalist and 400m pb of 45.4. WC 400m relay gold. Obviously a big slowdown from the 200 to 400 carrying that weight. He did the Superstars 800m when he was still competing I think, and ran 2:25 or something.

Likely shared some lucazade with Linford, of course.

http://www.sporting-heroes.net/athletics/great-britain/john-regis-779/200m-silver-at-1993-world-championships_a09657/