ideal race weight

thats a good coach

I'm 5'9"

Ideal race weight: 138

And I'm muscular for a runner.

How do you truly ever know what your ideal race weight is?

I'm 5'5.5" and 120-25 depending on when I weigh myself.

135 is probably too heavy for you, unless you're quite muscular. The lighter the better - as long as you still recover. Try getting to about 120 and run for a week. If you get abnormally tired, go up 2-3 lbs and try running for another week. Keep repeating this until you get to the point where you're just hanging on, but not exhausted.

Thanks guys.

I figured lighter was better, but just wondering how I compared. I graduated high school at about 135, so i'm not so sure about 120...

I am aiming at under 130.

As far as 'knowing' ideal race weight--this is the weight I was when I ran most of my PRs (although I haven't been able to get much below that, so I suspect I may find that it is significantly lower).

I'm 5'8". I ran my best at about 128lbs in college. I am now in my 50s. I run my best now at about 128lbs.

Well, it really depends on what race you're running. I imagine since you're 30, the fastest thing you're running is a 5k. So no offense, but your ideal race weight is probably as light as you can be without fatiguing yourself from starvation? Think about it, what's ideal? It's ideal too be as light as possible. If you lost 5 pounds of fat and 5 pound of muscle, would this slow you down? No, you don't need big muscular legs to run, you just need efficient muscular legs. Would you rather run as you are now, or add 5 pounds of muscle, and wear a 5 pound vest? I'm going to guess run as you are now. So why not have 'the now' be you at 115 pounds?

I don't like to know my weight for at least 3 days before a race becuase I don't want to discourage myself into thinking I can't run fast.

I am 23 year old male, 5'6". Currently weigh 134 but don't have any races planned for the winter. During the fall when i set most of my current pr's my racing weight was between 130 - 132. Previously my weight had been closer to 136 - 138

not much lighter. 130, 125 should be it. Many elites weigh much less. There are some that weigh less than 110 and are over 5'3".

The answer depends on your bone structure. Do you have a small, medium or large bone structure. Easiest way to tell is to wrap your hand around the opposite wrist bone and see if your thumb and middle finger can touch, or over lap.

If they can overlap the length of your finger nail or more than you have a small bone structure, if they just barely touch and don't overlap much then you have a medium bone struicture and if they can't touch then you have a large bone structure.

I know this is simplistic but its a pretty good gauge.

Now if you have a small bone structure your ideal racing weight will probably be at a BMI of 19.0 to 20.0, if you have a medium bone structure you will probably be ideal at a BMI of 20.0 to 21.0 and if you have a large bone structure you will be probably be ideal at about 21.0 to 22.0 for BMI.

If you exactly 5'6" (no shoes) then here is the weights for the following BMI's

BMI of 19.0 = 118 lbs

BMI of 20.0 = 124 lbs

BMI of 21.0 = 130 lbs

BMI of 22.0 = 136 lbs

I'm a 21 year old guy and am 5'7" without shoes on and my normal weight (I never stray more than a few pounds from it) is 115 pounds. Your frame could be larger than mine though as I have pretty small bones. Your coach's ideal race weight estimation is probably correct.

When racing I was 5'6', 140-145lbs and running sub 16:00 road 5ks and 2:32:45 marathon.

In fact I rememeber waking up one morning weighing 150 (mmm...pizza night before) and running my best road 5k in a year that morning.

Worry less about weight, more about body fat. If body fat is under 10% you are ahead of the curve for the majority of competitive runners out there.

Alan

depends on what your def of comp is

5'10" - a buck 68 - 41 years old - 9% body fat - best marathon last year was 2:33

Comparing Dean Karnazes to me is like comparing Ryan Hall to Dean Karnazes.

The Concrete Runner wrote:

Comparing Dean Karnazes to me is like comparing Ryan Hall to Dean Karnazes.

LOL

May I ask you what your credentials are? Because what you are saying is, forgive me, moronic. Research shows that height and weight have nothing to do with fast race times. Obviously lighter is better, but only to a certain degree. And just because Galen Rupp or Allen Webb weighs next to nothing doesn't mean that is smart or healthy for all other racers. You guys need to do educate yourselves a little more on proper care of the human body before you go running your mouths.

It really depends on your genetics. I am male, 5'7" and my ideal weight for racing was around 115lbs. I was as low as 110lbs and even less, but I felt weak and got frequent colds, so I forced myself to eat more. I had raced and trained around 115lbs for more than a decade and was fine. No diets, no worries about slimming down for seasons, just constant weight, which I checked about twice a month.

Nowadays I weight around 122lbs and I feel heavy. The thing is, I run abround 60-70miles/week as compared to 90-130mpw when I used to seriously race on pro circuit.

So the lesson is: keep your weight constant and as light as your genetics allow you, without negative health effects.