Do you weigh too much?

Herb Lindsey (former AR in halfmarathon) was 5'9' 150, Steve Prefontaine was 5'9' 152, Jack Foster (ran 2:11 at age 41) was 5'8', 140. Weren't Robert de Castella and Derek Clayton larger than your average marathoner? Overall weight means very little. Body fat % is more important. Maybe you just have a higher % of lean body mass. Just run twice a day and don't eat like a pig, the rest will take care of itself.

Alan

well i tell ya what im 5'10 151 and if i lose any weight to try to get to these scales half of which i didnt understand... one i will never find a date and two i wouldnt be able to drink beer both of which are very important to me

All that I know based on these tabulations is that almost all my prs were set when I was around the same ratio as hallie G and tergat.

Now I am a fat bastard in comparison. 2.27 compared to 1.86

"My whole teaching in one sentence is, 'Run slowly, run daily, drink moderately & don't eat like a pig.' To be healthy, one must train-& eat-like a marathoner."

runningart2004--Think what you like but the only guys & gals that will win/break records these days are the super thin.

What is KK's height & weight? Geb? Tergat? Culpepper? Ritz?

I weigh 140-142 on a good day, and I am 6'0. I am in great shape and there is no way that a 300 lb guy would/could ever beat me! I would really like to see him race.

6'2'' and 145 but if I were Pat Porter, I'd be 138 or Culpepper at 132lbs. With VO2 formula, weight makes a huge difference. Sadly, anorexia works well for a short time for women. Van Aaken does have some interesting theories about eating less (1200 cal, I think) and fasting as much as 14 (!!) hours before a run. Claimed the body could learn to run of off the fat stores better that way. He coached the Culpepper-like Horold Norpoth to a medal.

I think he has a 300 lbs head....and also the sub-16 5K is also in his head...

What is interesting is even the African stars of today are much lighter than the Africans of 20 to 30 years ago. Jipcho, Rono, Keino were all over 140. Same with Musyoki. OF course you had your Shahanga, Kedirs, and Yifters but they weren't the norm as you see today. I firmly believe that a more conscious effort is made at the top to stay very thin to remain competitive. Face it its part of the job. People can call it un-masculine if they want but look at all the guys lined up for the 10k and I bet they don't look like you or I. Those guys are ghastly looking!

Another interesting thing is that the marathoners seem to be slightly heavier built and carry a little more body fat, I wonder if this is a requirement to make sure they have the reserves for the longer distance.

I meant to say the guys lined up for the 10k at the Worlds or OLympics. They look like a bunch of P.O.W's.

\\\"I firmly believe that a more conscious effort is made at the top to stay very thin to remain competitive.\\\"

This can be a problematic because, for some people, cutting calories will trim off all of their fat before effecting the rebuilding of muscle, but for others, getting below a certain fixed point of body fat will start effecting their muscle recovery and rebuilding even while some fat remains. The Africans look thin, but healthy and have some lean muscularity. An American and a Kenyan might have the same height and percent body fat while the American will weigh more owing to more muscle mass in their legs as they tend to build muscle from the stimulus of running. COuld you imagine a Kenyan with McMullen or De Castella\\\'s trunk-like legs? I don\\\'t see how a Kenyan can run so much and have so little muscle mass in their legs. This is why I don\\\'t think many of them could be cyclists - they\\\'d have to have leg power in addition to endurance and I don\\\'t think many of them could build it. Being able to generate wattage on a bike wouldn\\\'t be the forte of those little lean legs.

Van Aaken was the man, maybe more then we give him credit for but this new study is on to what I was posting before. Most of us weigh too much & our bodies are not built like a high performance machines (Kalenjin elite runners) so we don't see the top times (sub 13, 27 & 2:07).

Study Says Why Kenyans Sparkle

The Monitor (Kampala)

November 14, 2002

Posted to the web November 15, 2002

Robert Mugagga

Kampala

A study done in the Danish capital Copenhagen has shed light on why Kenyans dominate international athletics.

The Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre did the study.

It was presented by the Centre's representative, Henrik B. Larsen at the "Play The Game," an international global sports conference going on in Copenhagen. The study revealed that Kenyans have a superior running economy than many other athletes.

The study revealed that outstanding performance in long distance running requires primarily an optimal combination of high capacity for aerobic energy output, a high fractional utilisation of V02 max during competition and good running economy.

The Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre carried out different studies on some Kalenjin elite runners as well as untrained Kalenjin and Nandi boys comparing them with their Danish counterparts.

Different factors were investigated and comparisons of the physiological response to 12 weeks of endurance training for untrained Kalenjin town and village boys as well as Danish boys were made.

The studies revealed that the Kalenjin and Danish elite runners have very but similar V02 max and that untrained Kalenjin boys had the same V02 max as Danish boys. Regarding V02 max, untrained Kalenjin boys show similar response to endurance training as Danish boys.

According to the study, Kalenjin elite runners have a superior running economy compared to their Danish counterparts just as untrained Kalenjin town and village boys have a better running economy than untrained Danish boys.

The adaptation to training of running economy was similar in the three groups of boys. A moderate correlation between the lower leg volume divided by lower leg length (mean lower leg thickness) and running economy was observed in the untrained boys as well as the elite runners.

In all, it was discovered that Kalenjin elite runners as well as Kalenjin untrained boys have a superior running economy compared to their Danish counterparts probably due to the fact that the Kalenjins have more slender legs and thus use relatively less energy when running.

What about Abde Bile (forgive my spelling). If I am not mistaken, wasn't he around 180 lbs and 6 ft? Kind of heave for world class, but he still got the job done.

One can be fat at 120lb as well one can be fit at 160lb.

You want to be as trim as your frame will allow. Don't do anything unnatural to lose weight. Eat right, do situps and pullups and run lots of miles. That is all you need to train effectively(very very basically).