Is Molly Huddle the ideal body type for a female 5K runner.

Might I chime in that Molly Huddle is a professional runner. She live, eats, and breathes running. She runs twice a day and probably 80 plus miles a week. Along with weights/core and very solid highly nutritious diet this all contributes to the way she looks. Not to mention she was like this in h.s. She didn't just lose 25lbs and get fast, she's always been this way. Don't compare your h.s. body to professional athletes. I'd focus on eating healthy and running what your coach has planned for you. Body types are mainly genetics and losing too much weight will cause more injuries if you're not careful.

Ignore your weight, focus on your training.

Look-- your body is a wonderfully adaptive thing. If you let it know that it needs to adapt to a certain type of running, over time it will adapt.

The best example that I can give of this is my own weight. I'm a six foot tall male. During the summer and cross-- when I was logging a lot of distance-- my weight dropped and stayed around 145. During track-- when I "moved down" to the 1500/3K-- my weight gradually increased up to around 155. This happened every year like clockwork. I could actually tell the seasons by my weight.

Just let your body know what you expect of it. If you eat well, your body will take care of the rest on its own.

Who is Jordan Hadley, and what is "loosing?"

Goldihger wrote:

Screw that Jordan Hadley is faster than ever by becoming freakishly thin. Loosing weight is the answer.

I don't know if she is "freakishly thin" but she has lost weight the last few yeas. I wonder how much she weighs?

And Molly wasn't always as thin as she is now either. Losing weight, as long as you don't go too far definitely helps.

I recommend the book "Racing Weight" by Matt Fitzgerald. I'm newer to the racing scene (and also a female- although I only know about this hilarious site from my husband), and I dropped 15 pounds quickly just by some of the great suggestions in the book.

Like another poster said, if you train correctly, your body will adjust to the correct weight, although I do think there's a little more to it.

The book discusses the timing of meals and choosing good quality foods. A lot of it seems like common sense after reading through it, but there are still some details that I would not have thought of on my own (mostly because the book is targeted specifically towards endurance athletes).

I used to think I was eating too much, but I was eating way too little and starving myself of nutrients when my body needed them most (especially for recovery).

another girl runner wrote:

I recommend the book "Racing Weight" by Matt Fitzgerald. I'm newer to the racing scene (and also a female- although I only know about this hilarious site from my husband), and I dropped 15 pounds quickly just by some of the great suggestions in the book.

of the other suggestions?