Just wanted to know what you all thought would be the optimum weight for a distance guy who is 5'8"? I am currently 140 lbs. and my coach keeps telling me that I need to lose some weight to race faster. He thinks I should be closer to 130.
Also, any suggestions for how to go about doing this? I can only think of making my late night snacks healthier.
It is all relative to bone structure, muscle mass etc.. Many times a wrestling coack will tell a wrestler to lose weight to wrestle at a lower weight class. Then they discover that losing such weight means losing way too much strength to be competitive and wrestler loses not only strenght but quickness, agility, etc.. I would say--don't lose the weight unless you have a reason for peaking--otherwise stay at the weight you feel most comfortable at. If you cannot lose weight in a normal fashion by running and eating a healthy diet, then there is no sense in losing it artificially because there are too many potential reprecussions and there is no guarantee that your speed will increase ipso facto.
Yeah, I see what you are saying. When I first came to school I weighed 132 so I guess I could stand to lose a few pounds since I only grew 3/4 of an inch. I think I just have trouble saying no to french fries and the like every so often.
I would be careful on the weight thing, if you have put on 8 lbs and if its fat from french fries and a bad diet it might be ok to loose a few lbs, making better snack and food choices will benefit you a lot and probably help you, do you guys lift weights? You might have bulked up some, muscle weighs more than fat, how do your jeans and normal clothes fit compared to when you started?
Honestly, I"m probably making too big of deal out of the weight thing, pass up the french fries at night though man, at least during season. Best of luck.