Is it unhealthy to aim towards sub 120 pounds at 5' 8.5"

VDOT for 14:40 5.0km: 71.4

Equivalent race times based on VDOT:

Marathon: 02:20:41

Half marathon: 01:07:09

15K: 00:46:43

10K: 00:30:28

5K: 00:14:40

3Mi: 00:14:07

2Mi: 00:09:06

3200m: 00:09:03

3K: 00:08:26

1Mi: 00:04:15

1600m: 00:04:14

1500m: 00:03:56

I am a bot. Info:

http://habs.sdf.org/trackbot

Just Another LRC Idiot wrote:

I'm fat wrote:

Height and weight of Olympic 10k men:

Bedan Karoki Muchiri 5'6" 143

There is no way Karoki is 5-6, 143.

http://www.letsrun.com/photos/2014/philly-half-marathon/imagepages/image22.php

Some sites say 5'5.5" or 5'6" and 143 lbs. Others say 5'7", 119 lbs.

Allow me to introduce myself wrote:

I'm 5 foot 8 and a half inches, I currently run 75mpw (average) on doubles and I weigh 125 (after a 4 or 5 mile am run, where I usually weigh myself). I will be averaging 90mpw in about 7 months, by that time, would it be normal for me to be 118-120lbs?

Some extra info:

I do eat a very clean diet (mostly high carb low fat), and I probably have about another inch to grow according to the doctor. I do about 2 hard workouts per week. I am a sophomore in college, and my PRs are 14:40 and 31:0x.

I plan to do marathons post college, so any advice in that direction would also be great.

Vdot says your 10K should be over 30 seconds faster. Is that on grass? My 10K Vdot was faster than my 5K Vdot on 65 miles a week. You might be a middle distance runner. I wouldn't increase my mileage that fast if I were you.

Damn it! When I started reading this thread I was certain you were a troll and I still got sucked in!

10/10

in terms of bone structure, if I put my thumb and pointer around my wrist, my pointer ends just a little behind my thumb knuckle, in other words, i have very small wrists and probably smallish bones in general.

10k pr was on dirt, 5k was in outdoor track. Vdot equivalents typically get harder to achieve as the distances get longer if you are young and vice versa.

I'm fat wrote:

Height and weight of Olympic 10k men:

10k men

Mo Farah 5'9" 128

Paul Kipngetich Tanui 5'6" 104

Tamarit Tolat 5'11" 130

Yigrem Demelash 5'6" 106

Galen Rupp 5'11" 134

Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei ? ?

Bedan Karoki Muchiri 5'6" 143

Zersenay Tadese 5'3" 119

Unless any of those guys was weighed and measured right before the race, you have no clue about the accuracy of those numbers. It is likely that they just filled out some form 5 years ago and that data has been repeated forever.

And 125 after a run is more like 130 in the real world (i.e. you weight your self when you wake up in the morning not after you have been exercising for 30+ mins).

Without knowing how fat/musclar the OP is, it is impossible to say if 120 or 130 would be an optimum weight. Things like limb lengths and diameter can give you a 10lb+ swing. If Kiprop was 5'8 (and given how guys lie about height our OP is probably 5'6), 120 would be about what I would guess he would weight.

I do eat breakfast before I run in the am, so probably more like 127-128, but I get your point

When I was your age I was about around 120 at 5' 8". Though never as fast as you I did my share of 100 mile weeks and never had injury issues, you might not either. My family of origin is pretty dinky though, in fact at 5' 8" I was freakishly tall. As others have said it's not so much about the scale and more about running fast and staying healthy.

Ah, okay, sorry I misinterpreted your original post.

As others have said, just pay attention to your overall health and energy level. Losing too much weight is bad if it's muscle and/or bone density you're losing, but that should not occur unless you are actively "aiming" to lose weight when you're already this thin. As long as you keep up your caloric intake with the increase in mileage, I doubt you should get much lower because your body will work to keep you at (your) healthiest weight. Also, protein and (healthy) fat are good for you, so don't avoid them too much.

I'm the same age and at 6'1 135 lbs I often feel too skinny, but it's just my natural weight at 70 mpw. Don't try and lose more weight, just let the nature of doing 90 mpw keep you at race weight.

Jimmy21 wrote:

pop_pop!_v2.2.1 wrote:

I have some concerns about you going from 75->90mpw in 7 months and keeping your speed and remaining injury free. That's another thread.

That doesn't seem like a lot to me. That's like 2 more miles per month. Im not saying youre wrong as i am a novice and I assume you know more than me. id like to hear more on why you say that.

OP is talking about going to 90 miles per WEEK in only 7 months. That's a 20% increase in volume. People that concentrate on hitting the MPW, their paces decrease, then they have a hard time hitting their old PRs at their peak event because they've been "running slow" chasing high MPW.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but, the incremental effects over weeks of adding all that volume tends to end in injury or burnout.

I'm exactly the same height and weight (5'8" and 125ish),running higher mileage consistently (80-100), and I have to keep an eye on my weight to make sure that it doesn't get too low. I've found that if I get to 120 or below, my energy levels really suffer and I start to feel fatigued all the time, so be careful about that when you start to increase your mileage.

For some more background, I'm in my late 20's running mostly marathons and halves now but still like to get on the track every spring for some 5000's and 10000's. Not quite as fast as you, but definitely better at the longer stuff than 5K and under.

I have a super fast metabolism, so that coupled with the high mileage makes getting enough calories in quite the challenge. I don't eat super healthy, but I've found that making sure that I get enough calories in by eating calorie rich food is better for my training than trying to eat a super clean diet. Basically, if I try to eat chicken and vegetables and rice and pasta, I can't get enough calories in to keep up with my high mileage, then my weight drops and my energy levels drop soon afterwards.

Hope that helps a bit.

Allow me to introduce myself wrote:

in terms of bone structure, if I put my thumb and pointer around my wrist, my pointer ends just a little behind my thumb knuckle, in other words, i have very small wrists and probably smallish bones in general.

Doesn't matter. Eat well. Enjoy life. Do your workouts. Get plenty of rest.

If you do those things, then your body will be whatever it wants to weigh and you will be leading a rewarding life.

pop_pop!_v2.2.1 wrote:

Jimmy21 wrote:

That doesn't seem like a lot to me. That's like 2 more miles per month. Im not saying youre wrong as i am a novice and I assume you know more than me. id like to hear more on why you say that.

OP is talking about going to 90 miles per WEEK in only 7 months. That's a 20% increase in volume. People that concentrate on hitting the MPW, their paces decrease, then they have a hard time hitting their old PRs at their peak event because they've been "running slow" chasing high MPW.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but, the incremental effects over weeks of adding all that volume tends to end in injury or burnout.

Yes, we know - per WEEK. And as stated, that's an increase of about a 1/2 mile per week for 7 months. Plenty prudent. How much slower should he increase his weekly mileage total?? A 1/4 mile/week? Which would be 1 mile/month increase. Yielding a 'jump' from 70 miles/week to 77 miles/week over the course of 7 months.

According to this study the optimal weight for marathon performance was a bmi of 19.6, which for your height would be around 131 pounds.

From a medical standpoint you would be at an unhealthy weight if you weighted less than 124 pounds.

I was more asking at what weight would I begin to get slower/more injury prone, I'm not worried if it's unhealthy from a general medical standpoint.

Just stop worrying about it at all. Stop counting calories. Stop looking at numbers. Eat healthy, eat immediately following any run, eat when you're hungry, stop eating when you're no longer hungry. make sure to get lots of protein and iron in your diet. All of the counting nonsense is simply that, nonsense.