?What? wrote:
How do you know wrote:
How do you know if he couldn't have ran faster with more muscle? That PB came from 2016 Berlin, in which he lost to someone with a BMI of 21.3 (Bekele 5'4 and 124 ibs) vs Kipsang BMI of 18.7.
That’s my point exactly. We can’t compare one or two people and assume that’s the best build for Rupp. I was pointing out how silly the original analogy was about how if he was built like Lilesa he would be faster.
How do you know? Especially for marathons it's better to have a bit too much muscle than to be too light. There has been too much emphasis on being as light as possible for distance running. And not much emphasis on keeping as much muscle as possible on one's frame. Not saying people need to start drinking whey protein shakes and start lifting 5x a week. But this idea it is best to be as light as possible should be reexamine. Distance running is catabolic. When someone attempts to loose muscle, this puts their body even greater into a catabolic state. When your body is in a catabolic state it starts to eat itself away. This includes tendons and joints. I would not be shocked at all if the reason for Alan Webb's career ending running injury was due to Alberto trying to get him loose his muscle mass. I would like to see a study where they take two groups of runners, and put one group on a program to get as light as possible and the other group to maintain as much muscle mass as possible, and see which group does better in 5 years. Than we see time and again, young runners who never reach their true potential due to a eating disorder due to this thinking that lighter is faster.
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1164007