Correct running weight?

I am 5’6” and range from 121-125 lbs. According to Google, Eliud Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele are both 5’6” and 123 lbs. Of course I couldn’t even run a single mile at their marathon paces but I think I am at a pretty good racing weight having set lifetime PR’s from the mile to the marathon in the last year as a 43/44 year old.

Bekele is more like 5'3.

Smoove wrote:

This is me at 145. I don’t lift, and I don’t carry much muscle or very much body fat (for a 46 year old (at the time)). Shaving 5 more pounds off of this left me feeling unwell. Carving 15 pounds off would’ve been near impossible.

https://imgur.com/a/zmG9r1i

Smoove, this picture of you body shames me when I look at it. And makes me feel self-conscious about my running form. Add in the pronounced calf striations and the look of serene contentment in the midst of a rainy marathon and....damn. I want to have your baby.

preternaturally striated wrote:

Smoove wrote:

This is me at 145. I don’t lift, and I don’t carry much muscle or very much body fat (for a 46 year old (at the time)). Shaving 5 more pounds off of this left me feeling unwell. Carving 15 pounds off would’ve been near impossible.

https://imgur.com/a/zmG9r1i

Smoove, this picture of you body shames me when I look at it. And makes me feel self-conscious about my running form. Add in the pronounced calf striations and the look of serene contentment in the midst of a rainy marathon and....damn. I want to have your baby.

Smoove is/was in fighting form - but calves looks like more like a cyclist’s.

I highly recommend the books "Racing Weight" and/or "Racing Weight a Quick Start Guide" if you're looking for good information on this subject of running weight. The books offer some great information in a well thought out and presented format. None of the ideals in the books are necessarily earth shattering, but the stuff laid out well and in a manner that actually bring the points home.

For several years, I was stuck several pounds over my ideal weight. I read multiple articles and books on dieting, but was just stuck. The Racing Weight books helped me get to my ideal healthy weight without interfering with training or energy levels. The author discourages fade diets, etc and provides a road map for getting to where you need to be.

I probably sounds like a hack for the author, but this was seriously the first time someone put the necessary info together for me and helped me achieve my goal weight. Cheap used copies of the books are available though several outlets, so there's that, too.

Haha. I suspect XFIT BRO THE REAL 1 is less impressed.

To paraphrase malmo, “train your ass off and run a personal best; then, weigh yourself afterwards. That is your correct weight.”

Yes, but soon after, when they move on with their life, they gain weight. Maybe slightly, , but they gain weight. look at most distance runners from the 80's and early 90's. Most are over 160lbs.

I'm 5'2'' and 134, but people on here told me to lose another 30 pounds. I think I need to lose 5-6 more but no more than that.

matt fitzgerald wrote an entire book about it. It's worth a read.

I’m with Smoove if I could throw a switch and drop 15 pounds on race day I would do it. I’m pretty disciplined, but it would take a few years living in a hut in Kenya with the Robertson Twins for me to get that gaunt.

I was at the Peach Tree 10K warming up last week, and the elites were jogging around near the start. They were freaking tiny. I’m guessing 110-120lbs at the most. They ran 27:04? 59,800 people were more than 10 minutes behind them.

I did wonder if you took 60,000 random Kenyans and had them run a local 10k how fast the times would be?

I think it would be very difficult to grow up in the US with our available resources and be that lean. They looked like human missiles.

Looking at that pic there's not too much weight to loose again. Fat probably is low and muscles are ok for a long distance runner. This is a genetical factor, I mean the BMI , is something that we cant change too much, has to do with our skeleton.

Now 4 kilos are about 10seconds /km. So Smoove in the pic is about 65 kg . But losing 4 kg he will lose muscles and so power.

But if we take a Kenyan runner with a smaller skeleton , pelvis , shoulder etc. probably he will have the same Smoove height but his weight will be 60 kg or 58kg. This means that if Smoove and the Kenyan runner have the same Critical power (lactic threshold) of 360 watt. We will have Smoove with a power to weight ratio of 5.5 watt/kg, while the kenyan runner will have 6 watt/kg. This of course it means faster times. Now I dont have at hand the chart of race times and power to weight ratio but at every value is associate a certain race time.

The key point is that you best racing weight isn't just a function of your height. The way to figure out your best racing weight is to try to lose 5 pounds and see if how that effects your training and your racing at 5 and 10k. If your times drop and you still feel fine (aren't getting injured or sick), you can think about losing another 5 pounds. Stop losing weight when you start getting injured, sick of your times stop dropping. This is a dangerous game though. Some people get eating disorders doing this.

Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald. This will be your bible

Dathan at 112 isn't correct. There is an article where he talks about weight. He says on race day 121-122 ish is where he races best and when he is just training he is mid 120's. He has a very small frame. I raced down at 134 and could have gotten into his range but I also have a small frame. My brother who is built completely different would have to chop off a leg to get that low. I agree with what some of the others on here have said. Don't compare yourself to elites, they are often unique and not a good benchmark for different body types. Trying to hit a number because an elite you have heard of who was your height happened to be that weight could be a disaster.

sub_3_is_the_goal wrote:

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

Here the data of some real marathon pros:

Galen Rupp - 5'10" 138 lbs

Dathan Ritzenhein - 5'8" 117 lbs

Jared Ward - 5'9" 135 lbs

Shaddy Biwott - 5'9" 125 lbs

What do they have in common? They are among our fastest marathoners. And they are MUCH lighter than you consider for yourself as "sweet spot".

Do you think it makes sense for amateurs to replicate professionals?

uhh yess

With your height and weight combo if you want to really take the marathon seriously you should consider losing a few pounds. That being said if you look like Galen Rupp you might have trouble lifting a gallon of milk

CorrectWhen wrote:

Correct running weight appears to be when you are a sickly looking stick figure like the woman who just set the WR in the mile. Good Gawd someone please give her a hamburger.

Also, what exactly does it mean to eat 'clean' these days. I hear that and instinctively want to punch the person who said it, but must admit I don't get what it is.

1) Siffan's body is in it's ideal condition to run fast as a mid/distance runner.

2) I doubt she is sick in any way (including nutrition) given how well she is consistently running.

3) Just because you're American and think everyone needs a cheeseburger does not mean everyone does.

4) "eating clean" probably refers to being (mostly) vegan but having cheat meals whenever they go out and get a but tipsy.

Smoove wrote:

There is no hard and fast rule to be applied.

. . .

So the idea that lower is always better isn’t necessarily right. For me, as a more mature runner, there is a sweet spot, and that sweet spot is 145 rather than 140.

Actually, in an old post, jtupper (Jack Daniels) supplied a hard and fast rule -- "2.7 sec per mile per pound of unnecessary tissue that you lose."

Here is Daniels's response in the old thread:

I typically calculate 2.7 sec per mile per pound of unnecessary tissue that you lose. It will vary with your ability level, but you have the idea -- (1) multiply your VDOT times your body weight in kg (pounds X .454 = Kg). (2) This will give your an absolute value for estimated VDOT (3) subtact the anticipated weight loss from current weight and (4) divide the new (lighter) weight into the Absolute VDOT value that you got in #2 above. This will give you a new VDOT to use for calculating performances. Naturally, the catch is that you must be getting rid of body mass that is not useful to your running. If you try to lose too much to make these mathematics look even better, you will start to lose muscle mass and the absolute VDOT value will decrease as fast or faster than the body mass is reduced and VDOT used for determining performances will not be to your liking.