Forums >General Running>Weight vs. Speed
Latent Runner
Two more good sets of data, thanks folks.
My next 5K is set for 15-Sep, hopefully by then I'll be down near 190; I'll keep y'all posted.
In the mean time, I've signed up for the 2013 New Hampshire Orthopaedic Center 10 MILER coming up on 31-Aug. In spite of running a half of a dozen or more 10+ mile trail runs per month over the summer, I'm not really sure I'm ready for a 10 mile road race on pavement. That said, this particular race runs literally right past my house so I kind of felt obligated to enter it; I'll keep y'all posted on this one as well.
Regards,
Dale
Fat old man PRs:
Wow, I'm impressed. How old and how tall are you?
I'm 39, 5'11", 170lb. I'm relatively new to running (3 years), but was running about 45mpw in the months preceding both levels.
In my (limited) experience, I saw some immediate improvement after losing 10 lbs, but the bigger benefit may end up being the ability to train at an incrementally higher level.
I think thats what the referenced thread was all about. Nantucket dude is full of shit.
Dude, open up the log book for all to see those "just running by the water" 14 min 5k's
I don't know, maybe I'm missing something, but a 14 minute 5K sounds pretty darned fast to me. Back in 1979 I ran a 5K on a warm humid (so humid you could only see maybe twenty feet in front of you) in 16:21, and I got third place in the race; I have no idea what time the winner had, but I'm betting it was no faster than 15:30. Maybe it's just me, but I know (or at least knew) what it takes to run a 4:30 mile; stringing three "point" one 4:30s together sounds, ummm, a bit improbable for someone who just started running again. To borrow a line from the car racing community, "Certified race results or it didn't happen."
I don't know, maybe I'm missing something, but a 14 minute 5K sounds pretty darned fast to me. Back in 1979 I ran a 5K on a warm humid (so humid you could only see maybe twenty feet in front of you) in 16:21, and I got third place in the race; I have no idea what time the winner had, but I'm betting it was no faster than 15:30.
Maybe it's just me, but I know (or at least knew) what it takes to run a 4:30 mile; stringing three "point" one 4:30s together sounds, ummm, a bit improbable for someone who just started running again.
To borrow a line from the car racing community, "Certified race results or it didn't happen."
The pain that hurts the worse is the imagined pain. One of the most difficult arts of racing is learning to ignore the imagined pain and just live with the present pain (which is always bearable.) - Jeff
2014 Goals:
Stay healthy
Enjoy life
I think thats what the referenced thread was all about. Nantucket dude is full of shit. Dude, open up the log book for all to see those "just running by the water" 14 min 5k's
Got curious about this so had to go snooping. manfromnantucket goes by the handle 'mitchy' on mountainsnstuff, and says his 5k pr is something like 20 minutes.
Hmmm, sounds like the next time ManFromNantucket shows up, I'm going to have to go fetch my bedding rake.
Bedding rake: http://miller-mfg.com/page/1/Product-Detail.jsp?groupId=759&prodId=89935
Feeling the growl again
Hmmm, sounds like the next time ManFromNantucket shows up, I'm going to have to go fetch my bedding rake. Bedding rake: http://miller-mfg.com/page/1/Product-Detail.jsp?groupId=759&prodId=89935
More appropriate for the quantity to spread.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
Oh I like it!
Progress update:
When I started this thread a few weeks ago I had just run a 5K on a warm and humid day in 25:20 which equates to an 8:10 per mile pace; I've since dropped my weight from about 205 to 195 pounds, and today (on yet another warm and humid day) I turned in a 1:25:06 time in a very hilly 10 mile road race, which works out to 8:31 miles. Granted my per mile pace went up 21 seconds per mile, but I ran over three times as far; looks like "speed up 20 seconds per mile for every 10 pounds of weight loss" might be pretty accurate.
Using McMillians running calculator and inputting you're recent 10 miler, you get an equivalent 5k race time of 24:31 or a 7:53 pace. Was the improvement all weight loss, the training since the last race or both. I think both but the weight loss is a big factor. Keep up the good work.
Hmmm, a 7:53 pace for a 5K, that looks pretty good to me. I'll be putting that calculation to the test as I'm running a 5K this coming Friday evening.
Regarding your question; I'm assuming it is a combination of both weight loss and training. Starting back on August 9th I've lost the aforementioned 10 pounds and I've logged 184 miles (not counting the 1+ mile warm-up and the 10 mile race I ran today).
I'll report back Friday evening.
One other set of datapoints for you. I am 6’2” and 45 years old:
2009 – Weight 195 – Time 24:29
2010 – 195 – 22:44
2012 – 173 – 21:23
2013 – 175 – 19:49
Were all other factors equal….nope. I actually learned how to train properly along the way. The weight loss happened as a byproduct. While carrying less weight undoubtedly makes me faster, I think that having a bigger aerobic base to draw from has had more of an effect for me. Keep with it and your times (and weight) will both improve. Congrats on your solid results so far.
Rebuilding my aerobic base....racing next year.....nothing to see here....move along now.
Thanks, very compelling data.
Some years back the OKC marathon listed the actual weights of the Clydesdale runners in the results and not just the category. So there were data for a couple hundred guys from 170 lbs on up. I did a regression and the slope was very close to the old 2 seconds per mile per pound. btw, age was not a significant factor in the regression.
My slowest 5ks were 26-27 minutes at 260 lbs and my fastest was 22:47 at 240 lbs. I know I did a 24 minute 5k at over 250 lbs because I was first in the over 250 Clyde division and that one they actually weighed us before the race (ok, I was last too, but I would have placed in the 230-250).
Update...
I ran a 5K Friday evening and logged an "official" time of 23:39 for an average pace of 7:38. The timing in this race was a bit suspect (read "Old School" pen and paper logging of times) as the clock was showing 23:23 as I crossed the line, and as there was no RFID usage there was no start offset measurement (and I started well back in the pack). Regardless, I'll take the 23:39 and be happy with it.
I have one more 5K scheduled this coming Sunday before I dive back into some heavy duty LSD training for my first 10K in 15 years at Thanksgiving time.
I'll keep y'all posted.