3 replies to this topic

[Johnso]

I was looking for a rule of thumb about how speed is affected by extra body weight and I came across this series of running calculators. Of course in the real world there are many factors that need to be considered but these are still fun to play around with: http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc

According to the "Weight and performance" calc, If I weighed 5kg less when I ran a recent half marathon I would have finished in 89 mins instead of 93 mins. Ironically, my plan for losinge 5kg would be to run more which would mean that by the time I got my weight down, I would also be a lot fitter so I would expect to run even faster than that!

[lyricnz]

While being lighter definitely helps, it's often hard to distinguish the improvements that come from getting fitter at the same time.  I lost ~30kg, and have improved my HM time by about 15 minutes - and feeling like I've got much more potential to go quicker.

[SpecBGT]

While mathematically interesting, I can't see this of being too much use. What is a person's optimal weight? Does being lighter mean you will always run faster? As it states everything else is assumed to be constant, which in real life is almost impossible to replicate.

[DiJ]

I know there's a big difference between running to work carrying my 6kg backpack and running without it so I can only imagine how much faster I would go if I could actually just lose 6kg.