UKC

So if you could lose 10% body weight in fat (alas I could) would one be 10% faster? Would hills make a difference?

In reply to simon cox:

If you have it to lose and you are not starving yourself, you will certainly be faster, experience tells me a few seconds per mile per KG. gains are probably amplified with hills.

In reply to simon cox:

To run at the same pace you would need to do 10% less work and use 10% less energy. You could definitely run faster, but you become less efficient at higher speeds and get diminishing returns. You might get 5-7% faster at a guess from the same energy expenditure

In reply to simon cox:

2 seconds per pound per mile is the figure you commonly see.

In reply to simon cox:

Difficult to put a number on things, but depending on where you start from the gains may be huge. When I started running I was slightly "chubby" and one of things I noticed was that my body could just move better once there was less fat in the way. Better efficiency, less chafing, etc. It's not just the weight that comes off.

In reply to The New NickB:


This ^^^

From personal experience with cycling it definitely works and will be in the minutes per kilo on longer climbs.

E

In reply to simon cox:

I've seen Iain's formula before, no idea how accurate it is. Training obviously targets those areas you train in but does have some crossover. When I was still running I did a very poor time on a local race so resolved to get better. Initial time to top of local hill and back (6 miles in all) was around 65mins and having to walk the steeper bits. Did some hill reps (one session per week) and slowly brought the time down to just under 60mins. About two months in to the training my time dropped to 52mins, the training had suddenly born fruit. I eventually got down to 49mins and was attacking all the hills.

Having lost weight last year (about 17%) I definitely noticed the difference on hills in cycling - what previously seemed a grind became "where did that hill go?"

In reply to Bob:

I have had a really bad cough infection this year which I am slowly getting over - and due to lack of training and work I had put on a lot of weight/ lost fitness... on most of my local training runs I found that I am 10% slower than my best times from last year.

I have it at the back of my mind to get 10% lighter - I had drifted out to 12 7 and am now around 11 11 but eyeing up 10 12 - whether running or climbing I find there is a big psychological advantage for me being sub 11.

I guess my main objectives this year are firstly just to feel fit again... I find as you say being able to attack a hill, even better to be able to run along Lakeland ridges such as Helvellyn and I mean run rather than shuffle, is just fantastic.

And of course the Charlie, went out for my first serious training run yesterday afternoon/ night nailing about 32 miles in 6 hours - a starting point.

Hope to see you soon.

Cheers,

In reply to simon cox: It also depends how you lose the weight: If you lose it by starving yourself you will get poorer gains than if you lose it by upping your training!

In reply to simon cox:

Have a look at Matt Fitzgerald's book Racing Weight, he goes in to length about the relationship between weight and speed. A good book and my usual motivator at this time of year to shed a few winter pounds… Although it's not happened this year as broken ribs are making running to uncomfortable…