Jan and I have had debates over how much faster a person can run with every ten pounds of weight loss. She believes you can run around 30 seconds a mile faster, which I think isn't true. Life would be so much simpler if Jan agreed with me on everything, boring, but simpler.
This article cites several studies that demonstrate what weight loss will do for running speed. One study showed that "For every 5% of excess weight (7.5 pounds for a 150lb runner), the
subjects covered 90 meters fewer over the 12-minute time trial."
Right now I weigh about 175 pounds. Let's say a 5k takes me 24 minutes (to make the math easier). If I lose 5%, around 8lbs, I should be able to finish that same 5k 180 meters sooner. Of course this is assuming I'm not at ideal racing weight. In a race I would run 200 meters around 50 seconds, so I would be approximately 45 seconds faster. If this study is correct in a 10k I would run 1:30 faster and in a marathon about 6:00 minutes faster. That's a huge difference.
The author goes on to state there are some caveats to this study;
"First, all of these studies added weight artificially; they didn’t
measure how natural weight gain over time can affect performance. It’s
likely that the performance deficit isn’t quite so bad when weight gain
is gradual, since your body has a chance to adapt to the excess weight.
But runners often do have to carry around artificial weight from time to time. A decent-sized water bottle is about two pounds when full, and camelback-style hydration packs can be upwards of five pounds. You’ll have to evaluate the benefits of frequent hydration against the costs of carrying around the excess weight."
So let me know when your diet begins!
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