Answered By ian dobson

Question

For a good middle distance/ long distance runner, should there be a particular racing weight for them to compete at? I'm a junior guy, 5'9 and 135 pounds. This seems about right but I'm not sure if there's any specific weight I should shoot for.

Answer

I answered a similar question a few questions back so take a look at that. I think 135 is probably a pretty good weight for you. As a point of reference, I'm 6'2" and weight about 155. As long as you're training hard and eating a lot of good food, your body will pretty much go to its right weight. As long as you're feeling strong and energetic when you run you're probably at a good weight. I like to take a couple weeks off of running once a year and I usually gain some weight during that time. When I start running again it's pretty obvious that I don't feel as good as I did before, but as soon as I start training hard again, I get right back to a good weight. As I mentioned to the other runner asking this question, you can take a look at elite runners (I think you can see profiles on the USATF website) and see what they weight as a point of reference, but keep in mind that we're all built differently, so a weight that works for one person might not be quite right for you.