Thursday, May 15, 2008

I'm not slow because I am old: I am slow because I am fat

The calorie counter from the previous post got me thinking...

I didn't run a lot of 10Km races when I was in High School, but I ran enough that I have a pretty good idea of the pace I would be able to maintain. I also remember what I weighed back then. If I punch in the data: When I was 18 I weighed about 125lbs and could probably do a 10k in a 6:05min/mile pace. This gives a rate of 938 cal/hour. From the previous post I indicate that my 7:11 pace and 150lbs translates to 933 cal/hr.

What this tells me is that my system (lungs, heart, liver, muscles & etc.) is capable of pretty much what it could do 25 years ago. I am slower because it takes more energy to haul-around the extra 25lbs I carry.

As a caveat; Spokane, which is where all of my running was done, is around 2,000 ft above sea level and the Boston area where I am now is less than 100 feet.

As an added note: This is all a moot-point, two ways. 1. It may be physically possible to loose 25 lbs, but I am not sufficiently motivated to do that. 2. My wife would kill me if I tried. She would say, "You are already too thin, I don't want to be married to a man who looks like a teen-aged boy"! etc.

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