Am I Too Big To Be A Runner?

Posted: February 23rd, 2010 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Running | 2 Comments »

I was reading someone’s tweets the other day on Twitter (I won’t say who, since it’s rather inconsequential), when I saw them say that they were trying to lose enough weight to be able to start running again. Now, initial thoughts were along the lines of, “How big is this person?”, when I saw that the weight they wanted to get to was around 170lbs.

This is a guy, who I think is around 5′10″, so while 170lbs might be a little heavy for a non-muscular person of that height, it’s certainly not a weight I imagined would be the cut-off for someone to take up running again, especially since he said he needed to lose another 10lbs to get there. That makes him 180lbs now. I weight 100lbs more than that, and yet I don’t give a second thought to running (or attempting to) at my size.

But am I too big to be a runner?

So the question is: should I even be trying to run at my weight and size?

I’m happy to say that I am carrying a lot of muscle, so I imagine “only” about 70lbs of my overweight-ness is fat, for an average person of my “ideal” (according to BMI) weight, but it’s still weight that would be hitting my joints as I run. Should I be attempting to? Or should I work on losing the weight first, which will take forever?

My response? I walk around every day with this weight. I walk a mile, twice a day, up and down hills with this weight. Shifting to a shuffling run won’t do me any more harm, providing I don’t heel strike excessively, than doing this much walking.

I’m not a fitness professional (in case you were wondering! Ha!), nor do I know any beyond the internet inside my computer, nor have I consulted with any regarding this. I just like to think that I know my body.

It’s All About Heart

In my esteemed opinion, you can do anything providing you’re not going to keel over dead from it. For me, that means ensuring that what I’m doing won’t cause my heart to stop, which is generally an indicator of deadness. So, when I go running, I’m not trying to do 6-minute miles. I’m generally happy with 10-12 minute miles, since it’s not like I’m in a hurry to get anywhere.

But how about you? If you’re a porky plodder, are you comfortable with running even as a “plus-sized” (don’t you hate that expression?) athlete?

2 Comments on “Am I Too Big To Be A Runner?”

  1. 1 Chad said at 10:58 pm on February 27th, 2010:

    I am a proud ‘porky plodder’. But its slowly coming off. I still get funny looks when I first tell someone I am a runner, I certainly don’t look like one.

    I did a road race a couple weeks back and saw a few other big runners. So we are out there, just not the norm.

  2. 2 Mark said at 6:53 am on February 28th, 2010:

    Hey Chad, thanks for the comment.

    Right with you on the ‘funny looks’ department, but it’s surprising how many of them are from ‘fit’ looking people who couldn’t run to save themselves :)

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