Training for your body type

Mr_Knight

As a tall, broad shouldered body type, I've always found it interesting how there were sports that I could just never excel at, no matter how hard I trained. The same would be true for a different set of sports, of course, if I was shorter and slighter.

Below is a graph showing the relationship between body weight and ability to run a given distance. It plots the weight of the world record holder at all common racing distances from 100m to half-marathon. As these are ultra elite athletes, "weight" in this case is basically lean body mass. None of this is earth shattering, but I found it interesting that a linear relationship (on semi-log) exists between weight and distance exists out to the 1500m distance, and then it flattens out. The top is flat because the 100m and 200m world records are currently held by the same individual.

Turns out that at my "optimum" size, I will never be competitive beyond 400m.