Weight Gain and Performance

Weight gain and performanceIt's only a brief article but it highlights something that I'd read before. When I was training for my half marathon last December my cycling team had a guest speaker come in and talk to us about racing strategy, training, and nutrition. One of the concepts I walked away with was that extra weight really effects performance, and not in 5 lb increments but truly down to every single pound. I thought about that often as I struggled to battle an extra 5 lbs and work on speed training to get down to a decent pace for my half. It seemed to work because I did pretty well. Keeping that philosophy in mind easily explains why running has grown to be the most difficult activity during the pregnancy. In addition to the 15lbs I'd gained after my miscarriage I've added 20lbs on during the pregnancy. Hence my new 15min/mile average pace. The effort it takes to lug my new curves forward leave me feeling winded and my legs feeling like they're made of lead. The other day while running and chatting with my running GF, MandiRuns , and questioning how it could be that I'd gotten so slow and lost so much fitness, this concept got back in my head like a flash of light and I said "Oh! That explains everything!".