A post on Amby Burfoot's Peak Performance blog (seen here) gives some very straightforward and interesting insight into the world of running and calorie burning.
For running and walking, your gross calorie burn/mile is directly related to your body weight, so we can produce simple formulas that you can use for your specific weight. In running, your gross calorie burn per mile = .75 x wt in lbs. For walking, it = .57 x wt in lbs.
So - let's take that little tidbit of info and translate it to me.
- At 295 lbs, I can run a 10K (6.2 miles) in an hour. That is a 9:40 pace. Using Amby's formula, that burns about 1371 calories.
- If I dropped my weight to 250 and tried to burn the same number of calories in that hour, I'd have to run a shade over 7.3 miles in that hour - 8:12 pace.
- At 200lbs, I'd have to cover 9.14 miles in that hour. That sounds pretty fast, and at 6:35 minute miles, you'd have to be really fast to disagree.
Now I have no idea whether the calorie burn rate remains constant in the same person given the same level of fitness but different BMI. But, for the sake of stupid-self-indulgence, let's say it does. A 10K run at that 6:35 pace would mean a 40:40 finish time. According to Running Times, a person who runs a 40-minute 10K should be able to run a 3:07 marathon - and it only takes a 3:10:59 to BQ.
This is all meaningless, even without all those assumptions. As I said, I'm just thinking.
New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com
No comments:
Post a Comment