Strength vs. Speed

[Eric Montgomery]

"180" by itself is just a number with zero context. Like I said, if you were a sedentary 5'5" woman who weighed 180lbs, you'd likely be obese.

180lbs at 5'10" and 22% bodyfat means you're carrying quite a bit of lean mass and not a lot of fat. You're about 6-7 inches taller than the average woman so it doesn't make sense for you to compare yourself to what an "average" weight might be for someone who doesn't train.

[Katherine Derbyshire]

Originally Posted by Rebecca Chambliss

I'm amazed that people don't think 180 is enormous for a woman.

Nope. You pulled the "tall" ticket in the lottery, so you get to carry around added mass.

I'm 5'4". 180 *would* be fairly enormous for me.

But for you? With an athletic build? You're fine. People who tell you otherwise don't need to be in your life.

Katherine

[Rebecca Chambliss]

Originally Posted by Katherine Derbyshire

Nope. You pulled the "tall" ticket in the lottery, so you get to carry around added mass.

I'm 5'4". 180 *would* be fairly enormous for me.

But for you? With an athletic build? You're fine. People who tell you otherwise don't need to be in your life.

Katherine

Thanks Katherine!

[Chris Mason]

Originally Posted by Rebecca Chambliss

Ha Chris…sorry didn't see your post. Meaning, benchmark workouts like Helen, Grace etc…I'm much slower. Body weight stuff, pull ups etc..slower, can't do as many. Running, slower.

I actually do log my food as well as doing zone blocks. I track everything I put in my mouth. With the zone I started at the beginning of the week, I'm eating much more and am eating much higher carb than I have for a while..today I actually felt better so perhaps that's it.

I'm amazed that people don't think 180 is enormous for a woman.

People here differentiate between muscle and fat and take into account height.

When you say running slower, are you talking about sprinting times or distance times?

When you say you are stronger, what exactly do you mean?

[Chris Mason]

This gal is your height and right about 170 lbs. She is not even remotely fat and looks awesome to me:

WFS - http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php...type=3&theater

Molly Galbraith of Girls Gone Strong.

[Rebecca Chambliss]

Originally Posted by Chris Mason

People here differentiate between muscle and fat and take into account height.

When you say running slower, are you talking about sprinting times or distance times?

When you say you are stronger, what exactly do you mean?

Slower…Anything longer than a 50-100 yard sprint is slower. 400m run used to be 1:58..not fast by anyones standards but now is about 2:30…and that's when I feel like I'm really running. I haven't timed longer runs or a 5k.

Stronger. Deadlift went from 225 to 295, squat 115 to 195, C&J 125 to 155

Molly and I look like we have similar body types…but I've also got a spare tire.

[Eric Montgomery]

Well if you want to be faster in the 400-800m range and your current programming isn't cutting it, the obvious answer is to swap out one of your current conditioning days in favor of 200m or 400m intervals or something like that. If you're currently running a 2:30 for 400m, try something like 8x200m in 1 minute each with 2 minutes recovery, then maybe the next week is 4x400m in 2:50 with 4 minutes recovery. Then 8x200 in 55 seconds each the following week, then 4x400 in 2:45 each. And so on.

But again, the kind of conditioning workouts you mentioned before should also be helping you on shorter distance running like 400m so I don't understand you suddenly getting slower seeing how you're still doing conditioning and you didn't gain a lot of weight in the process of getting stronger.

Solid lift numbers though--they indicate that you're carrying a decent amount of muscle mass, so I wouldn't worry too much about body comp. What's visible in your avatar looks pretty lean, so if you say you're carrying a spare tire I'd be inclined to think it may be stress/cortisol related, or possibly some kind of food allergy. Do you eat dairy or grains?

[Charles Applin]

The slow run time is odd. She's tall and should have a good stride length. Could it just be a techique matter and not conditioning here?

Rebecca, what are you equivalent bike and row times? 1500m bike and 500m row times for sprinting plus the 5km bike and 2km row for the mile run equivalent. If those are much faster, it could just be a technique issue. Beyond my paygrade to fix, but lots of POSE articles and videos available in the journal for advice.

[Chris Mason]

Originally Posted by Rebecca Chambliss

Slower…Anything longer than a 50-100 yard sprint is slower. 400m run used to be 1:58..not fast by anyones standards but now is about 2:30…and that's when I feel like I'm really running. I haven't timed longer runs or a 5k.

Stronger. Deadlift went from 225 to 295, squat 115 to 195, C&J 125 to 155

Molly and I look like we have similar body types…but I've also got a spare tire.

Ok, last question, how much weight did you gain during the above mentioned strength gain?