Quote Originally Posted by christopher leigh View Post
Tim if the 14 stone Man had twice the oxygen uptake(litres per minute)he'd have to have 10litres of blood in his body!Not likely.

Sure the heavier Man has more blood(1-2 litres approx), his heart will be bigger, but his energy will be used much faster.Quantities of glycogen are slightly higher in the heavier Man, but because this is used much quicker, his pace must slow earlier than the flyweight.

Heavyweights are a rarity in fell running, in part for this reason.
That's why I say within reason. Lets say 'middleweights' then, if we're to use boxing weights. There have been many, many world class middleweights - Ron Clarke, Peter Snell and Rob De Castella all weighed nearer 12 stone than 11 when they were race fit. Tim Hutchings was 11 stone, Eammon Martin wasn't much below 11.

I remember a 5000m race between Gebrsellassie and Craig Mottram not so long back. Gebrsellassie won on the last lap but both ran under 13:00, and it was like the little and large show. Don't know what Mottram weighs but he looked two of Gebrsellassie!

In fell running, Kenny Stuart weighed exactly 8 stone, Ian Holmes isn't much bigger. OK so Scoffer isn't in their class with all due respect to him but what about Martin Jones? (mountain runner, twice World Champ) someone tell me what he weighed but I know he wasn't small either!