Recently retired marathoner Ryan Hall, whose distinguished career includes the fastest marathon and half-marathon ever run by an American, has started lifting weights and has bulked up from 127 pounds to 165:
“I’ve been small and weak my entire life — just, like, totally underdeveloped,” Hall told Runner’s World. “I’ve always wondered what it would feel like to be big and strong.”
“To be an elite marathoner with a body that’s light and lean: while you’re running, you feel amazing. You’re fluid and economical, floating along without having to carry a lot of muscle mass,” says Hall. “But the rest of the day, to be honest, is not a lot of fun. My energy was super low [throughout most of my career]. I took naps every day and felt pretty much useless when I wasn’t running.”
Hall told me that even during his best years as a competitive athlete, he was “healthy” only in a narrowly defined way. As he put it, he was good at one thing: running. Everything else was rather laborious. Hall said he could be stirring pots of chili while making dinner and feel soreness in his shoulder the next day.
I recall reading many years ago that NBA players are not much more aerobically fit than average couch potatoes. So aerobic fitness is overrated.