Sportive and Marathon

Peddle Up!

I read recently in a cycling article that a Sportive was a cyclist's equivalent on a runner's marathon. But without specifying the distance cycled! :roll:

What do we think? I'm not a runner but from the events I've been to I would have thought that a hundred mile cycle Sportive would be about the equal of a marathon.

stronginthesun

i would say your right . 100 mile sportive = road marathon . i would also say a full blast 10 mile tt = 5km run ?

ugo.santalucia

They don't compare... just to give you an idea a PRO marathon runner probably does 6 events every year, while a PRO cyclist doing races all in excess of a sportive length, does easily 80-100 days of racing per year.

It takes weeks to recover from a marathon, whilst in three days you're like new after a sportive. Of course, running London marathon in 6 hours is not the same as preparing an event to do a 3 hours run. But even so, those who do 100 miler sportives in 5 hours are not broken for weeks...

The two just don't compare... you can't add up the calories consumption and decide they are the same... a marathon is 100 times harder on muscles and ligaments... the act of running itself results in decreased hemoglobin, as red blood cells physically break under the stress...

Different ball game

nochekmate

I agree wholeheartedly with this ^^^^^

Having done both (marathon PB: 3hrs 15 & cycled 100 in non TT mode in 5hrs 20mins) I think that running a marathon is significantly harder than a 100 mile ride and definitely takes a greater toll on the body and the muscles - quads take an absolute pounding!

In fact despite my reasonable marathon PB, I've never managed to complete the full 26 miles without having to resort to walk/jog/run scenario but then I know that I'm not mentally that strong on the bike either!

I suppose it's a question of pace but I think that some people could bimble around 100 miles on a bike even with no training if they were active as a norm - I'm not sure that they would run/jog 26 miles without training specifically for it and would be reduced to walking a considerable distance.

No doubt somebody will pop up to say that they have run sub 3hrs on no preparation.

Wirral_paul

Another +1 to the above. I could ride 100 miles pretty much any time I wanted and day after day. I doubt there's very few people in the world who could run the same.

I'd say a 24hr time trial event is probably closer to the marathon in its toll on the body

Peddle Up!

That makes Eddie Izzard a true star. And I'm being deadly serious.

Bobbinogs

Peddle Up! wrote:

That makes Eddie Izzard a true star.

Yepp, agree with that. Let's face it, he isn't built like a Kenyan runner so his achievements are quite remarkable. There's always a lot of tosh written about some "celebrities" doing the odd cycle ride but Eddie has done something that the vast majority of us would run and hide from.

Wirral_paul

Peddle Up! wrote:

That makes Eddie Izzard a true star. And I'm being deadly serious.

Absolutely!! And I also thought John Bishop's Paris - London which was aired recently was a very moving and inspirational programme

Peddle Up!

Wirral_Paul wrote:

Peddle Up! wrote:

That makes Eddie Izzard a true star. And I'm being deadly serious.

Absolutely!! And I also thought John Bishop's Paris - London which was aired recently was a very moving and inspirational programme

Yes indeed.

jgsi

I would hazard a guess that a 12hr TT will leave you 'wreckd' for a while.
Further on cycling, only a handful of 'Gods' have done the Giro and TdF double.
No one has ever done the triple grand tours.
As said here.... It's a different game thats all.

ugo.santalucia

JGSI wrote:

I would hazard a guess that a 12hr TT will leave you 'wreckd' for a while.
Further on cycling, only a handful of 'Gods' have done the Giro and TdF double.
No one has ever done the triple grand tours.
As said here.... It's a different game thats all.

A lot of riders have done the three tours in one year... nobody has won the three in one season, but taken part... many

The last to win Giro and Tour was Pantani 1998, before him it was a relatively common feat, as blood doping was ubiquitous in the previous decade.

jgsi

ugo.santalucia wrote:

JGSI wrote:

I would hazard a guess that a 12hr TT will leave you 'wreckd' for a while.
Further on cycling, only a handful of 'Gods' have done the Giro and TdF double.
No one has ever done the triple grand tours.
As said here.... It's a different game thats all.

A lot of riders have done the three tours in one year... nobody has won the three in one season, but taken part... many

The last to win Giro and Tour was Pantani 1998, before him it was a relatively common feat, as blood doping was ubiquitous in the previous decade.

Well, yes .. taking part...but being competitive in all 3?
Besides that, I can't actually think that these Kenyan runners are 'broken' after their marathons.. don't they have the ability to do what they do ,seemingly, day after day?

ugo.santalucia

JGSI wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

JGSI wrote:

I would hazard a guess that a 12hr TT will leave you 'wreckd' for a while.
Further on cycling, only a handful of 'Gods' have done the Giro and TdF double.
No one has ever done the triple grand tours.
As said here.... It's a different game thats all.

A lot of riders have done the three tours in one year... nobody has won the three in one season, but taken part... many

The last to win Giro and Tour was Pantani 1998, before him it was a relatively common feat, as blood doping was ubiquitous in the previous decade.

Well, yes .. taking part...but being competitive in all 3?
Besides that, I can't actually think that these Kenyan runners are 'broken' after their marathons.. don't they have the ability to do what they do ,seemingly, day after day?

If they did, they would do more events... they get paid lots of money for each

nochekmate

The Kenyan athletes will manage major weekly mileage but they cannot continue to run back to back marathons in a competitive manner without risking injury problems. The top marathon athletes are selective for a reason.

markos1963

No comparison a women from our club did the London marathon a couple of years ago and she was a trained runner, her cycling performance was wrecked for the rest of the year. She could do a century ride at a moments notice.

ChrisSA

And that's why the marathon follows the (longer than) century ride in an Ironman.

stronginthesun

doubt theres anyone on here who could do a century day after day ? same as a marathon ?

letap73

stronginthesun wrote:

i would say your right . 100 mile sportive = road marathon . i would also say a full blast 10 mile tt = 5km run ?

So to match Tommy Godwin, you would have to run 52 miles a day for 365 days?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Godw ... _born_1912)

Wirral_paul

stronginthesun wrote:

doubt theres anyone on here who could do a century day after day ? same as a marathon ?

There's no real shortage of people who do 9 in a row on the LEJOG rides. I dont think too many would seriously consider 100 miles on a bike to be any real comparison to a full marathon. Jogging is also far harder on the body than cycling, which is a very low impact sport compared to the constant pounding of running.

jim453

Agreed, this is absurd. As far as I am concerned, and from my own experience, running a marathon is much, much, much harder than cycling for 100 miles. Mostly because of how much the impact wrecks your body.

NITR8s

From experince of a half marathon and a 69 mile sportive, the half marathon was so much harder. I trained for about 7 months for the half marathon and trained only 3 weeks if you would call that for the 69 mile sportive. Absoulty fine after sportive was in aches n pains days after half marathon.

t5nel

There is no such thing as coasting when you run!

On a bike you can constantly give yourself a rest unless on a very long steep hill.

My HR on a 1/2 marathon is ludicrously high for 1 .5 hrs and I am exhausted afterwards. I just cant get my HR that high for extended periods on the bike. As long as I eat enough on a long ride I feel reasonable that evening and fine the next day.

rolf_f

JGSI wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

JGSI wrote:

No one has ever done the triple grand tours.
As said here.... It's a different game thats all.

A lot of riders have done the three tours in one year... nobody has won the three in one season, but taken part... many

Well, yes .. taking part...but being competitive in all 3?
Besides that, I can't actually think that these Kenyan runners are 'broken' after their marathons.. don't they have the ability to do what they do ,seemingly, day after day?

Are you going to change your story again when someone gives a list of top ten finishers in all three Grand Tours in one year?

t5nel wrote:

There is no such thing as coasting when you run!

On a bike you can constantly give yourself a rest unless on a very long steep hill.

Coasting isn't really an issue - choosing whether or not to coast whilst riding doesn't really make much difference to the difficulty of the ride. I'm no runner (tried it, got bored ) but I suspect that even a 200 mile ride is no marathon equivalent. Riding you are just undertaking a task that if you are fit enough, and can keep the fuel going in, you can just keep going at. I don't see running as comparable.

jgsi

Rolf F wrote:

JGSI wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

JGSI wrote:

No one has ever done the triple grand tours.
As said here.... It's a different game thats all.

A lot of riders have done the three tours in one year... nobody has won the three in one season, but taken part... many

Well, yes .. taking part...but being competitive in all 3?
Besides that, I can't actually think that these Kenyan runners are 'broken' after their marathons.. don't they have the ability to do what they do ,seemingly, day after day?

Are you going to change your story again when someone gives a list of top ten finishers in all three Grand Tours in one year?


.

Of course, but I'll wait until someone puts in that much effort into their history as into their cycling then, as it appears it's all so easy when compared to 'jogging'..

t5nel

Rolf F wrote:

JGSI wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

JGSI wrote:

No one has ever done the triple grand tours.
As said here.... It's a different game thats all.

A lot of riders have done the three tours in one year... nobody has won the three in one season, but taken part... many

Well, yes .. taking part...but being competitive in all 3?
Besides that, I can't actually think that these Kenyan runners are 'broken' after their marathons.. don't they have the ability to do what they do ,seemingly, day after day?

Are you going to change your story again when someone gives a list of top ten finishers in all three Grand Tours in one year?

t5nel wrote:

There is no such thing as coasting when you run!

On a bike you can constantly give yourself a rest unless on a very long steep hill.

Coasting isn't really an issue - choosing whether or not to coast whilst riding doesn't really make much difference to the difficulty of the ride. I'm no runner (tried it, got bored ) but I suspect that even a 200 mile ride is no marathon equivalent. Riding you are just undertaking a task that if you are fit enough, and can keep the fuel going in, you can just keep going at. I don't see running as comparable.

Well I disagree with discounting coasting entirely (perhaps unsurprisingly as I posted it). For me the difference in (at least perceived) effort when riding against constant resistance (for example turbo trainer) or riding on the road where you can ride then rest is pretty big. But wherher you coast or pedal lightly the point is that the bike gives you certain mechanical advantages that you do not get when running. Running downhill _requires_ muscular effort.

I expect (have no actual data to back this up) that the minimum power required to keep a bike going at at reasonable pace is _much_ lower than the power required to keep jogging at a reasonable pace.

For sure the big difference is the intensity (hence my HR comments) you can not just keep fuelling and keep running (in my experience anyway) as I think your body is not in a steady state that it can maintain for anything like as long.

t.m.h.n.e.t

A 100 mile ultra marathon is nothing like a 100mile ride/sportive. There is no reason or basis to compare the two.

Peddle Up!

T.M.H.N.E.T wrote:

A 100 mile ultra marathon is nothing like a 100mile ride/sportive. There is no reason or basis to compare the two.

Obviously not. I guess the variable missing from this discussion is time. Would running a marathon in say, ten hours, be easier or harder than cycling 100 miles sub four hours?

t.m.h.n.e.t

Peddle Up! wrote:

T.M.H.N.E.T wrote:

A 100 mile ultra marathon is nothing like a 100mile ride/sportive. There is no reason or basis to compare the two.

Obviously not. I guess the variable missing from this discussion is time. Would running a marathon in say, ten hours, be easier or harder than cycling 100 miles sub four hours?

Assuming the same athlete doing both,the run is going to be harder physically and mechanically,always.

snoopsmydogg

maybe the article was trying to compare them as a sort of distance/time rather than body fatigue etc.

ie 1k - 400m
sportive - marathon.

might have used bad examples there but you probably get the point

obviously the running is going to be more tiring on the body (there is always going to be an advantage with mechanical assistance) but timewise they are pretty similar.

smidsy

Simple for me - I could probably do 100 miles on a bike (may take me quite a while) but there is no way I could run even 20 miles in a day (no matter how slow or how many rest stops).

I just do not get on with the running stuff.

So to me the bike must have signifcant advantages and use a lot less body wise.

the_spooks

Just started running and I'm more burst after 5k running than 30-40 miles of cycling. Mates are into running , in fact one just did 100 miles in 24 hours, and they say running is a lot harder. They reckon 1mile running to 5/6 of cycling, they have been known to run marathons back to back too so I don't doubt they know what they are talking about.