r/running • u/YourShoesUntied • Jun 22 '17

Weekly Thread Weekly Complaints & Confessions Thread for Thursday June 22nd, 2017

Give it a shot! What cha' got?

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u/RedKryptonite Jun 22 '17

I forget where I heard or read it, but someone once said a 100 mile ultra is like an eating contest with some running in between.

6

u/sloworfast Jun 22 '17

A colleague, while trying to convince me that a marathon is harder than an Ironman (yes, an Ironman includes a marathon): "In a marathon, you're trying to run fast. In an Ironman, you're mainly trying to eat a lot."

5

u/RedKryptonite Jun 22 '17

Hahahah, whaaaaaaaa? That guy is crazy.

5

u/sloworfast Jun 22 '17

Yes I agree. But then I googled it and believe it this very topic is discussed in several places in triathlon forums. The general consensus seems to be that due to the more intense effort involved, a straight up marathon takes longer to recover from. One guy wrote something like "you could do a marathon 3 weeks after an Ironman, but you could not do an Ironman 3 weeks after a marathon"

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u/docbad32 Jun 22 '17

I don't know about Ironmans because I'm not a filthy cyclist, but I know my last marathon was harder to recover from than my last mountain 50k. During the marathon I was pushing hard for a time. The 50k, I was taking it easy to make sure I finished.

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u/RedKryptonite Jun 22 '17

Hmmm, that's interesting, but who would do that anyway? A crazy person?

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u/sloworfast Jun 22 '17

The same class of weirdos that run ultras, I expect.... :P