Tour de France vs. New York City Marathon

I have had a long running (pun intended) debate with my friends about which is harder -- running or biking? There is no clearcut answer as each sport utilizes different muscles and calorie reserves. At the end of the 2006 New York City Marathon, Lance Armstrong said it was the hardest physical thing he had ever done, but maybe that was due to the resulting pain from pounding the pavement as opposed to the actual physical demand the marathon placed on his body. Cycling is a lower impact sport than running, for sure, and you may get more out of cycling for your body as this article explains in a little more in depth:

“The thing with the marathon is the distance,” he said. “It’s a long, long distance. I’ve learned about the marathon the hard way. I’ve experienced its pain. When the going gets hard, you still have to run hard. You have to give it everything. It took me a while to learn the pain of the marathon.”

Marathon running is so hard that elite runners often recuperate by taking two or three weeks off after a race with no running at all. And they only race in marathons twice a year.

Tour riders, by contrast, typically are racing again a month after the Tour and race as many as 100 times a year.

But the question of which is harder — the Tour or a marathon — depends, scientists say, on what you mean by hard. “Running is less of a test of pure cardiovascular strength and muscle strength,” says Robert Wolfe, a physiologist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. “Other factors come into play. In particular, the physical pounding of the legs on the road brings a kind of fatigue and muscle damage that lasts and persists.”

For pure energy expenditure, it is hard to match the Tour de France, whose riders consume as much as 8,000 to 9,000 calories a day.'

This is to say nothing of the ultramarathons and the Race Across America.



TIPS

Don't push yourself to do these long distances right off the bat.
Ease yourself into any new physical activity as you want to avoid injury at all cost.
Read up on technique, proper training, and adjust your diet accordingly.
Remember to stretch beforehand and afterward appropriately to the muscles that you are using.



Get out and enjoy the summer!



Posted by: Michael Pingicer, M.S., L.Ac.