One Way To Solve A Question... Find The Answer Yourself!

Ever since the first time I saw the Ironman Triathlon on ABC's Wide World of Sports, I've been absolutely captivated by it.  I never could wrap my head around the idea of swimming 2.4 miles, riding 112 miles, and running a marathon on the same day.

Well, to be honest, I couldn't wrap my head around swimming 2.4 miles or running a marathon, so doing both on the same day along with a century+ ride... No way.  The ride was never intimidating to me since I spent most of my free time from age 6 to about 22 on a bicycle of some sort.  I'd never ridden a century, but it didn't seem inconceivable.

Besides, the pros ride at least 100 miles a day in the Tour De France, and they do that for 3 weeks straight, in mountains, and with only one off day and a couple time trials sprinkled in.  So doing it once on flat ground, sure.

Anyway, like I said, I never thought I'd ever be able to call myself a marathoner.  But I am.  Twice actually.  And not some suicidal 7 hour death march marathon, but with actual respectable times (4:03 and 3:52).

But I've been curious as to what's more difficult, a marathon or an Ironman 70.3 triathlon (aka a Half-Ironman).

Caloric burn rate of a marathon is roughly 2700 calories (following the 100 calories per mile rule of thumb with a little extra leeway for warm up and course irregularities).  A 70.3 Tri is probably 3200 or so, give or take based on efficiency on the bike and in the water.  Which makes sense, since a well trained athlete can complete a marathon probably 90-120 minutes faster than a 70.3.  But two of the three legs of a triathlon are non-impact (unless you hit something on the bike) and don't leave you anywhere near as beat up as the run leg does.

But then a marathon is one sport which means focusing training on that sport (with a touch of cross-training sprinkled in to add variety and help fend off injury).  And nobody ever drowned running a marathon.  Plus a marathon runner doesn't have to be proficient with bike skills (both riding and wrenching) or in the water.

This debate even shows up on a few forums online and it seems it's 2:1 of the opinion that the marathon is harder.

I'm a firm believer in learning from someone else's mistakes experiences, but sometimes I just need to find something out for myself.  So I've decided I'm going to find the answer to this myself.

How?

Here's how.

First, on September 28th, I'll be in Augusta, GA participating in the Intermedix Ironman 70.3.

Then on January 25th, I'll be in the Big Easy running the New Orleans Rock N Roll Marathon.

Now, after the first marathon I ran (the 2013 NOLA RnR), I swore I'd never run another marathon.  Then in April I registered to not only run a marathon, but a half, a 10K, and a 5K in the three days leading up to it.  And I still was 10 minutes faster in the marathon than my first one, and much much less sore.  So much less that I ran a half marathon 6 days later.  And another half 14 days after that.  I'm figuring that the next marathon won't be as bad as the last one, and nowhere near as bad as the first.

I've never done a 70.3 race.  In fact, I've only finished one triathlon, a sprint distance.  But I'd only done a 10K (Crescent City Classic, and completely non-trained run for fun and beer) before committing to my first half-marathon.  So this follows my pattern.

I've joined a local triathlon club (Tri-Dat) and will get one of their coaches to assist me with building a plan and getting me ready for the race since I know next to nothing about training for a tri.  I've built a decent base over the past few months between a healthy amount of cross-training (swim and bike) as well as specific training for Dopey.  I got back in the pool in mid February for the first time in about 4 months, and have been swimming a couple times a week around 1200-1500M a session.  I've also been putting in some time with Trainer Road sessions as well as outdoor rides.  And I've been running.  One longish run a week and one speedwork session a week.  I've got 26 or so weeks until Augusta.  And 17 weeks from that is RnR NOLA.  So I'll be able to focus on and train for both races as 'A' races.

Basically, I'll be able to definitively answer that question... Which is harder, and Half-Ironman or a full Marathon.

It's gonna be fun!