What's the one strength exercise you'd refuse to cut when the run mileage gets heavy? or your bike volume?
Mine is the walking lunge, with just some light weights, over and over...I find it's where the gap always shows up first.
So, here's my crazy proposal!! I stopped bringing my phone to the gym a few years ago. No music, no podcasts, nothing! 99.9% of my sessions now are just me, the bar, and the mirror in front of me, just looking at myself!
I saw a woman doing incline ab crunches last month while trying to text, not doing either very well. The guy on the treadmill with a TV show on the screen and his phone in his hand, not really watching either haha! People who sit on a machine for 15 minutes, pick up their phone, and somehow forget they came to train.
I was away on vacation in February and trained at a local gym near my parents. The machines had little stickers on them: "please don't spend too much time on your phone, let others train too." And the thing is, it doesn't actually work, because everyone is doing it!!
I'm not pointing fingers. I get why it happens, but just wanted to vent about it a bit...to me, it's funny, we pay money to actually be in a gym or whatever, but mentally we are not there anymore! even that sacred time we had with ourselves and the weights, seems to be gone...thanks for reading!
So, here's my crazy proposal!! I stopped bringing my phone to the gym a few years ago. No music, no podcasts, nothing! 99.9% of my sessions now are just me, the bar, and the mirror in front of me, just looking at myself!
I saw a woman doing incline ab crunches last month while trying to text, not doing either very well. The guy on the treadmill with a TV show on the screen and his phone in his hand, not really watching either haha! People who sit on a machine for 15 minutes, pick up their phone, and somehow forget they came to train.
I was away on vacation in February and trained at a local gym near my parents. The machines had little stickers on them: "please don't spend too much time on your phone, let others train too." And the thing is, it doesn't actually work, because everyone is doing it!!
I'm not pointing fingers. I get why it happens, but just wanted to vent about it a bit...to me, it's funny, we pay money to actually be in a gym or whatever, but mentally we are not there anymore! even that sacred time we had with ourselves and the weights, seems to be gone...thanks for reading!
I finished a full marathon recently, did my PR, everything hurt at the end! Some people I know have asked, usually runners, you think a Marathon is harder than a 70.3?? It got me thinking a lot, so I decided to write and throw some ideas out there...
Why this question is hard? Two things are getting asked at the same time. "Which is more painful in the moment" and "which is harder to prepare for and execute" are not the same question.
The honest physiology answer. A standalone marathon is more painful per minute. You're running continuously near threshold, full body-weight loading every stride, for 26.2 miles. The 70.3 spreads the same hours across three disciplines, two of which don't impact your skeleton. By the time you start the run leg, you've already worked for 2.5 to 3.5 hours, so most age-groupers pace it well below their open-run threshold. Different physiological stress.
The honest preparation answer. A 70.3 demands 8 to 14 training hours a week. A marathon, 5 to 11. The 70.3 also requires three sport-specific skill sets, an open-water swim, a bike fit and at least basic mechanical literacy, and three to five times the gear cost. If you have a job, a partner, or kids, this is not a small difference.
A 4:30 marathon and a 3:00 marathon are not the same event physiologically. A 7:30 70.3 and a 4:45 70.3 aren't either. One person is racing it, the other is completing it. Before you accept anyone's "X was harder than Y" verdict, ask which version of the event they're talking about. A 5-hour marathon and a 3-hour marathon barely belong in the same conversation.
The quieter question driving the decision. I think there is something underneath the physiology talk: which finish line tells the story you want to tell about yourself? A marathon has cultural currency. Most non-athletes know what 26.2 miles means. A 70.3 often comes with an explanation. Both are fine reasons to pick a race. It's just easier to plan training honestly when you've named what you actually want.
So my answer when this comes up: marathon if you want to test your tolerance for sustained pain in a tight time window, 70.3 if you want a longer test of multi-discipline execution and you can absorb the gear and training-hour cost.
Curious which question was driving the decision when you picked your last big race.
This comes up and people have asked me about recently as I finished a full Marathon a week ago! People want a real race goal but they're trying not to kill their squat in the process. It's all trade-offs, but managed strategically...here's how the trade-off shapes up between the two most common "next event" candidates: a standalone marathon or a 70.3.
The honest physiology answer. A standalone marathon is the more brutal of the two for a lifter. You're at or near threshold for 3 to 5 hours, eccentric loading every stride for 26.2 miles. The post-marathon recovery hole is real. Most lifters lose meaningful strength during a 16-week marathon block, especially in the last 6 weeks when long runs hit 18-22 miles weekly. The interference/concurrent effect (Hickson 1980, plus the replications since) plus simple fatigue load is the issue. You can survive it with smart programming, but you don't progress your lifts during it.
Now, a Half Ironman 70.3 is friendlier to a lifting block, especially during base. The bike and swim aren't loading your skeleton the way running does. You can hit 8 to 12 of your 8 to 14 training hours in the pool and on the bike, and reserve the running for shorter, more controlled sessions. Many hybrid athletes report keeping 2-3 lifts a week through 70.3 prep without much compromise. Peak weeks still cut into the gym, but less harshly than marathon peak.
The trade-off most people miss: The 70.3 costs you something different. 8 to 14 training hours per week, three to five times the gear cost (bike, wetsuit, power meter eventually), and three sport-specific skill sets to maintain. If your lifting time is already protected and you're trying to keep family and work intact, 70.3 hours can outprice a marathon block even though it's friendlier to your strength numbers.
Now, to me, this is the question that breaks both events and is rarely answered...a 3:00 marathon and a 4:30 marathon aren't the same event. A 4:45 70.3 and a 7:30 70.3 aren't either. The version you'd run shapes how much it costs you in the gym. A 4:30 marathoner can probably hold a real lifting block better than a 3:00 marathoner. Pace eats recovery.
Best summary I've landed on: 70.3 is friendlier to your strength numbers, marathon is friendlier to your time and your wallet. Pick the constraint you'd rather respect.
Has anyone here held a real strength block (progressing, not maintaining) through a sub-4h marathon or sub-6h30min 70.3? Curious what programming you ran.