Who are the better athletes – runners or cyclists?
More specifically, me or my colleague here in the office.
He's typical running build (ie too damn thin), I'm typical pie and chips occasional cyclist build.
He competed in the Birmingham half marathon yesterday and finished in 1hr 38 mins (PB around 1:34), my 25 mile TT PB is 1 hr 36 secs, 10 miles 23:51 (ie middling club rider)

Runners.

I would say running a half marathon in 1:38:00 is harder than riding a TT in 00:23:51. Not that I could have achieved either though 😉

I reckon it's close.
You can always both enter a triathalon to settle it 🙂

Who are the better athletes – runners or cyclists?

dumb question. better at what? running or cycling or javelin?

as far as you and matey, not getting under the hour isn't great, close to 90 min for a half marathon is much better.

the only way to solve this, is for you to run a half marathon, and your skinny running friend to cycle a 25 mile TT…

(and compare any time differences as a percentage of the total)

if we're allowed to place bets then my money goes on the skinny running guy.

good luck – you'll need it.

Neither! someone that can do both! 😆

Both are hard but in different ways,
runner probably couldn't do the TT as quick
nor probably could the TT'er run the 1/2 as quick.

horses for courses

I'd probably put my money on the runner though just!
unless it was a particularly hilly TT route which might push it back into the cyclists court maybe

He's typical running build (ie too damn thin), I'm typical pie and chips occasional cyclist build.

This thread is all about your sensitivity about being big-boned, isn't it? 😉

I did the Great Eastern Run HM yesterday in 01:33 and l have a pie and chips build as well.

So in answer to your question…gawd knows.

neither, they are just people.

you could go with:
its scientifically proven that black people have more haemoglobin in thier blood, so make better athletes

minimal numbers of cyclists are black, (middle class white dominated sport)

a proportianly greater number of runners are black (run like kenyans!!)

therefore i would argue runners, based on statistics/numbers.

then again, le tour is always sold as "the hardest sporting event on earth"

This thread is all about your sensitivity about being big-boned, isn't it?

Not sensitive, just fat.

both use different muscle groups, so if you put a runner on a mountain bike he would possibly be the lesser athlete and visa versa

+1 for you both entering a triathlon to settle the you vs him section of the argument, as for overall best athlete well that's hard to say, but in a friday A&A how many pictures of female runners do you see posted vs female runners 😛

We had a conversation aboutthis in the summer.

My brother in law has done the London Marathon in 4 hours, he also cycled 100 miles with us in the summer in 6 hours. He says the marathon was harder (& I believe him) even though he was putting in similar effort for longer.

but in a friday A&A how many pictures of female runners do you see posted vs female runners

???

I got into running a couple of years ago, to start with I was knackered after just a few miles, I did a fair bit of training and found my biking came on huge amounts, not sure about who is quicker, but running is quicker way of getting fit IME – an hours run was more tiring that several hours in the saddle

I agree, do a triathlon and duke it out in the arena of competition 😉

Hairychested :
???

I think he just got a bit over excited thinking about female runners.

+1 for you both entering a triathlon

Please god, no. Triantelopes are dangerous enough as it is without complicating it like this….

🙂

runner deffo.cycling doesnt help running fitness, however if you run, your cycling fitness is boosted. He is better than you.

I used to run a lot in my younger days – I would say that it is harder, but quite why that is I am not sure.

The only way to resolve it would be to have some kind of mixed sports test laid out & see how you both fair. The gym I used to go to did it as a competition every now & again. Something like:

1km cycle
800m run on x% gradient
1km row
bench press
upright rows
seated rows
step-ups
press-ups
sit-ups

good fun & suprisingly tiring – soon showed up what you weren't very good at!

just go for a duathlon as that will take swimming out of the equation

Runners!

Runners, get closer to VO2 max more often.

he is a better "athlete" than you, but YOU are the ultimate in efficency.

fuel efficency of a cyclist (in km per joule, comparable to anything from a truck to a runner) pisses on absoloutly EVERYTHING iirc) even though you are moving more weight (human+the bike itself)
also, his knees will likely be shot before your out of the saddle?

its like him saying "im the best at climbing while wearing an anvil as a hat"

and you being unable to compete even though you beat him to the top, cause you DONT wear an anvil as a hat 😉

The only way to resolve it would be to have some kind of mixed sports test laid out & see how you both fair

I think a square go in the car park would be a much better solution

a what?

a square go?

would that be the simplest form of hopscotch? (only going up to 1)

A hockey playing, running, freakily fit friend did the london to brighton on a trek hybrid with some club cycling guys, it's not particularly hilly and they probably weren't going at chain gang pace. But still judgeing from the avrerage STW'er Id say he did a lot better than most on here would!

Any reasonably good runner could complete a road century. I doubt the average MTBer could complete the London Marathon.

a what?

a square go?

would that be the simplest form of hopscotch? (only going up to 1)

Scottish playground terminology for a fight 😆

OK… hypothetical time. Take an elite road cyclist and an elite road/track runner (as opposed to fell) and get them to swap disciplines. Who would perform better assuming neither had any previous experience/training in the others sport. We'd get the runner to do a flat 40km time-trial on the bike and the cyclist to run a flat 10km road run (although the run time would be shorter both events require working at a similar CV intensity). We'd then swap them back to their specialist sport and make comparisons. Well, this has been done a few times, and the consistent result is that the cyclist comes out on top. The usual reports back from the athletes are that the runner on the bike felt his heart/lungs were absolutely fine but he lacked the leg strength and that, although the cyclist running felt fine during, he was in tatters the next day. The runner lacked the muscular strength to push the big gear required for a fast 40km and the cyclist's muscles had never been exposed to repetitive impact before…. specificity.

(Lifted shamelessly from the FRA forum yesterday.)

the problem with swapping sports is that when cycling most of your energy is overcoming air resistance which is proportional to the cubed of your speed, so to go twice as fast needs 8 times as much energy. This will mean any time differences will favour the runner.

i might have just made that up though..

I know which I find harder to do 😉

Fell running mate of mine puts me to shame every time he joins me for a run over the Malverns.

He is in a totally different class of fitness, mentally and physically, plus he has a good five years on me age wise.

How many people here put their hands up to been overtaken by a fell runner?

My brother in law has done the London Marathon in 4 hours, he also cycled 100 miles with us in the summer in 6 hours. He says the marathon was harder (& I believe him) even though he was putting in similar effort for longer.

I'm not sure it is a similar effort though – 100 miles in 6 hours isn't massively quick (heck, even I have managed it!) and being on a bike allows you to take a breather when you need to. And of course, the impact on the body is much more severe when running, so it will feel harder even if the calories expended are the same.

Actually my brother-in-law is a fellrunner, runs for Ambleside AC. Maybe I can arrange a runner v. mtb-er head-to-head match… on his home turf I'm sure I'd lose horribly 🙂

In the past I've found mountain biking fitness carries over pretty well for the uphill part of fellwalking/running but no use at all for the downhill bit (eccentric muscle contractions and all that). Run a long Lakes descent when I'm "biking" shape and my quads are wrecked for days.

From experience, we had a chap join the cycling club who could do a 2:28 full marathon. He was expected to be very quick but struggled to get below 57 mins (leg strength as above).
I've tried running, did a half mile, walked back, legs f***ed for a week.
He has my respect for being able to do what he does, and I have his for doing what I do (and for the 400 mile in 5 days loaded tour round Wales a couple of weeks back)

TRIATHLETES!!!!

1:38:00 is harder than riding a TT in 00:23:51.

Both of those times are what an average club competitor would term as on the slow side of acceptable.

It might make an interesting feature for the mag. A cyclist and a runner of comparable ability/ fitness in their respective discipline.

2 running events, say track and road
2 cycling events, say road and offroad

Lowest total time for all 4 events wins???

it's pretty easy to sort out.

Find a ten mile loop, I'll ride a bike and we'll get a runner to do it at the same time, then we'll see who wins.