Comparing Olympic Triathlon times with Marathon times.

love weekends wrote:

YOUR a pathetic excuse of a human being!!!

Get it right man.

Definitely not as simple as that. Although a 1:45 olympic tri may equate to a 2:05 marathon, the slower times don't extrapolate as smoothly. For example, a 4-hour marathon may be around the median at a lot of big races, but a 3:21 olympic tri will be one of the slower times. I would guess that this is probably be because of the bike portion of the race. If the winner does a 31 min 10k (5 min miles) there will be plenty of people taking twice as long (10 min miles). However, for the bike portion, if the winner does 57 mins for the 40k (just over 26mph), there won't be too many people taking almost 2 hours (12-13mph) for the bike. Since the bike is the longest part of the race in terms of time and distance, it doesn't extrapolate the same way as the run may.this is just my opinion based on my own experiences and I could be totally off.

love weekends wrote:

What would be the Olympic Triathlon equivalent of a 3 hours, 3.30, 4 hour etc Marathon? I know the courses will vary, but for simplicity purposes assume both courses are of equal difficulty.

The top elite Triathletes would complete a course in 1hr 45, while the elite Marathonners would do it in around 2hrs 05. So a top marathon time would be 1.19 times longer than a top Olympic Triathlon time.

So could this 1.19 figure be applied to various marathon times to get an equivalent Triathlon time, or is it not as simple as that?

Using this figure a 3 hour marathon equates to a 2hrs 31 minute Triathlon, a 3hr 30 Marathon equates to a 2hr 56 minute Triathlon, and a 4 hour marathon equates to a 3 hour 21 minute Triatlon.

I'm in a geeky mood today

-- -- wrote:

For example, a 4-hour marathon may be around the median at a lot of big races, but a 3:21 olympic tri will be one of the slower times.

Would this not be because Marathons are more accessable to the general public than Triathlons? You can walk a Marathon, and many people do, which brings the average time way down, but you sure as hell cant walk a triathlon.

Also the cost of triathlons (bike, wetsuit etc) is another thing that would put the less enthusiastic athlete off doing Triathlons. Marathons dont suffer from these issues which is why you have a lot more "fun runners".

I'd say if you put all the people who did a certain marathon into a Triathlon a few weeks later, a 3:21 Olympic triathlon would be closer to the mid way point than the end of the pack!

Not sure if you realized that marathons don't involve any swimming or cycling.

This is just as relevant as asking how many fairies can dance on the head of a pin.

Just stop now, all you will accomplish is making everyone hate you. If you are trying to make yourself feel good about your recent triathlon, I recommend you take it somewhere else. Nobody here is going to make you feel good about it.

A marathon is MUCH harder to train for, complete, and compete in than an Olympic Dist Tri. Hands down, everyone who is objective will tell you that.

Yeah, you are definitely correct about the accessibility of marathons versus olympic distance triathlon. Just from my experience being on a collegiate triathlon team with individuals of varying ability level, many of which have also done marathons, someone in 4-hour marathon shape would probably be more in the 2:45-2:55 range for the triathlon.

I'll give you actual times for three individuals on our team who have extremely differing abilities:

Guy #1:

1/2 marathon PR (hasn't done a marathon)- 1:08

Let's estimate his marathon time as 2:25

Oly Tri PR- 2:02

Multiplier= 1.19

Girl #2:

Marathon PR- 3:55

Oly Tri PR- 2:48

Multiplier= 1.40

Girl #3:

Marathon PR: 4:34

Oly Tri PR- 3:04

Multiplier= 1.49

I think individuals with slower times probably also lack a good aerobic base and tend to falter when better trained individuals can keep their pace over longer amounts of time.

newname wrote:

Not sure if you realized that marathons don't involve any swimming or cycling.

This is just as relevant as asking how many fairies can dance on the head of a pin.

Just stop now, all you will accomplish is making everyone hate you. If you are trying to make yourself feel good about your recent triathlon, I recommend you take it somewhere else. Nobody here is going to make you feel good about it.

A marathon is MUCH harder to train for, complete, and compete in than an Olympic Dist Tri. Hands down, everyone who is objective will tell you that.

It amazes me how pathetic some people are. If you are not interested in the topic, then don't respond. Who are you to make such condescending remarks. You are a nobody, a loser! What have you done? NOTHING!

I'm no expert on Triathlons so I cant comment, but I would be interested to hear peoples opinions on this.

Letsrun.com is home to some of the biggest cocks on earth!

As someone else mentioned, the difference between an average cyclist's speed and a world class cyclist's speed is not as wide as the difference between an an average marathoner's pace and a world class marathoner's pace. Swimming is similar to cycling in this regard. I think it has much to do with the huge factors that water and wind resistance play in swimming and cylcing, respectively. Doubling your power output on a bike does not double your speed, more like root2*speed. Continuing to use the baseline of 1.19 to convert from world class triathlon to world class marathon and since approximately 2/3 of the time spent doing a triathlon is swimming and cycling, a better conversion (in minutes) from triathlon (t) to marathon (m) might be:

m = 125 +[(2/3)1.19^2 + (1/3)1.19]*(t-105) or

m = 125 + 1.34(t-105)

This gives the same "equivalent" of a 2:05 marathon for our 1:45 triathlete but predicts 3:45 (instead of 3:34) for a 3:00 triathlete. I'm sure this is FAR from perfect.

you sad loser wrote:

It amazes me how pathetic some people are. If you are not interested in the topic, then don't respond. Who are you to make such condescending remarks. You are a nobody, a loser! What have you done? NOTHING!

Letsrun.com is home to some of the biggest cocks on earth!

Oh, you are being rude in front of adults! Hasn´t your mommy told you not to do such a thing? Shame on you!