hypnotoad wrote:
Try it this way. World elite cyclists race 100+ miles day after day even in vicious mountain terrain. World elite runners race one marathon and then they need to recover for weeks or months before doing another one.
Obviously both are hard - so is playing a 90-minute soccer game at competitive level - but there ought to be no doubt at all that the marathon is the killer.
But that elicits the question: What is the original poster really trying to ask?
Is it about which event is more cardiovascularly or muscularly demanding? .... Or is the question about which event beats up your body more due to impact stress?
Both factors are entirely independent... but each is a worthy issue.
Running... definately more impact stress. No doubt about it. This is why why marathoners take much longer to recover... Its because of the impact stress and the microtrauma of the muscles attributed to it, that it takes abot 2 weeks to heal.
However, that doesnt necessarily mean that during those two - four hours which you are running, that your exerting your cardiovascular system anymore so than a TdF biker hauling ass at 28 mph for 120 miles.