Training For October Race.
Does 12,541 Calories sound right for an Ironman race?
Here is how I got my numbers,… I think that my Garmin 301 might be a little off.
Today’s Ride:
45 miles, 18.0 mph, 2:30:00 Calories 3040 =(67.6 cal/mile)
yesterday’s Run:
6.4 miles, 9:15 pace, 0:58:00 Calories 1020 =(159.4 cal/mile)
Using this math for the ironman…
(bike 7566) + (run 4175) + (swim est. 800) = 12,541
Is my Garmin out to lunch? I’m 38 yr old Male 189 lbs, Slow middle age white guy.
I have no idea about calories. I just know that I’m 180 lbs at the start of any given IM and weigh 168 the next day. However, after a month of zero activity following the race, I’m usually 190-195.
weight in kilo x distance in km is a very good approximation of kcal burnt on the run on the flat.
so to have 4175kcal for a marathon, you’d have to be 100kg or 220lbs…30lbs heavier than you are.
7566kcal on the bike at 18mph (a tad slower than 6hrs) is above 1000kcal an hour on the bike which is HUGE even at 190lbs
the swim 800-1000 for 1h should be close…
but my guess is that you are likely around 3500kcal on the run and about 5000kcal on the bike (and that’s a lot for a 6h ride).
the numbers of the 301 seem really high…
i think even francois’s numbers are high. 100 kcal/mile is a pretty good approximation for the run. and i think your figures for the bike are way too high. i’ll have to see if i can dig up any good approximations for that.
I burned 9250 calories at IMC in 2003 (12:30 finishing time) based on my hr monitor. I had estimated 9500 beforehand (albeit at a faster pace), so I think the number is fairly accurate. In other words, your Garmin number is definitely inflated.
These are totally unscientific but this is what I generally go by so I could be totally off. The figures I have heard for a 150 pound male would roughly be:
800-calories for the swim
2800 Calories for the bike. Based on 100 calories per 4 miles.
2620 for the run. 100 calories per mile.
So roughly 6220 calories for the race.
If your heavier it shouldn’t really change the bike too much but the run you could probably add more calories but still nowhere near 12,000 calories total. As far as I have heard you may burn more calories per hour if your faster but you will also be racing for less time so I am not sure if there is that big of a difference. Like I said I could be pretty wrong on this, but probably not by much,
Don’t know about the accuracy of the Garmin but my Polar S720i said 4560 Kcal for a Half Ironman race and I thought it was a little off.
I remember reading an article of Dr. Padilla (Indurain’s doctor) saying that when TTing in the TdF, Indurain would be close to 1000kcal/hr at 520w or so.
Knowing that none of us mere mortals can come close to these values and that Indurain is a big boy, anything close to 1000kcal per hour on the bike is largely exagerated.
If your heavier it shouldn’t really change the bike too much but the run you could probably add more calories
??? If your heavier it will change the bike, run and the swim. You have to move more mass over the same distance, it takes more energy.
Echoing what Bucky said, I’m 175 pounds and burn about 130 kcal/mile running. It’s a measure of energy, so it can’t vary much, assuming an out and back run with no net change in altitude. You’d have to be a Clyde to burn 159…
well, I’ll write an article stating that Padilla and Coggan disagree 
.
Try this experiment with your G301: Ride up and down a relatively long hill (3-5 miles). Start a new lap at each end. You will find that the Garmin will give you more calories burned on the much easier and faster descent then it will on the ascent. Because the device is able to record elevation, you would think that a formula could be programmed into the device that would take into account the impact of hills on calories burned.
Id say it really depends on the terrain… You guys are all figuring per mile stats on flat ground… I JUST completed Ironman Louisville and the bike course was something like 7500 feet of elevation change in total, I found myself in 1st gear quite a number of times, going about 6 miles per hour standing up, which burns A LOT more energy than riding flat…
My Garmin says I burned 10,700 calories in 16 hours (Yeah, Im slow, it was my first one) and Im a 170 pound, 32 year old man.
The FR301 didn’t use any sort of HR based algorithm - it was simply math of weight and distance. The newer units use progressively better calculations - some support New Leaf profiles that allow you to use VO2MAX tests to determine calorie burn. Last fall I sat down with the Garmin team and hashed out the below post, which basically outlines what each and every unit uses for calorie calculations…oddly enough the page is now referred to when you call in to Garmin support about issues with calorie calcs:
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/11/how-calorie-measurement-works-on-garmin.html