So I was wondering about stamina

Triathlon Forum
1

Forgive the rambling nature, but I would like to know peoples’ thoughts on what, if any difference you draw between “endurance” and “stamina”. Does one word indicate “better” conditioning than the other? What is more desirable? How would you describe the difference of meaning between those 2 words? Or do you think they’re 2 words for the same thing? My bride and I got into a wee debate (she has no background in triathlon or any such sport, she’s a phsycology major and studied linguistics).

2

Interested Quora discussion on exactly this topic…

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-endurance-and-stamina

3

Interestingly, the WKO4 team has recently been having the same debate. Specifically, I’d been calling a new metric I’d devised “stamina”, but others argued for “endurance”, so that’s what it is called in B208. Now, though, people seem to be agreeing with me, so it’s back to “stamina” in B212.

4

I’m pretty sure “stamina” is what you take those little blue pills for…

5

After a long night of passionate sex, my lady has never said, “Wow, you had great endurance!” That just makes it sound like something painful to “endure”. But stamina on the other hand . . . oh wait, she’s never said that either! Never mind. :slight_smile:

6

The difference is one has many meanings while the other has 1
Reference: http://dictionary.reference.com/

Stamina
noun

  1. strength of physical constitution; power to endure disease, fatigue,privation, etc.

Endurance
noun

  1. the fact or power of enduring or bearing pain, hardships, etc.
  2. the ability or strength to continue or last, especially despite fatigue,stress, or other adverse conditions; stamina:
    He has amazing physical endurance.
  3. lasting quality; duration:
    His friendships have little endurance.
  4. something endured, as a hardship; trial.
7

Cliff notes version:

We tend to differentiate between endurance being a systems-based approach that could include health, wellness, fitness…you still could be an “athlete,” but the underlying factor is you have developed yourself enough to handle a distance point A to point B. The goal to simply finish is not stamina.

Stamina is more of a process-based approach that involves a performance metric…point A to point B with a specific end-state objective (i.e.- "sub 3:00 marathon).

So in other words, you can have the “endurance” to finish a marathon, but your “stamina” was not developed enough to resist fatigue and reach your performance objective.

The underlying obj- resistance to fatigue…or, who slows down the least- can get to be a sticky point, simply because there are so many theories and not enough research. So I tend to not necessarily discredit any one approach to the cause of fatigue (Including Noakes style, just not in his weeds of “biomechanical” fatigue), but leave that open for future studies.

Stamina = endurance + goal time
Endurance = components of training (freq, Int, dur, dis, etc) + risk mitigation

8

The difference is one has many meanings while the other has 1
Reference: http://dictionary.reference.com/
Stamina
noun

  1. strength of physical constitution; power to endure disease, fatigue,privation, etc.
    Endurance
    noun
  2. the fact or power of enduring or bearing pain, hardships, etc.
  3. the ability or strength to continue or last, especially despite fatigue,stress, or other adverse conditions; stamina:
    He has amazing physical endurance.
  4. lasting quality; duration:
    His friendships have little endurance.
  5. something endured, as a hardship; trial.

What a novel concept, using the dictionary…actually, i think you’ve hit the proverbial nail here, good job:)