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I had a climber friend who was super into endurance running, I was pretty into weightlifting, we were jawing back and forth about which one was harder/more impressive. His argument was that running a marathon was much harder because it took much longer and much more effort, one is destroyed after running a marathon where one is just fine after a 1rm. I argued that a big back squat was more impressive as if you can't squat 300lbs, you just can't squat 300lbs, where if I wanted to run a marathon today I could, it would just take a while, give me enough time and I can travel 26.2 miles on foot today no problem, but if you can't squat 300lbs in the morning you won't squat it in the evening either.*
So this bet formed where I would run a marathon, and then he would attempt a back squat at a weight set as a percentage of the world record equivalent to the percentage of my marathon speed relative to that world record.
He basically thought there was no fucking way I would ever finish a marathon without any training, so he was safe.
Ultimately I did finish the marathon, but he welched and started trying to argue about needing to do the squat as a percentage of the world record at his weight class, which I said was stupid because I didn't get the advantage of running a marathon at the 195lb record. Then that argument kind of ended the thing.
I would say that while I did finish 26.2 miles with no training and just guts, it sucked way worse than I thought it would. So we both kinda had a point.
*My argument ignores the option of breaking the 300lb object into smaller pieces, or needing to run the 26.2 miles per hour at a certain speed to avoid something catching you
Wouldn't your logic on the marathon suggest that I could just squat 50 lbs six times and call it 300? As with a very long walk, I am doing the same amouny of "work" with low weight and high reps.
I mean it depends on the hypothetical scenario, right? You can draw this beer debate up any number of ways. I should note that the argument started with the complaint, more true years ago than it is now, that every white collar office had at least one Marathon Guy who wouldn't shut up about his marathon running, while if one talked about one's squat one was considered a declasse meathead weirdo. My interlocutor argued that a marathon was something you bragged about because it was a real accomplishment that not everyone could do, where a big squat was easy.
If you're in the Big Bad John scenario where your path is blocked by a single large object and you can't break it apart, you need to be able to lift up the beam all at once, breaking it into pieces isn't an option.
Or if I'm rolling in BJJ with someone stronger than me but who has worse cardio, if I don't have sufficient strength to stop him from passing guard and submitting me before he runs out of gas, it doesn't matter how much better my cardio is because he wins before I can outlast him. I need enough strength to stay alive and wear him out so I can take advantage of his lack of conditioning.
To be fair, while I think I won the bet by default, my mind was changed by the end of it, and I'm pretty sure most of what I said leading into the bet was wrong. The actual experience of completing a marathon with no training pretty much disabused me of the notion that it was easy or just a casual thing. I was destroyed afterward, despite the slow speed, my feet and back were killing me afterward, it was days before I was walking normally.
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