So you think that Lance Armstrong, or perhaps Chrissie Wellington are very fit endurance athletes?
Compared to the average Iditarod Sled dog they look like puddles of jelly.
The Wall Street Journal reports that:
"According to Stuart Nelson Jr., the Iditarod' s chief veterinarian, the
average sled dog weighs around 50 lbs. and will run for about a dozen
hours every day over the 10 to 14 days the race is expected to last. It
will run up to six hours at a time without rest and consume 7,200 to
8,400 calories per day, the rough equivalent of a 200 lb. human eating
60 Big Macs.
Nelson Jr. says the
average sled dog weighs around 50 lbs. and will run for about a dozen
hours every day over the 10 to 14 days the race is expected to last. It
will run up to six hours at a time without rest and consume 7,200 to
8,400 calories per day, the rough equivalent of a 200 lb. human eating
60 Big Macs.
To put this differently, a 50 lb. dog will burn 10,000 calories a day
for up to two weeks during the Iditarod. A Tour de France rider three
times as heavy will burn 6,000 calories per day of that event.
According to Dr. Swain, the closest human endurance athletes come to
matching these dogs is in the Race Across America, a transcontinental
bike race where cyclists often ride nonstop for 22 hours a day."
Compared to the average Iditarod Sled dog they look like puddles of jelly.
The Wall Street Journal reports that:
"According to Stuart Nelson Jr., the Iditarod' s chief veterinarian, the average sled dog weighs around 50 lbs. and will run for about a dozen hours every day over the 10 to 14 days the race is expected to last. It will run up to six hours at a time without rest and consume 7,200 to 8,400 calories per day, the rough equivalent of a 200 lb. human eating 60 Big Macs.
Nelson Jr. says the average sled dog weighs around 50 lbs. and will run for about a dozen hours every day over the 10 to 14 days the race is expected to last. It will run up to six hours at a time without rest and consume 7,200 to 8,400 calories per day, the rough equivalent of a 200 lb. human eating 60 Big Macs.
To put this differently, a 50 lb. dog will burn 10,000 calories a day for up to two weeks during the Iditarod. A Tour de France rider three times as heavy will burn 6,000 calories per day of that event. According to Dr. Swain, the closest human endurance athletes come to matching these dogs is in the Race Across America, a transcontinental bike race where cyclists often ride nonstop for 22 hours a day."