Running on a beach? (calories burned)

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daddyratty
daddyratty Posts: 305 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I have an opportunity this weekend to take my "long run" of 8 miles on the beach. I am really looking forward to this, as we don't live near the ocean, but I just thought I'd try to find out if anyone knew what the ratio/difference is in terms of calories burned for a mile running on the sand as opposed to pavement/trail that I'm used to running on. I have a cheapo HRM that I'll try to use to gauge how I'm doing, but I wondered if anyone had any knowledge/experience with this.

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  • fastbelly
    fastbelly Posts: 727 Member
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    Running in sand involves a good bit more effort especially if you're not running on the wet (harder) sand. This will mean a higher heart rate and increased calorie burn, it will be hard to find out exactly what you burned without a decent HRM but you can use your "cheappo" and try this: http://www.braydenwm.com/calburn.htm to calculate your calories burned based on your average HR.

    Hope it helps.
  • joehempel
    joehempel Posts: 1,761 Member
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    I would equate running on a beach to a trail....when you run on a trail you burn up to 10% more calories.
  • jllipson
    jllipson Posts: 646
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    Found 2 other sites that say you will burn 1.6 times more calories running on beach as opposed to hard surface.

    Just be careful, because both also pointed out that you are more susceptible to injuries. And HAVE FUN!! :glasses:
  • corsayre8
    corsayre8 Posts: 551 Member
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    Nothing to add, just wanted to be able to come back and read the responses.

    Going to be taking a vaca to Kauai in a couple months, and will need to continue my training there. Beaches here we come!
  • arc918
    arc918 Posts: 2,037 Member
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    I'm guessing you'll run on the hard sand by the water = probably the same as normal running.

    If you do any meaningful running in deep sand, then you'll burn extra for sure.
  • twinwolf
    twinwolf Posts: 165 Member
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    That sounds cool! I agree with the last response.. Firmer sand closer to dirt or pavement. Dryer sand, more energy expended. Similar to trail running since the footing is varied and requires more muscle use to maintain sure footing and moving forward. Have a blast man!
  • daddyratty
    daddyratty Posts: 305 Member
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    Thanks for all the tips, everyone. Tide was out, so there was lots of compacted and firm sand, and so all 8 miles were on surface similar to what I'm accustomed to.

    My training calendar called for an 11:41 pace, and my pace for the 8 miles was 11:28. My watch isn't with me and I haven't yet uploaded my run to dailymile,com, but I'm pretty sure that no *single* mile was over the 11:41 pace, so it was a pretty consistent run.

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