my 2c wrote:
Trying to claim there's a difference between hitting the wall and exhausting energy in a marathon is playing coy. It's unfortunate you're not making an effort to hold a conversation, but you do you. Here's what you did say:
gels are a myth
Your original example was quite odd by choosing a 2:20 marathoner with a relatively high weight of 78 kg and with a vO2max of 48, which is quite low and would require the athlete to have extraordinary economy. If you start with a more likely 2:20 athlete - 68 kg and vO2max of 70 - and plug in the numbers, you would find, by your own math, that the runner exhausts his glycogen supply at 122.4 minutes, or over 3 miles from the finish line - not an unheard of time for a marathoner to slow significantly. (Also, note that Noakes doesn't use vO2max in his calculation; he starts with an average economy of 67 ml O2/kg/min instead.) Using Noakes's math, that fit 68 kg marathoner would have to drop to 62 kg - from 149.6 to 136.4 lbs - to extend the goal finishing time to 140 minutes, if there is that much weight for a 2:20 marathoner to lose in the first place.
So if you think gels are a myth, I'm not sure what your example was trying to show, since your math seems to clearly describe a fairly common class of well-trained marathoner whose glycogen supply will run out before the end of the race, and who would benefit from carbohydrate intake, as experiments and the experience of many athletes suggest.
THIS!!!
Cotton shirt needs a good washing, b/c this guy dirtied him up!!!
His original premise was rubbish. A fatty guy with a very low VO2 max, running a 2:20. Only used to justify what can not reasonably be justified.