It was the big day; Lance had been training for months in anticipation of the annual “Dasher Twenty-Six-Two.” As he laced up his sneakers, he thought back to the endless grind of aerobic training he had accomplished. Hour after hour of lung-burning, quad frying jogging on pavement and dirty. He was ready mentally and physically, plus he had a secret weapon ready to go. Lance had been experimenting in the use of a thick, sugar saturated gel-nutrition to supplement his running. He anticipated finishing just before the three-hour mark and he planned to eat his special goo around hour two for a much-needed energy boost. The goo solution was a mixture of maltose, sucrose, and glucose, as well as some salt. Water would be available on the course every few miles and with his nutrition plan set he found his way to the line. *BOOM* The start gun leaked smoke as wave after wave of runner set off. Miles started flowing by… five miles feeling good… Mile thirteen halfway there! Just as the two-hour mark was upon him, Lance pulled the gel from his pocket and slurped the gooey syrup down. Mile fifteen Phew, heavy legs… Mile eighteen Legs are burning but I got it… then came a hit of fatigue.

He had read about this before. The dreaded bonk. Bonking was said to be the final drips of glycogen being removed from the muscle’s cells, with an accompanying burn suggesting rapid production of lactate. It also meant he had spent the last two hours less aerobic than he thought. Making it to mile twenty-two, Lance noticed his heart rate ten-beats over his planned pace. His breath was getting harsher, his legs getting weaker. The mile twenty-four marker went by and he was down to nearly a walk, lips dry and stomach lurching. The last half mile was a blur as Lance crossed the line his raised arms quickly fell, and so did he, right into a chair near the finish line.

Discuss the necessity of Lance’s training to prepare for his ability to fuel a marathon with specific reference to the major organ systems involved and their purpose. Identify the needed reactants and excreted products Lance utilized during his ongoing respiring, with specific reference to where each is created or used. Finally, predict the influence of his experimental goo and suggest advantages and disadvantages to its use, as well as better use with reference to time and impact on the ability to enter and circulate to where it would be needed