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Originally Posted by ironman
Fat burning vs. muscle burning has nothing to do with ones body fat %, but with exercising intensity, if you go anaerobic (that means your body works with very low levels of oxygen), it is easier for the body to burn glucose than fat, so it breaks down the protein in your muscles in order to create glucose.
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True, but a marathon runner shouldn't be going anaerobic in normal training. If they were doing speed work or threshold runs, you'd be right, but the ALL the popular training models call for lots of long slow distance. If you want to bring in the African model, that's something altogether different, but Westerners, and specifically Americans, don't train on the African model (basically all base-building runs at 90-95% race pace). And it's why there hasn't been a native-born American who's medalled in the Olympic Marathon in 31 years (men only, obviously).