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it seems to me that a lot of noakes' writings are born of the work he's done at races, that is, he performs his "study" at ironman south africa, or comrades, or some sort of ultra ultra distance triathlon. is this what you mean, andy, when you say he hasn't conducted a single experimental study, that the studies about which noakes writes are often just a grouping of 20, or 200, or 2000, "anecdotes" collected an athletic event?
Essentially, although I wouldn't use quote around the word study, as the approach he's used is certainly a very valid means of
describing what actually happens at such competitions. When it comes to
why it happens, though, you really need to do controlled experiments, which are most readily conducted in the laboratory, not in the field.
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does this explain the difference in the views expressed on this thread regarding "literature," that noakes' "literature" consists of these sorts of "field tests," plus his manifestos on hydration protocols, and these are not considered in the same class as that which would be conducted in a lab setting?
No, the difference stems from the fact that Noakes is, to be blunt, someone who would apparently be just as happy being known as being right. That is, IMO he is overly willing to ignore data that contradicts his unusual points-of-view (plural, because this is but one of many issues on which Noakes has adopted a position that is contrary to the evidence...as I mentioned before, he himself says that he's an iconoclast).
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second, i wonder if we might parse between performance and medical danger. when we're talking about dehydration, are people talking past each other because noakes' interest is in who lives and who dies, versus the consequences of dehydration or salt intake on performance? in other words, how fair or unfair would it be to characterize noakes' view as: "follow my hydration protocol and you may go slower, but you're also more likely to survive the race with your life."?
No, I think that Noakes is a true believer in his own religon, i.e., he's not tailoring his message to try to achieve some altruistic goal.