William ... not so sure about that. Please go to my post a few ago detailing the error in the numbers provided by Knight of Gondor. I ran some figures of my own and my best estimate was that they had to run 8 out of the 12 hours available to them during daylight each of the three days. Thats a measured pace of about 5.5 miles per hour or about a 10+ mile. That is probably too fast for the idea that they were both running and walking. But for purposes of discussion, lets go with that. For men of that size, carrying weapons and full clothing, wearing boots, and moving over various terrain, I would say they are burning calories at a pretty good rate.
Of course this line of thought can work against you and you probably see that coming. If we concede more walking to lower the heartrate and save on limited glycogen, then we increase the time necessary to complete the 145 miles. There will be a point where the could be walking at a moderate pace but would not have the time necessary to complete the task. But again, JRRT refers to both walking and striding - which is not walking at a moderate pace.
However, I concede I am NOT any kind of professional physiologist so I am going at this from somebody with 30+ years of running over 60,000 miles plus studying the subject as a hobby.
Again, I concede Legolas right from the start. And under the right conditions - which I am not sure were present - Aragorn being the tracker of his time - may have been able to rack up those kind of miles... but I am less sure of that. One day - okay. But I would hate to be his legs on day two and three. Gimli is a no brainer. No how - no way.
I am no expert on Tolkien despite multiple readings of the books over 30 years. Could you please tell me the properties of lembas as they are identified in the books? I have always thought of it as some sort of food alternative for short periods of time which gave a feeling of fullness and provided nutrition. I know of nothing which would indicate that it has any magical properties beyond that.
From the chapter Farewell to Lorien ............one of the elves who gives the lembas to Gimli
"One will keep a traveller on his feet for a day of long labour, ...."
Dwarves were used to hard manual labor. Their upper body muscles were well developed for various mining tasks and construction. But that is not running. Plenty of modern factory workers can work a ten hours shift at hard labor in a factory but could not run a half mile.
If Gimli had not trained in long distance running - or even a type of ME race-walking - his muscles would not have been able to absorb and utilize extra nutrition consumed on the road regardless. That would take months for his muscles to adapt to that exercise need. I remember them being in Lothlorien for a nice lengthy stay but recall nothing about an exercise program to acclimate them to running long distances.
Of course, some other poster already has the possibility covered when they claimed that just because the book does not say it did not happen could mean that it did. Again, the four aces up the sleeve - just a different sleeve.
Here is one thing I agree with on completely.
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no reason to think that they'd be burning calories at such a rate as to hit the energy wall at 20 miles.
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Exactly. A trained runner only hits that wall because of months of training. With an untrained, unprepared person of Gimli' size and build, the wall would hit him like the proverbial ton of bricks long before he ever hit double digit miles on the first day.