Overtrained vs Undertrained – Which One Actually Wins on Race Day?
Marathon Cramps + Spicy Long Run Workout
CliffsNotes for Runners
🦵Why I Always Cramp at the End of Marathons (Until I Think I Figured It Out)
🥵 Overtrained vs Undertrained – Which One Actually Wins on Race Day?
🌶️ Workout Of the Week | Spicy Long Run
Why I Always Cramp at the End of Marathons (But I Think I Figured It Out)
I don’t cramp on long runs.
I don’t cramp on workouts.
I don’t cramp in training.
But throw a race bib on me and suddenly, somewhere in the last 10K of a marathon—boom. My legs turn into confused, rebellious toddlers. Quads seize. Hamstrings wobble. Calves spasm like they’re trying to start a fire.
I’m fit. I fuel. I hydrate. I strength train.
So what the hell is going on?
Every race would feel perfect… until it didn’t. My pacing was dialed. My nutrition plan was locked. And still, it happened again and again.
Eventually, I got tired of guessing. So I went full detective. Turned myself into a lab rat. Started pulling threads from podcasts, coaching forums, and actual science papers. And that’s when things got weirdly interesting.
Not Dehydration. Not Salt. Something Else.
Everyone loves blaming cramps on electrolytes. And that was my first guess too. It’s the classic advice: take more salt. Drink more. Maybe eat a banana? (Potassium, right?)
The problem? None of it worked.
Even on cooler days, when I was plenty hydrated. Even with salt caps, fancy gels, and drinking like I was prepping for a hydration exam.
So I looked deeper. I found a 2004 study by Schwellnus et al. that shifted everything. In it, they measured electrical signals from athletes’ muscles during intense exercise—and found something wild: the cramps started when the brain’s control over the muscle started glitching. Not when hydration ran out. Not when salt got low. But when the brain lost its cool.
The wires between brain and muscle started misfiring. And the muscle cramped as a protective response.
They called it “altered neuromuscular control.”
Basically: your brain thinks your leg’s about to snap, so it slams the emergency brake before it gets hurt. And the cramp? That’s the brake.
Okay, So What Causes That Misfire?
Answer: Fatigue. But not just the sweaty, tired kind.
Central nervous system fatigue—the kind that builds when your brain and spinal cord get tired of yelling “go!” over and over again for hours.
A 2013 study by Minetto et al. backed this up. They showed that cramps come from a combo of peripheral fatigue (in your muscles) and central fatigue (in your nervous system). As in: your brain is part of the problem. Your coordination starts to unravel under stress. And that stress adds up—especially in the final hour of a marathon.
So now the picture made sense. I wasn’t underfueled or undertrained.
I was under-adapted to the exact thing that happens in the last 10K:
Fatigue + pressure + effort = nervous system freakout = cramp.
So What Do You Do About It?
You train it. Not just the body. The communication.
I started flipping the script:
Long runs where the last 30 minutes were at race pace or faster.
Hill sprints and strides when tired.
Plyometrics and drills for neuromuscular coordination.
Fueling during effort, not just easy jogs.
Heat exposure that didn’t crush me, just nudged me.
Visualization of those final 10K moments—like mental reps for my brain.
Instead of training for the first 30K, I started training for the last 12.
And that shift changed how I viewed race prep.
But Here’s the Catch.
I haven’t tested it yet.
Not fully. Not in a race that matters.
This whole thing? It’s a hypothesis. It’s a prototype. A pretty damn promising one, backed by research and smarter people than me. But still unproven in the real world of screaming quads and finish-line clocks.
Maybe it works. Maybe it doesn’t.
But at least this time, I’m not walking into the final 10K hoping my legs don’t cramp.
I’m walking in knowing I finally trained for it.
Ending
So no, I’m not the hero who solved marathon cramps forever.
I’m just a guy with a notebook, a few studies, and a nervous system that’s hopefully ready to hold the line when things get dark.
Let’s see what happens.
https://dlakecreates.com/ballarat
Overtrained vs Undertrained – Which One Actually Wins on Race Day?
Last month, I stood at the starting line of my marathon feeling totally cooked! I'd spent months piling on volume, chasing that elusive perfect training cycle, convinced that more was always better. By race day, my legs felt like concrete, and my excitement had evaporated somewhere around mile 18 (30km) of my final long run four weeks prior.
It got me thinking about a question that haunts every runner: Would you rather toe the line slightly overtrained or undertrained? It's the kind of dilemma that keeps me awake the night before races, scrolling through Strava and second-guessing every training decision we've made in the past twelve weeks.
Same fire content, three different platforms (read, watch, or listen) — Catch it however your brain absorbs information best here.
📝Workout Of the Week
Big Block Progression Long Run
What Is It:
A challenging long run workout that combines two blocks of progressive efforts with a short recovery period in between. This session targets your aerobic system, lactate threshold, and mental toughness in one efficient package.
Format
Block 1: 10min @ marathon pace → 10min @ thresholdBlock 1: 10min @ marathon pace → 10min @ threshold
Float: 5min @ steadyFloat: 5min @ steady
Block 2: 8min @ threshold → 8min @ 10k effortBlock 2: 8min @ threshold → 8min @ 10k effort
How To Do It:
Start with a proper 15-minute warm-up. Begin Block 1 at your current marathon pace (should feel controlled), then shift to threshold pace (comfortably hard breathing). During the float period, ease back to a steady pace (conversation becomes possible again). For Block 2, return to threshold pace before finishing with your current 10k race effort (hard but sustainable).
Why it works:
It trains you to lock into effort zones when fatigued. The float in the middle keeps lactate levels elevated but manageable — think lactate stacking with a breather. This workout simulates the mental and physical challenges of maintaining pace when tired during a race, and teaches your body to process lactate efficiently while continuing to run.
When to do it:
This is best done 10 weeks out from your main race (10k or longer) to see where you are (be cautious on this first one), and then 5-6 weeks out from your main race (you can be more aggressive as you will know how your body responded from the first one).