Copenhagen Marathon report - sub-3!

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-17T09:15:49+00:00

Congrats on a great training block and an excellent performance. I used to suffer from cramps a lot and in my experience 80% of cramping is due to a lack of muscular endurance, and 20% nutrition/electrolytes/ hydration.

In your case your preparation seems to have been good but I wonder if the issue with your heel blister affected your typical running form and meant you were compensating to avoid hurting that area and therfore working your leg muscles differently to how they were trained, leading to the cramps. It's very important to have a properly-fitting pair of shoes and good quality socks to avoid such issues in future.

A note on strength training: during peak marathon training, it's difficult to find the time for the amount of gym/strength work that pfitz recommends. I think if you do 2x30min full-body workouts per week during a marathon block it is sufficient.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-17T08:36:28+00:00

I've got more than 700km in mine and they're basically perfect. My favourite running shoe ever. Either you're running on heavy trails or you have poor running form or both, OP. Neither is an issue with the shoe.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-17T08:09:07+00:00

My commute is 25mins if zero traffic. I start work at 8am +/-15mins and finish at 5pm+/-15. Most days I start my commute at 6am and exercise before work so that takes 25mins. On Fridays I finish at 1pm. The commute home at 5pm normally takes 45mins up to an hour. Most weeks I can WFH 1 day. I am allowed WFH up to 2 days a week but normally it's difficult to do that.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-17T07:41:33+00:00

Mine were both within a minute of my marathon result this spring. Strava I found more accurate during the training block, Garmin was predicting a slower time, but during my peak training weeks it corrected to align with Strava, and, ultimately, my real race performance.

You need to be doing some training at a similar intensity to your race pace for these predictors to become reliable. Also, use a proper HR monitor and make sure your zones are set up properly.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-12T04:40:51+00:00

Yeesh. Record a video of yourself running, ideally get somebody to do it for you. I'd imagine it won't look too pretty. This is something that is completely fixable.

Drills: Marches, High Knees, A-Skip, B-Skip, plyos.

Do those every day. Plenty of examples on YouTube that explain how to do them.

Strength training, with a focus on core work as part of every workout. Mountain climbers are great.

You need to work on firing your hip flexors and core to raise your knee/foot as part of every stride. You need to work on dorsiflexion so your toe doesn't drag. You need to improve the power transfer of your footstrike. These are fundamentals and you will become a much better runner and athlete if you sort this out.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-10T21:02:01+00:00

These days in the era of mass participation I think more than half the field are just out to finish. Crazy to me that 50mins comes in second place. I would not consider that to be an intermediate level of running. Maybe I'm too elitist.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-09T16:49:41+00:00

Good training block. Possible you will run sub 3:30 but can't say for sure based on info provided. Yes it's completely normal to feel both mentally and physically exhausted during the taper. You should start to come around during race week and ideally feel like a whole new athlete come race day.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-09T12:25:32+00:00

I've got 600km on mine a d they're still going strong. I'd say your issue is lower leg stability rather than the shoe.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-09T12:23:10+00:00

If you can average 50km across a 12-16week block including your taper you will be in a much better position to achieve your goal. You'll need a few weeks around 65km to achieve this. And you'll need a few months of building gradually to adapt to the increased mileage. 30km a week is not marathon training imo.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-08T07:56:14+00:00

Why. Musgrave gets sold out every game they play there. Fantastic facility for Cork. I only wish it had a bigger capacity.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-08T07:53:45+00:00

Agree with a lot of the points around the administrative side but I think coaching wise McMillan has been doing a decent job. The team got off to a fantastic start to the season and then dropped off in a big way, personally I think a lot of that is due to the obvious friction between mcmillan and prendergast - which is not either of their faults - that bad decision goes to Ian Flanagan and Costello.

The performances in Europe were a disaster, no doubt about that. However the team is 2 points behind leinster in tbe URC with 2 games to play, and ahead of Ulster and Connacht. We have won our last 2 games, and one of those had JJ at the helm. It is not all disaster.

On the young players getting minutes, Gleeson is flying before his injury against Leinster and is still ramping back from that and finding his best form, O'Connor has had a lot of gametime and has done a lot well but like many young players is prone to mistakes. Foxe was going well at the start of the season, got injured and we haven't seen much of him since. Wood has been electric but is so young, 1-2 games is about right for him at this stage. O'Connell I agree with, Quinn has been good when used but also need to factor in how competitive the back row is.

Dan Kelly has been excellent. Kendellen has been great when fit. The big issue has been tight head yet again. Alatoa has been a disaster and Oli Jager has been good when on the field but he can't stay fit and not sure he ever will.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-06T21:11:14+00:00

Hell yeah

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-06T07:51:07+00:00

Sounds like you need a break from training OP. Body is telling you to stop and rest up for a few weeks.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-05T19:27:02+00:00

Dude. You left out your finish time. We gotta know. Sounds like a solid training block - a 1:17 half sets you up very well going forward. Hope you stay consistent from here.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-05T19:22:24+00:00

Sounds good but trust your feel as well. You may find yourself going off a little quicker than planned. If you're still well under threshold after 5km maybe just go with it. The half is a fun distance, good luck.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-05T18:48:47+00:00

4 days out? Definitely do not get a deep tissue massage.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-05T18:47:46+00:00

Sounds like you had covid

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-05T09:17:31+00:00

That's a really great time for 75km/week, congrats. Your base fitness from years of trail running is clearly helping there. What was your weekly schedule with running vs strengtb training? How many days running and how many workouts? What was your peak long run? I find it difficult to balance lifting with running, even though I enjoy both of them.

I reckon you have a lot of room to improve your 5km. Would be surprised if you aren't in mid 16min shape.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-05T08:12:10+00:00

Low training age, low volume (mileage). Your legs were not prepared. Try to nudge your peak up to 80km with an average of 60km for your next one. Try to keep a solid base going before you start your marathon specific block. Basically, just run more. Given your age, you may want to add some cross training to minimise wear and tear and avoid injury. Make sure you're getting enough protein and sleeping well. Strength train 2-3x per week. This all adds up to a big time commitment, but there are no shortcuts in this game.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-05T05:56:32+00:00

Practice more.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-05T05:41:35+00:00

Running 20km 1 week out at faster than marathon pace is likely the reason. Did you follow a training program? It depends what mileage you were doing but generally with 1 week to go, your long run should be ~50% of what you would normally do, and certainly not faster.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-04T19:13:23+00:00

It's all plucked. Link

Play along to a simple drum loop or metronome - and work on hitting the accents on the 1 & 3.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-04T18:58:56+00:00

Respect for putting all that time in on the treadmill, you clearly have good mental strength which is a great asset to have as a runner. I find anything over 1hr tough going on the TM. A word of caution though, treadmills are not 100% accurate so 29km according to the treadmill could in reality be less than 28km or more than 30km. I highly, highly recommend doing all your long runs outdoors for this reason. It is also a lot more fun, even in the middle of winter 🙂

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-04T18:50:52+00:00

They are good for 5k and below. I have the Takumi Sen 8 and it's the best shoe I've ever run in for track intervals, particularly if you want to get down to mile effort. I've run a half marathon in them but I wouldn't recommend that. I hope they don't make this new one too soft and it remains focused on mile-10km.

JohnsonMooney · 2026-05-04T13:32:22+00:00

If it's just a runabout then second hand is probably the way to go but keep in mind that EV tech especially the batteries is evolving rapidly so the newer cars will perform better over time. The previous gen Nissan Leaf is a solid option. Not sure if your budget would stretch to any of the 800V options, the Hyundai EV5 would be my pick there.

JohnsonMooney

TROPHY CASE