What is the most stupid running advice you've ever heard?🤣(It can be funny)

"Remember to alternate feet"

#3 sounds like a variation of what Joe Vigil used to say (and I may be paraphrasing just a smidge): You eat seven days a week. You drink (hydrate) seven days a week. You should breathe seven days a week & run.

A person who runs slower will be faster in races.

No. You have to take your easy days easy, but that alone will not make you faster. You absolutely need to be running fast in training to improve for race day.

My dad would always tell me that I should go and try to break my record at the high school cross country course every day. That's it, that would be my training.

Any slow IG-influencer:

- Increase your cadence to become faster.. (The influencer proceeds to run with something that looks like high cadence but probably isn't and with super short dwarf steps).

Letsrun folks: You have to run 100miles a week.

Your body has a finite amount of energy and exercise will use it up.

"Use gravity to fall forward." Coming from POSE cultists back when that was a bit of a running fad.

Similarly your heart has a finite number of beats.

(Once an ex phys prof did the math and with the lower HR at rest---we spent most of our day near a resting HR---that you lose fewer beats.)

To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift.

We were sitting in a bar after a group run. There was a woman who ran 3-5 miles a day about 4-5 times a week. She wanted to train for a marathon and a local "coach" (yes she takes money to give bad advice) told her that the first thing she had to do was to limit her running to 2-3 days a week.

We all told not to take that advice.

Ah, friend, story come back, like old picture in head. Me, young, foolish, ask running master for secret. He say, "Run like tiger chasing you!"

So, I run, run, run. Always tiger behind, big teeth, sharp claws. I run fast, yes, but heart like drum, body like stiff board. No fun, only fear.

One day, tired like old dog, I fall by river. Wise turtle, he ask, "Why run so scared?" I tell him tiger story. Turtle laugh, slow and low.

"Forget tiger," he say, "feel wind push you, sun warm you. Run not away, run towards. Happy, free, strong inside."

I try turtle way. No more tiger, just wind and sun. Body light like feather, feet quick like rabbit. Faster, better, happier.

Lesson learned, friend. Smart words not always smart advice. No run from fear, run towards joy. Forget past, be here now. Then, like river find ocean, you find your way.

“ High school runners shouldn’t run races in the summer”

I fought that one every year I coached and I think the idea was gotten maybe from large organized teams like York or Columbus North who mostly went to camps, lined a 100 runners up on the roads all summer at camp and “ time trialed”

The smaller communities with only 17 runners heard just the “ no races in the summer” part.

Not sure if this constitutes running advice but my highschool coach had us do 200m hill repeats running backwards while zig zagging up the hill. His reasoning was that it was exercising muscle groups that we normally wouldn't tap into, making us stronger for an actual race. It looked absolutely moronoic and nearly a quarter of the team was injured after a month of his ridiculous training. His advice for races was "Go out as hard as possible and don't look back and don't let up." So we all would go out and completely die by 3k lol. He ended up "moving on" after the team signed a petition for his removal lol. It is amazing who can become a coach at the high school level.

quite the opposite;

cochrane.org

Magnesium for muscle cramps

Open link

Off season races were perhaps my favorite part of high school running. No pressure, just having fun, doing odd distances. It's high school running, not a job. These days I barely see high school athletes in any summer/winter races besides taking a shot at the local half marathon after cross country season has ended. This is in addition to high school athletes actually racing less during the season with no more midweek meets and even skipping the lesser weekend invitationals. I would probably get so antsy if all I did was race every two weeks and train all the time if I was a high school athlete now.

My college team was racing in Las Vegas in the early 70s. Age group and high school racers were in the morning and since we were more experienced our races were in the early afternoon. It was over 100 degrees and our coach handed out salt tablets and advised us to avoid drinking water as it would make us pee and flush out the salt tablets benefit.

"Just keep breathing" -College coach on lap 22 of 10k

"oh, you have a hamstring injury? You should stop running and take some time to stretch it more" -friends who do climbing and yoga

"running is bad for your body in the long term" -friend's uncle who smokes cigarettes every day

"The fastest 800m should be run in an even or negative split" -long distance folks on Letsrun

"No days off" -Tracksmith

Breathe in through your nose