Hardest workouts you have ever done?

10 x400m at 61-62 sec with 60 sec rest

And with my knowleadge today it should have been 10 x400m at 61-62 sec with recovery= walk easy down to 100 beats /min

Magic Future

My toughest ones don't look tough on paper. The ones where I blew my load half way through.

8x400 when I was in 64/65 shape but did the first 4 in 61. 69 for the last 4

5x800. Should have been doing 2:30s. 2:20 for the first 2.

I did 8x400m with 60 seconds rest at 62 seconds one time and I had to drop out of the last one as my legs couldn't move any faster with crazy lactic acid build up and I tasted a ton of iron in my mouth. I fell to the ground and my vision blurred at 200m to go. I did although run a 5 second PR a little over a week later once I had recovered.

4x800 @ 2:02-2:03 w/ 1:30 recovery and then 4x200 @ 27 w/ 30 seconds rest.

That third/fourth 800 was the absolutely most torturous pain I've ever felt. Couldn't get under 2:15 the 4th lol. Would hit the pace for 3 then blow up the 4th every time.

Other doozies include 4x1.5 miles on a very hilly road @ 8k pace,

4x5k @ AT pace during a long run always hurts

600 @ 800 pace, 30 second rest, 200m all out x3 was awful.

1200-1000-800-600-500-400-300-200-100 from 3k pace down to 800 pace with a 200 jog between gives me some PTSD too.

Actually all of these temporarily scarred me, to be honest.

Ok so this is a really hard workout, took me about 4 days of doing nothing to recover !! Honestly, it is a speed endurance, lactate threshold, speed, and mile workout. So it is broken 400m( you run for 300m at a little slower than pace for the full 400, then rest for a minute, then sprint the last 100m) x 10, but broken in to 4 sets. So it is (400m x 1) + (400m x 2) + (400m x 3 )+ (400m x 4 ) and after each set you do a 1k tempo "recovery" , more of a lactic acid magnet to really give you a good speed endurance workout. But at the end of set 4, do a 4k tempo run, preferably grass but can be the track.

Set 1- (300m + 100m) x 1 - goal 48 seconds

300m-38, 1 minute rest

100m-10, 1:45 rest

1k tempo recovery

Set 2-(300m + 100m) x 2 - goal 50 seconds

300m-39, 1 minute rest

100m-11, 2 minute rest

Repeat ^

1k tempo recovery

Set 3-(300m + 100m) x 3 - goal 52 seconds

300m-42, 1:15 rest

100m-10, 2:15 rest

Repeat twice more ^

1k tempo recovery

Set 4-(300m + 100m) x 4- goal 54 seconds

300m-43, 1:30 rest

100m-11, 2:30 rest

Repeat three times more^

4k tempo run

This brought my PR in the mile from 4:16.73 to 3:58.89, in the 5k ( cross country ) went from 14:35 to 13:59, went from 1:54.72 in the 800, to 1:46.78, and finally the biggest improvement I had after this workout, was the 10k ( my primary event, that's why I put this as a mile workout, as yes I improved more in the 10k, but I am not a mile runner so the improvement of 18 seconds is, in my opinion, out ways more than my improvement in the 10k) I went from 28:45.67( Track) to 27:59.87( Track ).

2x200 (at mile, just to warmup)

2x600 (at 95-100% 800 pace), 6 minutes rest

4x300 (100%+ race pace), 3 minutes rest

Ouch.

Together with my club mate 10 x 400m at an average of 62 sec and only 60 sec rest.

Absolutely the toughest workout I have done as I can remember.

- Magic Santa-

For me it was mile warm up, 12x400 at mile pace on grass, 3x200 all out, two mile cool down. It was 95 degrees and I thought I would faint. I got dropped about 3 reps into it and ran most of it on my own and under mile pace. My splits for the 400s were an average of 1:14 I think (I am a female) and the 200s were 32-31-32. I threw up three times during the workout. Absolutely brutal

xc tf alum wrote:I got dropped about 3 reps into it and ran most of it on my own and under mile pace.

I meant slower than mile pace. Oops

Interesting to read some of the 6 year old posts.

HS: The toughest workouts: : 4-5 miles at 6-6:30 pace (no problem). Then 6 x 300m cut-downs, with 100m jog. These are in training shoes.

The first 2 were usually okay, but we were one of the best teams in CC and middle-distance, so we were loaded with great runners. So everything was done much faster than expected.

The 4th cut-down usually left fresh-soph out of it (they were running slower anyway).

The 5th was so fast that the top runners had their chests heaving for oxygen, and the 6th 300m usually left everyone dizzy, a little sick, bent over or on their knees on the track.

What some might think was tougher in HS--my running 3 x mile in 4:26, 4:26 and 4:18--was not as hard for me, and I could have run a little faster, especially the last mile. Rest was less than 10 minutes.

College: "A" mountain: a short but amazingly tough hill, so that even one rep at high effort was so taxing that you might not do another one. If you did two at high effort, that was probably it for the day.

As with other posts about college, notably from 6 years ago, I found the 8 x 300m with 100m jog (slow jog) between 40-42 to be devastating. The 300s were on the fly, but that didn't seem to help much, the pace was so hard to maintain the last few intervals, but we are conditioned to think we could power through a 300m.

Also in college, I thought milers doing a 2 x (6 x 400m) with 1 min recovery, 10 min between sets, was such a tough workout. Great indicator of mile time if the athlete can run fairly consistent times for the 400m. For example, the best runner ran 60-61 for all of the 400s, and was 4:04 and 3:44 1500m at the time, and within a couple of years starting breaking 4 min or 3:41.8.

In college, the 4 x 400m with 400 jog (jog was about 5 min) in training shoes and in 55 seconds on the fly. The last 400m was really challenging. The next week we were expecting to do 54 seconds, because the previous week it was 56 seconds, and my training partner and I were talking about the upcoming workout all week, trying to get sufficiently psyched. When the coach decided it would be 3 x 400m in 51.5 (spikes, on the fly) with 10 minutes rec, we were relieved and did that workout no problem.

4 sets of 600,600 at 5K pace and 300,300 at mile pace. Short recoveries between reps. Something like 4 minutes between sets

Multi-pace workouts were the hardest for me

COACH J.S å ä ö wrote:

10 x400m at 61-62 sec with 60 sec rest

And with my knowleadge today it should have been 10 x400m at 61-62 sec with recovery= walk easy down to 100 beats /min

Magic Future

Approximately how long do you estimate the rest intervals would have been if you allowed your heart rate to get back down below 100bpm?

10 repeats on 400m long hill with 100m of elevation, took me 1h

For me and my problematic knee, running was hardest workout ever.

The main problem was that running outside had become annoying at some point. Weather conditions, rocks, dogs, cars and many other obstacles on the road created a lot of inconvenience for me.

I decided I'd better buy a treadmill at home and build my "home gym" in the basement.I found here

https://homegymreview.co.uk/exercise-database/

the treadmill, rowing machine and also the exercises and nutrition menu for weight-loss...and step by step I started to workout at home. Now I don't find any exercise hard.

8x200m, with 30 seconds rest, the goal was to run them as fast as possible while trying to hit the same time. I forget my splits but I was dizzy and on the ground after.

This was basic training, so while it was running and some sort of training, I wouldn't call it smart.

There was this loop around some trees that we had to run, and if you were in the first half of people to get around the loop, you were done. If you were in the last half, you had to keep going. And so on until the DS got tired of seeing us suffer.

Now I was actually one of the top 3 runners in my company, but the issue was that I was not used to the shorts we had to wear (ill fitting cotton...this was early 1990s), and we were in Oklahoma in the summer and it was hotter than hell. So needless to say you'd sweat, cool down, salt forms, move again, etc, and before long I was chaffed bad between my balls and thighs.

I could barely walk, let alone run. So I ended up pretty much last the entire time, sort of duck walking and physically holding the shorts off of my chaffed areas.

After that someone told me to cut the liner out and use some baby powder in the area when we got up, and that seemed to keep it from happening again.

CrossFit

They make run only workouts feel like child’s play

I really hate 400m repeats. When I was a mid d runner, we did them on an indoor track and it sucked so bad. Now when I do them, it’s always windy or blazing sun. Or both.

otter wrote:

cbenson4 wrote:

For me the most brutal workout is when we do a 200 close to all-out, 15 seconds of rest, and then a 600 at about mile pace.

Do that a few times, and you and lactate will become best buddies. Huffin and puffin.

That's a great workout. I've done something similar to that before except 300 meters all-out, 30 seconds, and then 600 meters at 5k pace.

It feels like you are recovering during the 600 which is the strangest feeling I've had in a workout on the track.

It's a Marcus O'Sullivan workout. At least I've heard him advocate for it.

I have several "fond" me.ories from college....Usually the first time attempting them is most memorable.

XC = 2mile wmp

12 x 1 mile on CC course @ <5:20 w/3 min active recovery.

2 mile cool down

And

11 x mile at threshold on country, hilly road with mile #12 all out. Us mid distance guys hung on for 11 and then thrashed the other true distance guys with a sub 4:30 to finish it off. Loved seeing our names above the distance guys as coach always posted the results of our timed workouts.

I was an 800-miler by trade however.

Track:

Lactate threshold workouts could be punishing....a couple of my favorites.

Mid-Indoors 5 x 800. 5 min to run and rest, repeat. I averaged 2:05.

Late outdoors:

3 x 400. 5 min jog recovery.

49, 49, 52. Gorilla jumped on the last one.

3 sets of 2 x 200.

1st 200 all out. 30 seconds recovery, 2nd 200 all out.

5 min active recovery then repeat.

Not fun on set 3

10 x 400 sub 60, jog 100m then go. Got to #7, tossed my lunch. Coach was marking the track while I ralphed and jogged. Then said don't worry about your time, just pick it up at each X he marked. I finished and still hit my times. He hoped me focus when it was impossible.