last man standing workout

I'll give you a hint: you don't improve to 24:30 8k by blasting quarters on the track.

agreed

Also agreed, from a 29-minute 8k guy.

777 wrote:

I'll give you a hint: you don't improve to 24:30 8k by blasting quarters on the track.

Perhaps that was why Tergat did 400s every week before his 10k WR.

Team Buddy wrote:

Back in high school at the Wisconsin Camp of Champions we did this workout called "Last man standing." It consisted of a warm up that went directly into 400s on the track. Each successive 400 was to be x seconds faster than the last, and there were a prescribed number of laps one was supposed to run (8, i think), although not everybody was able to keep up. Once you fell off, you were done.

Has anybody heard of this kind of workout before and how one might modify it for an xc 8/10k? Like, if I want to get to 24:30 for an 8k, how fast should the quarters be and how many should I do?

sometimes I do the last man standing workout....by myself!

eh... wrote:

Perhaps that was why Tergat did 400s every week before his 10k WR.

lol

I agree with what most others are saying. This seems like a setup that will just encourage racing the workout. You shouldn't be trying to break people or running until you can't hang in a workout.

eh... wrote:

Perhaps that was why Tergat did 400s every week before his 10k WR.

haha ok, in case you fell for it OP, this guy was kidding. Tergat used those 400s to sharpen up for the 10k WR not to get to it. the 400s only take a few seconds off and they're for the last few weeks of a season.

I might be wrong, but it sounds like the OP is talking about a continuous run increasing the pace every 400 meters, not 400 repeats.

This made me think of a different run. It's not really a workout though, since it would be a terrible idea for someone looking strictly to improve. It's more of just a funrun/race type thing.

Take at least 5, no more than 10, guys on a warmup, then head to the track. Then, start running. After every 800m, whoever is in last has to drop out. If it's too close to call by sight, both runners are out. Keep going until you have "the last man standing."

That's a fun one.

How about this Oregon classic: 200s at :30/40. To make it a bit more realistic how about :35/;45.

Alan

How about this one: A cross country race, except where the last golf cart just runs over all the guys at the back, picking them off one by one until only the leader remains.

OP

I know what you're talking about...I've heard a version of this...

it's basically a tempo run on the track...but you need a large group

and after every X amount of laps (every 1 or every 2 depending on the size of the group) the person who is last across the line is out...but you have to maintain at least a certain pace...if not youre out...

you go til there's one

i read this about a high school team that did it at the beginning of every year (pretty successful one i believe)

there was a penalty for every1 that got 'out' based on their place or something

sorry for the ambiguity i heard about it a few years ago

Runningart2004 wrote:

That's a fun one.

How about this Oregon classic: 200s at :30/40. To make it a bit more realistic how about :35/;45.

Alan

I've always understood this workout differently: 30/45, 32/48 etc. based on your ability where the first 200 is 2/3 the times of the second. That way you can put a repeat timer on say 17 and run 34/51.

Also in HS we did an awesome workout that was more fun than anything else. 3 men teams did 60x200m relay so each guy runs 200 20 times with 400 meter recovery. Lots of fun.

We did this at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY one spring. Just for fun w/o telling our coach we had about 10 guys and ran around on the sidewalk around one of the quads (no streaking this time). At the end of every lap (aprox. 250m) the last person was out. We didn't set any prescribed pace we just went out and had fun. One guy went out and tempo'd while the rest of us had fun sprinting the last 50m. The winner was not the guy who went out and tempo'd. He was eventually caught and out-sprinted.

I wouldn't recommend this before a big meet, but it's fun to just go out and race some people without having certain times to hit.