Rupp's 30/40 comes to mind, but I am sure there are other ridiculously tough workouts from other top elites? I am unaware of any personally, but curious to know of any others? El G probably had some doozies!!
Rupp's 30/40 comes to mind, but I am sure there are other ridiculously tough workouts from other top elites? I am unaware of any personally, but curious to know of any others? El G probably had some doozies!!
Rashid Ramzi had 10x1K in 2:30 or something like that. It was juiced, but whatever...
Supposedly when Bob Kennedy was training with the Kenyans they did some workout where they ran 1600, 1200, 800, 400. Daniel Komen ran something like 3:54, 2:5x (low), sub2, like low 50s.
Saw the following:
falcon: 12 x 300 at 41 avg with 100m jog on the curve (last one in 37.9)
falcon: 2 x 1600 at 3.59, 3.59 (10 minutes rest)
falcon: 5 x mile on dirt road at 4.22 avg
porter: 5 x mile at 4.21 (altitude adjusted loop at park)
abdi bile: 4 x 400 at 52 with lap jog
marc davis: 3 x 800 at 1.54 followed by 4 x 300 at 41
Run with the Champions, by Mark Bloom, has information on workouts by a bunch of American runners. My personal favorite is Sydney Maree, who says that when he was in college he would get up and run 10 miles at 4:30-4:50 per mile. That is, seven days a week he would come close to the world record for ten miles on the road. At least Bloom says that he said that; I can't help but wonder if anyone would actually say that, but then again I can't imagine someone would say someone said that when they didn't. The book also has Gerry Lindgren as claiming to have tempoed a ten miler through a wheat field in 46:05, which would have been a world record at the time (it also talks about his 350 mile weeks and 80 mile long runs). Has anyone else seen this book?
Hall ran an 18 mile tempo at 5:00 pace at altitude before NY. I imagine he was doing a high mileage week at the time, too.
From Ritz's blog: "I think one of my best workouts was probably doing 9 x 1600m with 400m recovery in 4:21 average. I did this workout a week before I did my semi-famous 10-mile tempo run in 45:03 around the Nike campus."
Ritz also ran 32x400 in 66 with a 400m rec in High School.
Someone who enjoys running wrote:
Run with the Champions, by Mark Bloom, has information on workouts by a bunch of American runners. My personal favorite is Sydney Maree, who says that when he was in college he would get up and run 10 miles at 4:30-4:50 per mile. That is, seven days a week he would come close to the world record for ten miles on the road. At least Bloom says that he said that; I can't help but wonder if anyone would actually say that, but then again I can't imagine someone would say someone said that when they didn't. The book also has Gerry Lindgren as claiming to have tempoed a ten miler through a wheat field in 46:05, which would have been a world record at the time (it also talks about his 350 mile weeks and 80 mile long runs). Has anyone else seen this book?
Absolutely love this book. It gives great insight into exactly how hard the top American runners worked to get where they are.
The most impressive one's I know of are:
Kipketer's 1 x 800 in 1:41.11
El G's 1 x 1500 in 3:26.00
Komen's 1 x 3000 in 7:20.67
Bekele's 1 x 5000 in 12:37.35
Bekele's 1 x 10,000 in 26:17.53
Geb's 1 x Marathon in 2:03:59
And incidently these are the only one's that really count. I don't think they keep records for or have competitions for 10 x 400 workouts or similar such workouts.
Geb had some pretty fast workouts at altitude, detailed in "The Greatest." What impressed me most wasn't the 2:53 1200s he cranked out, but the fact that he drove up to 10,000ft later in the day and ran for 2 hours.
I think Marc Bloom is full of it (he didn't seem to have a good handle on how running worked based on "God on the Starting Line"), but if Maree really was hammering 10-milers at under 5-minute pace every day, perhaps we know why he doesn't have any medals.
My wife saw Daniel Njenga do 10 x 5000 m with each rep progressively faster and starting on the hour.
Saddest sack of shyt wrote:
The most impressive one's I know of are:
Kipketer's 1 x 800 in 1:41.11
El G's 1 x 1500 in 3:26.00
Komen's 1 x 3000 in 7:20.67
Bekele's 1 x 5000 in 12:37.35
Bekele's 1 x 10,000 in 26:17.53
Geb's 1 x Marathon in 2:03:59
And incidently these are the only one's that really count. I don't think they keep records for or have competitions for 10 x 400 workouts or similar such workouts.
They used to! I remember the old postal two-man ten-mile relays: paarlauf with each man running 20 quarters. I believe Jim Ryun (age ~18) and his partner (Lawson? really don't remember) still have the record, averaging 61.7 per lap.
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Oh, and incidentally: in English, we don't form plurals with an apostrophe.
Oh, and incidentally: in English, we don't form plurals with an apostrophe.
Indeed, one wonders how a single apostrophe could conceivably pluralize multiple nouns. How would that work: every noun within a six word radius of the apostrophe?
Thanks for the postal relay anecdote.
most of the workouts listed below (save the wrs) are anecdotal. I don't buy a 10 mile "tempo" in 45.03. They try to scare the competition.
sometimes they leave their best races at home, just like everyone else.