What is the toughest Workout you've ever did?

Much worse is the day after day workouts, week after week. It can screw you up later on in life.

Definitely a personal thing depending on the athlete, but I dreaded the 9 mile negative split run we had on Tuesdays in early season xc. Each mile had to be faster than the previous one and the last 3 or so were @ 5:1x ish pace with the studs running significantly faster. I remember the terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach walking across campus on Tuesdays for that practice and knowing what loomed. Dreaded Tuesdays much, much more than any race day. Mid-season our coach shortened it to 6 miles which was way more tolerable.

The workout I saw claim the most victims however was 20 x 400 on the track during the spring. It was a once a season rite of passage thing. Each quarter had to be @ your 1500 pace (say sub 63ish - but the real athletes were closer to 60), very little rest (maybe 90 seconds but it seemed shorter) and if you did not hit your split or faster, you ran more. Saw a lot of people pull over and puke on this one. No bueno

How is 20x400 at 1500 pace even possible? How many people were able to do that workout? Did the coach usually end up pulling people if they didn't hit a couple or did he just make them keep running them forever?

I once did 20x400 in 62-66 with 45 seconds rest in-between. It was a negative-splitted workout that looked about like this:

66, 66, 66, 66, 65, 65, 65, 65, 64, 64, 64, 64, 63, 63, 63, 63, 62, 62, 62, 62.

What was your mile/1500/5k pr at the time?

I always dreaded 7xmile with 2 minutes recovery. My range was 4:45-4:50, the studs were in the 4:30s or better.

Most of us could do it. This one was easier for me than then 9 miler I referenced in OP. The rest is what makes it possible. It is actually a very popular workout but usually consists of less reps (16 x 400; 12 x 400).

Can't ever remember anyone having to run extra, but I'm sure it happened. If people were puking, they would get the hook or if they were not hitting their splits, they would get pulled and not finish the workout. I don't think anyone is still doing the workout i.e. running forever.

Yeah, I've done 12x400 at paces like that, I was just wondering because 20 seems so excessive at that pace. Did you feel like it was an effective workout for xc or track or whenever you did it?

Whenever I set out to do a long tempo - those are the worst for me. Like trying to do 15m at 6:00 pace or something like that. 3x I broke 60 minutes for this 10.2m trail run near my house. Those were pretty rough. Those take longer to recover from than any interval workouts I do. A 9-mile progression like the other guy mentioned would be brutal too. Hard to resist that urge to speed up too much too soon.

pregunta wrote:

Yeah, I've done 12x400 at paces like that, I was just wondering because 20 seems so excessive at that pace. Did you feel like it was an effective workout for xc or track or whenever you did it?

The long rest makes it not that difficult...

Did?

The toughest workout I've ever did was Grammar 101

In response to HS senior, he said that it made people puke and sometimes not finish, which I wouldn't classify as "not that difficult."

You forgot the period!

Either a 10 mile tempo or 20x400.

The most unpleasant run I ever did was a 20 miler on an August afternoon where I almost passed out from heat exhaustion. That strikes me as not quite what you were asking for though, as that was just difficult because of conditions, whereas a relaxed 20 miler can be fairly pleasant under favorable conditions.

The most impressive workout I've done was 12x800, first 11 at 2:20-2:25, last one in 2:06 all with 2-3' rest. That indicated I might be in sub 4:20 1600 shape, a time I've never hit.

The hardest workouts were short ladders at as close to 800 pace as possible with a 600 at beginning and end--600-400-300-300-600 or so. Of course none of us could run our 800 pace; in 1:57 shape the last 600 was a painful 1:35 or so. That workout hurts.

3x (2 miles at tempo pace, 400m jog, 1 mile at 10K pace, 400m jog, 800m at 5K pace) with 400m jog between sets. As I was gunning for a 2:40 marathon, it worked out to be 2 miles at 5:40 pace, 1 mile at 5:30 and 800m in 2:40. First two were easy. The third 2-mile also felt easy, but then I could not run any faster than 5:40 for the last mile and 800m. I was running as hard as I could, and even on the 800m could not manage anything faster than a 2:50. I realized during the third set that this workout totaled 10.5 miles, all faster than my 10-mile race pace.

500 (70 sec) 1min rest 300(46) 8 min rest 500(65s) 1min rest 300 (51-I was dead).

I guess it was effective from a mental standpoint. Everyone dreaded it and if anything, it helped psychologically if/when you were able to finish it. A

It is really just a variation of 5 x 1600 or floating 400s for as many laps possible, etc. The rest or lack thereof is critical.