Your Craziest Ever Training Weeks

205 miles in insane, along with the follow-on weeks. Wow!

My "crazies" when I was training for triathlon and hit 34 hours of training for one week (split heavily among cycling and running, along with a bit of swimming).

If this is legit, what are your all time PR's?

Not a whole week, but these two days back to back were STUPID.

Sunday - raced a 15K hard (PR)

Monday - 19 miles, which planned to do easy after the race the day before. My pace kept ramping down, and I finished the last few miles at marathon pace.

I managed to stay healthy through the goal marathon, but got injured shortly thereafter. I was in the best shape of my life, and was physically able to do much more than I had ever done before. In retrospect having a coach put the breaks on me might have extended that good stretch of training and allowed me to climb to higher heights. I never again achieved that level of fitness.

gbrunner wrote:

needless to say I went back to being coached by my dad after this, and got a new job as a gardener

How would that possibly be considered "needless to say"? Would we just assume that you were already coached by your dad and assume that after that you'd go ahead and get a job as a gardener?

t94bell wrote:

If this is legit, what are your all time PR's?

Of course not. Even at my best I couldn't have handled a week like that, not even close -- and I was known to be able to handle pretty much anything.

Idontevenknow wrote:

How would that possibly be considered "needless to say"? Would we just assume that you were already coached by your dad and assume that after that you'd go ahead and get a job as a gardener?

gbrunner claims to be a runner from loughborough university who competed for Britain, but won't say who.

Apparently he is leaving little clues around hoping someone will guess his identity.

I think the slate mine and gardener thing rules out the famous ones.

i was coach by my dad from 12 to 18, and then coached myself at loughborough (but taking advice from coaches such as george gandy, dave cannon and alan storey) and then on till I was 26. This current phase was when I was 26, I started being coached properly again by my dad the following day after the marathon!

i ran track until I was 28, but with a wife and children plus a new business I couldn't do the 100 + mile weeks necessary to run well in the 1500 and 5k. stopped racing for a while, but still ran maybe 20-65 miles (fluctuated quite a bit), then started again, but only in local fell races.

i'll let you have my (best!) pb's and leave the figuring out to you:

1500m- 3.42.7

3000m- 7.56.2

5000m- 13.49.9

and malmo i was hoping you would comment, can you give us some of your training weeks?

gbrunner wrote:

1500m- 3.42.7

3000m- 7.56.2

5000m- 13.49.9

Well that's pretty good, but not good enough to waste time figuring out your identity. Sorry.

But you're right, you should have stuck with 1500

no worries,

i just thought it would be interesting to see if others had been as idiotic as i was! how about yourself?

Bad Wigins wrote:

gbrunner wrote:

1500m- 3.42.7

3000m- 7.56.2

5000m- 13.49.9

Well that's pretty good, but not good enough to waste time figuring out your identity. Sorry.

But you're right, you should have stuck with 1500

It is so handy you came within a second (or a few seconds) to making the GB all-time lists, but never actually made it on to any of them . . .

But what I wonder is why you were doing 6 mile "steady" runs in under 30 minutes, and racing 10k's at pretty much the same speed.

Anyway, I have had some crazy weeks myself (by my standards) - but that pretty much just meant 130 mile weeks. Actually, only one week that high (and a month that ended up being around 500 miles) but not a lot of speed work in that stretch, and I ended up getting hurt soon after it.

My philosophy now is that I would much rather have a season of 75 mpw and get some PR's, instead of running 115 mpw on average and be hurt for the season. I hope to eventually get above 100 mpw again, but not before I have a season at 85-90 to work up to it.

Your 6 mile steady runs were in some cases faster than your race. Given your buildup, the fact that you "only" run 29:30, and your poor pacing I'm surprised you still did 2:23.

Also, your "real" training week seems harder than Wejo's fake April fools training week:

http://www.letsrun.com/sampleweek.html

Especially when you consider your work schedule.

slate mine? come on

a week leading up to the world mountain running champs this year (junior race) was this;

monday- am. 2 hours running in the mountains, from 1250m to 3600m and back down, after only coming to altitude the previous day. suffered with a bit of apoxia at the top

tuesday- am. cable car up to 2400m, then 20 minute w/u, 7 x 2 minutes uphill with jog down recovery, 20 minute w/d, cable car down pm. 30 minutes on trails at 1250m

wednesday- am. 1 hour 10 minutes from 1250m up to around 2000m, and back down pm. 30 minutes on trails at 1250m, then 10 x 15 second strides

thursday- am. 20 minute w/u, then fartlek of 10 x 1 minute with 1 minute recovery, 5 minutes easy, 5 x 3 minutes with 2 minute recovery, 5 minutes easy, 10 x 1 minute with 1 minute recovery, 20 minute w/d, all done on trails at 1250m pm. 30 minutes on the same trails as the morning

friday- am. 1 hour 10 minutes from 1250m up to 2100m and back down pm. 40 minutes on trails at 1250m, then 10 x 15 second uphill strides

saturday- am. 20 minute w/u, 3 x 3k on uphill mountain road (10.11, 9.55, 9.48), jogged back downhill each time, but cutting the switchbacks to limit recovery, 20 minute w/d pm. 30 minutes made up of 20 minutes uphill to next village, then 10 minutes downhill

sunday- am. travelled to italy pm. 20 minutes jogging

had a decent race, died a bit after 4km, was a slog to the finish. this isnt what i usually do, spent october-april not running very seriously, only 25-35 miles per week. then hit a 76 while on holiday in april and realised i had a big ability to jump up fast in mileage and not get hurt. i beat all of the american guys, any coaches out there want to give me some scholarship money?! seriously!

gbrunner wrote:

i was coach by my dad from 12 to 18, and then coached myself at loughborough (but taking advice from coaches such as george gandy, dave cannon and alan storey) and then on till I was 26. This current phase was when I was 26, I started being coached properly again by my dad the following day after the marathon!

i ran track until I was 28, but with a wife and children plus a new business I couldn't do the 100 + mile weeks necessary to run well in the 1500 and 5k. stopped racing for a while, but still ran maybe 20-65 miles (fluctuated quite a bit), then started again, but only in local fell races.

i'll let you have my (best!) pb's and leave the figuring out to you:

1500m- 3.42.7

3000m- 7.56.2

5000m- 13.49.9

Since when are 100 mile weeks necessary to run well in the 1500?

malmo wrote:

t94bell wrote:

If this is legit, what are your all time PR's?

Of course not. Even at my best I couldn't have handled a week like that, not even close -- and I was known to be able to handle pretty much anything.

I hate even responding here because I don't like the people who manage this place but have 2c to add.

I had a college teammate who put in 200 mile weeks a couple times in a six month span.

Each time he did 20 in the morning and 10 in the evening for six consecutive days, and on the seventh he "rested" and ran just a single 20.

Prior to his second big week he also ran 20 a day for six days and on the seventh he ran 35 or 36 (single run).

Most of his running at this phase was between 6:00 to 7:00 pace or so.

He ran 8:36 for 3000 m and sub 14:50 for 5K. And yes, he was certifiably crazy.

These are nutty training weeks if real.

The most moronic block of training came over a three day span...probably tame to others here...

Friday: 6 miles morning, 14 miles before dinner.

Saturday: 12 miles morning, 5x1000, 5x400, 5x200, 8 mile slog.

Sunday: 5 miles morning, 10 miles later than morning, evening 2x1600, 2x1200, 2x1000, 2x200 followed 6 miles of slogging.

I spent the next two days sore, on the couch, and stuffing my face.

Here's the best 10 days of training I ever did:

Monday: 17 progressive, avg. 5:52

Tuesday: AM 8, PM 8 (slow)

Wednesday: AM 4.5, PM 11.5 progression (23:15 last 4)

Thursday: AM 9.5, PM 6

Friday: AM 8.5, PM 6 easy

Saturday: AM 10.5 with 4 miles hard over hills, 21:46 PM: 6.5 hard

Sunday: rest

Monday: AM 4, PM 13.5 (6:30)

Tuesday: AM 6 hard, PM 8.5 progression run

Wednesday: AM 6, PM 11 with 4 mile tempo, 20:40

145 miles/10 days

This was all in ice/slush, and two days later I developed patellofemoral pain syndrome, which pretty much ruined the track season.