Insane Training - Which Professional Runners Stand Out?

Metric Miler wrote:

Guerrouj apparently did all his mileage, 45-60min runs at 2:55-3:00 per km, always thought that must be tough to recover from.

Makhloufi ran that 1:44 800m solo in training also.

And Genzebe's ridiculous 800m workout finishing with a 1:58.

Guerrouj - source?

Makhloufi - sure

Genzebe - came from unknown source, many here are skeptical

Thank you.

Umm ever heard of Emil Zatopek?

"Guerrouj - source?

Makhloufi - sure

Genzebe - came from unknown source, many here are skeptical"

-turds like you need a good smack in the mouth.

That day would suck so much.

HardLoper wrote:

These triathlon "day in the life" videos are really impressive. This one is Jan Frodeno doing his workouts between 5:30 am and 7 pm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy-8NeoTfeI

arenner26 wrote:

Occasionally I'll read training stories that make me realize just how bad some runners want it, pushing past the brink of normalcy on a regular basis.

Of all the runners you know or know of, who has done the most insane training? What have been their results?

Recently, Mo Aman was boasting of pushing training to intense psychological overload. This, of course must be described in more precise language and categorized accurately. Every runner has the personal motivation, that sense of karma and beauty, to make them do incredible acts in training. What is important is that we align those with reasonable rest, clarity about goals and the winds of destiny. These latter skills, I believe innately every runner has them, too but has been discouraged from using their creativity and intuition by society. The creativity and intuition needed to access the inner golden compass.

go look up jason lester's 88hr runs with no sleep or 45miles a day for 72 straight days. ran across china 32 miles a day and its all training.

Bill Walker wrote:

That day would suck so much.

HardLoper wrote:

These triathlon "day in the life" videos are really impressive. This one is Jan Frodeno doing his workouts between 5:30 am and 7 pm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy-8NeoTfeI

Seriously wtf. How can anyone enjoy that in the slightest? Is all of that even possible?? How much would you have to be eating and hydrating..

Pure running: volume: Gerry Lindgren. (nutty for relentless hard/long; there are plenty stories of individual long days by others that are insane). Of course, Emil Zatopek. intensity/speed: this is a much tougher one for me ... I wouldn't be surprised if it was Bekele and Haile G, but I've heard a lot of other stories of crazy intensity. Of the ones I've seen in person (certainly not as crazy as Haile, I would think) - on a measured track: Marcos Barreto on Boulder track doing 400's. A guy there told me Arturo Barrios did same number of reps at the same crazy pace, but with only half as much recovery(!). unmeasured: Khalid Kannouchi *flying* by on the trails at Rockefeller Estate ... unreal!

But for other insane training: with triathlon, definitely Dave Scott's big training block days (crazy volume!), and Luc van Lierde (superman at super speeds!). And for insane monotony, what about Ingrid Kristiansen's 2 hour treadmill runs just looking at a photo of Joan Benoit Samuelson?!

ClonedDuck wrote:

Bill Walker wrote:

That day would suck so much.

Seriously wtf. How can anyone enjoy that in the slightest? Is all of that even possible?? How much would you have to be eating and hydrating..

No kidding! How would you even have the energy to end your day with 20x 400 after already doing like 6 hours of exercise prior.

I think we're forgetting pavvo nurmi.... Dude was insane, maybe not the most logical, but insane nonetheless

Mackeray_ODonnaldson wrote:

Recently, Mo Aman was boasting of pushing training to intense psychological overload. This, of course must be described in more precise language and categorized accurately. Every runner has the personal motivation, that sense of karma and beauty, to make them do incredible acts in training. What is important is that we align those with reasonable rest, clarity about goals and the winds of destiny. These latter skills, I believe innately every runner has them, too but has been discouraged from using their creativity and intuition by society. The creativity and intuition needed to access the inner golden compass.

This was damn near beautiful.

ClonedDuck wrote:

Bill Walker wrote:

That day would suck so much.

Seriously wtf. How can anyone enjoy that in the slightest? Is all of that even possible?? How much would you have to be eating and hydrating..

You can eat pretty much anything on the bike...your stomach will tolerate way more stuff than when you are running ...I even know folks who fell asleep on their trainers, lol, shoes clipped in and everything. (I don't think they kept pedaling, sadly...)

well, Derek Clayton of course, the first runner to break

the 2:10 and 2:09 barriers. He routinely trained 120 to 160 miles

a week, sometimes going as high as 200 miles. And that was

not jogging, he ran hard almost every time. Needless to say,

he was injured a lot, many surgeries, etc

Bill Rodgers.

Park Runs wrote:

Umm ever heard of Emil Zatopek?

At his peak he supposedly ran weeks of 20+ miles in intervals a day at overall paces higher than the marathon WR pace of his day...

Same year he wins Olympic Gold in 5k, 10k and Marathon.

Beat that people.

Oh Yeah Z! wrote:

Park Runs wrote:

Umm ever heard of Emil Zatopek?

At his peak he supposedly ran weeks of 20+ miles in intervals a day at overall paces higher than the marathon WR pace of his day...

Same year he wins Olympic Gold in 5k, 10k and Marathon.

Beat that people.

Though, not professional. So I guess he doesn't count.

Here's some good stuff:http://web.archive.org/web/20051110140939/http://wls3.com/running/logs-bekele.phpThis page provides a general training plan used by Bekele as well as the rest of the Ethiopian National Team.Typical Weekly ScheduleMondayAM3 hour long run in the forest (5:40/mile)PMnoneTuesdayAM1.5 hour run; stretchingPM1 hour easyWednesdayAMhard 15km - 30km run on roads (half marathon - marathon pace); stretchingPM1 hour easyThursdayAMsprints in spikes; jogging; long warmup; 20 minutes stretchingPM1 hour easyFridayAM15 - 20 x 400m hills with jog recovery; 15 - 20 minutes stretchingPM1 hour easySaturdayAMtrack work; 3 x 1200m to 8 x 2000m; stretchingPM1 hour easySundayAM1 hour very easyPMnoneSpecific WorkoutsSession Pace Specifics Workout Goal6 x 800m 1:57/800m lap 1 at 1:04; lap 2 at 0:53 final lap kick6-10 x 1000m 2:27/1000m 3 minutes recovery (3000m pace work)3 x 2000m 5:00/2000m 3 minutes recovery; (5000m pace work)5 x 2000m 5:15/2000m (10,000m pace work) threshold 4:25-4:45/mile 15k - 30k (half marathon to marathon pace)An Ethiopian newspaper reported on a workout run by the Ethiopian National Team (specifically Bekele and Sihine) during June of 2004. The athletes ran 7000m (in Addis Ababa at altitude) at an average pace of around 2:40/kilometer. They split 13:22 for 5000m on their way to a 7000m time between 18:40 and 18:45.

arenner26 wrote:

Occasionally I'll read training stories that make me realize just how bad some runners want it, pushing past the brink of normalcy on a regular basis.

Of all the runners you know or know of, who has done the most insane training? What have been their results?