Dumbest workouts you've done

Running 40x400m at 5k pace with 200m recovery jog between each, all that at noon under the sun of July, and not for a single day, but for seven consecutive days (so...280x400m and a total volume of 126 miles, including 70 miles at 5k pace of faster). It think it is my answer. But was it training since it was part of a weird personnal challenge in 2012, trying to replicate for a single week what Emil Zatopek once did during his whole career?

I was a mid 28 guy for the 8k and I ran 5x1 mile at 4:50 pace with a minute jog recovery, so unhelpful and so stupid. I also have gone out on several long runs on trail systems having no idea how far they are in the middle of winter or summer and ended up being on the trails for 3-5 hours each time.

edward teach wrote:

[quote]Limmo wrote:

6 mile time trial, twice a week, every week.

What was the result of that? Pretty rapid improvement, followed by a period of little to no improvement, then injury?

Pretty much.. faster and faster times for a while then they plateaued, then too tired to do 2 a week every week so did as many as I could... the rest of the week was spent plodding around or doing nothing while I recovered and dreaded the next one. Stopped doing them when my achilles was hurting every time I ran one. It was early in my running career, I think I thought I they were tempo runs..

Yasso 800's.

Just kidding. I'm not that stupid.

my coach went through a phase of having us do legit workouts right after our races (right after Galen did the famous mile repeats after his indoor 3200 record). One time I did a 1600 at 4:29, then went on to do a 4 mi tempo @ 5:40, rest about 3-4 mins, then 3 mi @ 5:25. that was the only time I ever finished one of those workouts. another time he tried to make us do a 14 miler but i didn't finish that one, so it wasn't as crazy.

Yeah my coach has us do these ridiculous Sunday workouts! Depending on the week, he will have us do 8-15 miles at around 6:30-7:30 pace. He claims these workouts "build base" but recent studies show that "base" is a myth. What are your thoughts?

Easily the worst was a 24-hour relay I put together with my XC team my Jr year prior to XC. I thought it would whip us into great shape. The first mile was 5:20, my 2-mile PR pace. Might have been OK as we slowed considerably, but at about 16 hours some cheerleaders showed up. Of course we all ran all-out (except my much faster buddy). After they left it was pure carnage. 4 out of 8 dropped out; I continued and hobbled through 36 miles total.

Two of the guys didn't show up for XC; I did, but was toast and quit after a few weeks. My coach hated me for that one, justifiably.

The only good part was that it made my first marathon two years later feel like a cakewalk.

Junior year of high school my coach had us do 3x20min with 5min rest between sets running up and down the side of an ex-trash dump at 2pm in south Florida. The hill was incredibly steep and not the best footing. Needless to say, we were all pretty shot from that and severely dehydrated.

Doesn't count as much as the above example as a "dumb" workout but more along the lines of "doesn't make any sense": same coach had us do 16x200m all out with 1min rest the week of the state finals in XC. Always made me laugh thinking back to how completely idiotic some of my high school training was.

i made a campaign to run under 15:00 about 10 years after college. i ran some races in the build up, 16:02, 15:33, and then at a flat road race with some wind I ran 15:06 and felt confident the race i had been building up to, an open 5k on a track, would be achievable.

i was contemplating just doing a 4-mile tempo at around 5:00-05 pace, but instead i decided to go for it.

my workout (3200m, 1600m, 800m, 400m) and my splits were: 9:42, 4:41, 2:19, 64) I felt great and did a long cool-down.

my track race i ran 15:23, didn't have it and found i had no spring left in my legs so i ended my season and started rebuilding for the next endeavor. i didnt feel right or springy for 3-4 months

the lesson i learned was, i think, this: running a 4-mile tempo at around 5:00-05 pace would have been very hard and uncomfortable but i wouldn't have been able to go to the well as deep or often as i did in the interval workout. basically, the rest jog between intervals i was able to recover so i could bury myself again on the next repeat where in the 4 mile tempo i wouldn't have gone as deep unless i was racing it, which i wouldn't have done.

that was a dumb workout, and in my thirties i never decided to go for it again because it was so exhausting

Easy.

Dumbest workout is RUNNING

It has a horrible ROI. Instead of getting BUFF and RIPPED you get SKINNY/FAT or SCRAWNY. Is that really what you want?

Here is my advise: don't cheap out. Spend some quality $$$ on a certified (!) CrossFit gym with certified coaches instead of your runner worlds' Training plan for download.

Junior year of high school.

Over the summer, 5 or 6 of us would get together a few times a week and run. Our coach was there and we decided to driver over to a local mountain and run to the top. We hopped in the back of our coach's truck and rode over. For kids these days, riding in the bed of a truck is a good time. I assume our coach would be arrested now for something like this. Anyway.

~4 miles up, 1800 vertical ft. Paved the whole way. Doesn't sound like much now, but for some high school kids running up this seemed impossible.

Myself and a friend managed to run the whole way. Coach followed in his truck about 30 mins after we left picking up stragglers. We all regrouped at the top and coach was going to drive us back down where we'd run another 4 miles on the back roads. I pushed for everyone to run back down...and we did.

I ran all out the entire way back down. Arms windmilling, basically out of control, 4 paved miles. I was used to some limited hills, but nothing like that. Felt fine by the bottom. That was fun!

I've never been so sore/beat up my entire life. I had to take over a week off before I could do some light jogging without pain. Took another two weeks of nothing but light jogs to feel recovered. I ended up falling apart late in my XC season, and I blame the damage caused by the downhill run (or, the early 90s all speed no miles training philosophy).

So kids, don't run downhill all-out on pavement. Run hard up as many hills as you can find, but be very careful running back down.

XFIT BRO THE REAL ONE 1 wrote:

Easy.

Dumbest workout is RUNNING

It has a horrible ROI. Instead of getting BUFF and RIPPED you get SKINNY/FAT or SCRAWNY. Is that really what you want?

Here is my advise: don't cheap out. Spend some quality $$$ on a certified (!) CrossFit gym with certified coaches instead of your runner worlds' Training plan for download.

if only you could know the difference between advice and advise. I think they teach this at crossfit church, don't they?

In high school out coach would have us do 5-8 x1 min of hill sprints on a very steep grass hill maybe 50 feet. Not that big. The catch: hands were behind your back, no one could use their arms.

Our high school coach's reason for having us lift: we look too scrawny with our shirts off, and we would always lift upper body, never legs, sometimes core.

Training for the 5k in high school we did a workout multiple times during the season that was 3x3k all out and then a 1k at the end all out.

[quote]$praddy wrote:

Junior year of high school my coach had us do 3x20min with 5min rest between sets running up and down the side of an ex-trash dump at 2pm in south Florida. The hill was incredibly steep and not the best footing. Needless to say, we were all pretty shot from that and severely dehydrated.

quote]

Is that the park in Davie?

most of my dumb workouts have been in the 'sharpening' category. I don't do 200s all year...then a week out from a big race I do fast 200s. Then I am sore and feel bad for 3-5 days, just when I should be trying to feel good.

12 miles through the hills the day before I won a big race outright and ran my 5K PR.

I got away with it, but I realized later on that the workout didn't make sense at all.

Dumbest?

Sprinted 3/4 miles from a home around 11 PM.

Apparently her husband came home early...

Well, just west of Davie but yeah. Vista View is a helluva place

Run 21 miles for my 21st bday on and out and back run. I was hurt as heck and ended up stopping at 10 miles and walking a mile before getting picked up by a car who dropped me off at my girlfriends house.