The xc coach I had one year didn't do speedwork the whole year... until he had us do 8 x 400 meter runs the day before regionals. The craziness of that situation was only matched by the run he had is do the day before sectionals. He shoved the whole varsity team into his black van and drove at 80 mph weaving between the lanes (this one freshman girl had total breakdown shouting "we're gonna die!!!), but fortunately we survived and were dropped off four miles away from the school in the middle of a country road. The coach said that his goal was for us to do "strength training" by having us go 4 miles against the wind (probably don't need to explain the stupidity of that the day before a race). Except, joke was on this dumb coach becaus turned out we were running WITH the wind. At least that made it easier. :) The xc coach got fired a year later.