What is the worst running advice you have ever received?

If you can do one more repeat you should.

Basically racing workouts.

A coach told me my forefoot strike was really bad for my calves and inefficient, i swapped to heal striking and royally KO'd my Achilles.

"High mileage makes you race faster"

Train Hard, Run Fast!

Eat a McDonald's cheeseburger within an hour of racing.

To never use EPO.

"Try hoka's!"

PaybackPig wrote:

What is the worst running advice you have ever received?

There is this cool running site...

Lengthen my stride and land on my heel to run more efficiently. I was told this as a child, and unlearned it in my 20s.

To run a base of a large number of almost exclusively slow miles.

Same old, same old... wrote:

Being told to stop running, as I'll "ruin my knees"-- from multiple out-of-shape people, many of whom with knees ruined by something other than running.

I went to a doctor when I was 19 for some knee pain - basically pain behind my knee cap. He told me I had "runner's knee" and that I was just one of those people who should never run. He told me to never run again.

That day I told a friend about that advice, I was pretty upset, he said that was crap, told me it was muscle imbalance (my knee cap was tracking wrong) and I should start riding a bike to strengthen my quads. I started riding a bike and kept running. The knee pain went away and 20 years later I've never had it again and have I have never quit running. I also still ride a bike.

Not trustworthy wrote:

To run a base of a large number of almost exclusively slow miles.

+ 1,000,000

Amzingly a lot of doctors stand by the fact that it's quite damaging to your body/knees to run.

K

As a coach, I've heard quite a few.

1. A parent insisting to take his daughter out the night before a major championship race to do multiple Hill repeats, hard.

2. A father telling his son to whistle while running so that when it came time to race, the air passages would open up wider and he'd get more oxygen in and run faster. Needless to say, when he was introduced to intervals - new concept to them- he could not only not whistle, but finish the easy number of intervals.

3. This is the worst. A local podiatrist, a professional, who makes orthotics insisted, based on "over fifty years of experience" to heel strike first. "I know what I'm talking about" he tried to Lord over anyone as the final say in biomechanics. His orthotics were heavy, clunky princes of stiff rubber which might explain for the need of getting help.

The best tactic is to go right to the front and stay there. (The field was loaded).

Use surges to shake off your opponents. (This was a 3200 race, also with a loaded field in which I was hoping for about 6th.)

I'm not sure if this is true or not, it may be true but it DID NOT WORK for me.

But I was at a 5k, some lady who I perceived as being very intelligent was chatting with me prior to the race, I asked her about her pace and stuff, she told me that the first 20 seconds of exercise has no cardiac impact (Yeah i dunno). I blew out the door past everyone and then was in so much pain/had so much lactate at the end i threw up everywhere.

Hold a stretch for 90 seconds so the muscle "releases". It took the better part of a decade to shake the upper hamstring strain that came with following that advice.

There was also the podiatrist who said my metatarsal stress fracture was just a soft tissue issue.

I was told that these Newton shoes which elevated my foot would have my running more balanced and fluid, and that my feet were perfect for it. He said for my level I would easily train at high 5's low 6's per mile, it just takes two weeks to get used to the shoe.

Unfortunately that 2 weeks went to 4 weeks and it took a lot of effort to get under 7:15 per mile, well off my pace. Then another two weeks went by, stress fracture out for 3 months. I learned later through another specialist that my feet were way to flat for the shoe. I'll put blame on me to because I do have insanely flat feet.