What's the dumbest running decision you've ever made?

setyourselffree wrote:

Mine was quitting running when I got tendinitis. I gained 40 pounds and obviously got out of shape.

When I turned 40 I decided I should stretch and also stop being a heel striker.

That subscription to Running World magazine I bought many years ago. Anything else pales by comparison.

Starting a thread on LetsRun earlier today titled "I got harassed today by a 9 year-old girl for running without a shirt on!"

Going off Lexapro cold turkey. Killed my running, Never actually recovered and could never get a runners high again.

amkelley wrote:

Doing a 22-mile final marathon training run the day after a 5-mile race, at age 57. That was the beginning of the end for my right Achilles tendon.

Long runs the day after a hard race or workout are a guarantee for injury. #1 training mistake, made it myself.

Two.

1. Reading Letsrun and getting too much into training methodology, overthinking everything, etc instead of just running and saving that energy for the races.

2. Running in college for more than the first year. Should've just stopped because it wasn't worth the time sacrifice. Should've just joined a frat and gotten laid more, and also focused on exploring what other things the school had to offer.

Sprinting to the front of the BolderBoulder 10k as Batman so DailyCamera would take a photo of me (but they missed me) and then ahouting GOBBLE GOBBLE TYLER MCCANDLESS!!!!!! And having Tyler push me down and then having to drop out

Missing a family funeral to go to the 2012 NYC Marathon which was then cancelled because of hurricane Sandy. A waste of money, waste of a marathon taper, and should have been with my family anyway.

Running shirtless and never having gone to the gym to do upper body. The last time I worked out on arms and chest was when I did a set of 20 push ups. The period of time from me running shirtless and doing that only set of pushups was like 10 months.

Agreed.

No Free Time wrote:

Reading these stupid running message boards and then never having any free time to do other things.

Starting to run competitively in the first place.

Claude François wrote:

Starting to run competitively in the first place.

Something tells me that the "first place" reference is a figure of speech.

Going high-carb vegetarian when I took up running at 16 so I could be a "lean healthy plant-powered running machine". That machine fell apart big time age 28, took decades to repair the damage.

don't listen to idiots wrote:

setyourselffree wrote:

Well crap. I guess I need to rethink my plan for this year... maybe switch to the half.

Seriously don't listen to that guy. I ran a sub 4 hour marathon on a plan that capped out at like 40 miles per week. just go slow man you got it.

Really? The plan I followed (intermediate) has you run two 20 mile runs in the entire training plan. The longest marathon paced run he has you do is only 8 miles. Almost zero threshold work. He does ask you to run a half marathon but what exactly does that do to help you determine your actual marathon pace? For a beginner, you have no way to gauge that - or your easy pace for that matter.

I find that you need at least a 22 miler or to be on your feet for close to 3 hours to not crash during the race.

For an "intermediate" program, this training plan gives you unrealistic expectations about your fitness. And it's not like I went out at top speed for the first 18 miles. My 5K PR and 10K PR going into the race were 18:56 and 40:35. My half marathon was 1:36. My predicted finish time for the marathon was 3:30-ish if not faster.

So when I rolled in at the finish at 4:03 after starting the race at 8:10 pace, what does that say about his training plan?

Daniel's is far better. At least, I have had better luck following his VDOT tables for accuracy and him telling you to do a few 2.5 hour runs plus a few 22 milers has been the best marathon advice I've read.

1. Running the first day of being symptom free after a stomach bug. Got hit with a second round tummy trouble and probably took twice as long to recover than if I had just rested.

2. Running along fairly high traffic streets at night with no flash light or reflective clothing.

Well, at one time everybody tried to emulate

the stork like stride of Alberto Salazar, much

to pained knees.

After reading Canova’s “something new in training” the summer before sr year of collegiate xc, I ramped up my mileage to 95mpw at a pace significantly quicker than i’d run previous summers.

I came into the season in great shape, set some PRs and won some small early season meets, but by the time October rolled around I was feeling the toll of the hard mileage since early June. I got hurt, didn’t run some big meets that were important for at-large points for nationals qualifying, bombed conference, and was the 7th man at regionals.

TL;DR - I overestimated my ability to cope with mileage, trained selfishly, and really hurt my team my final year of college.

dropping out of NYCM then three weeks later running the philly marathon.

Awful time in philly. I've never cried before or after a sporting event. Made me hate running for years.

believe the coe low mileage myth