Weirdest workout you've run or seen run

I once worked with a sprint coach who had a "anything that doesn't kill you makes you stronger" mentality. Any kind of injury, no matter how serious, was a sign of weakness and was a sign that you were mentally weak.

The sprinters were in the middle of a set of gut-busting 300's when one young man was limping complaining about how his leg hurt above the knee. He got a compassionate response like "Get to work, you p***y" and kept limping along. Right in the middle of the 4th repeat, he went down with a broken femur right next to where I was standing and it sounded like someone shot a starting pistol.

The kid recovered normally but for some reason, did not go out for track again.

In the army, we used to finish some of our morning physical training sessions with an out and back sprint relay between the different squads. It wasn't so much of a physical workout as it was a morale and cohesion sort of thing. Once in a while we would spice it up by having the soldiers do five or so revolutions around a traffic cone or some other object before sprinting back to the finish. It was always pretty hilarious watching guys try to sprint back while falling down from being dizzy and being unable to run straight. It was a completely useless workout from a physical standpoint, but for the entertainment value, it was priceless.

i once was not able to leave the house because i was waiting for an important phone call. so i went into my backyard, which is not that big, and ran 76 laps around it.

I once saw a redneck high school track coach stagger the two mile!!! Had them break on the backstretch. It was really funny.

My coach in high school was also the drivers\' ed teacher. So, he would take the drivers\' ed car out to the school\'s empty parking lot, put it in neutral, put one of us in the drivers\' seat and about three of us behind the car and then we would sprint while pushing the car. We would do repeats so everyone would get a chance to \"drive\" the car. Let\'s just say my coach was a little off and it was pretty embarassing if anyone saw us.

My collegiate coach was known for some unorthodox training methods. Amongst others, my favorites were:

1) One time he observed one of our distance runners lifting his arms too high in his opinion. In order to 'teach' him to run with is arms lower, he basically handcuffed the guy with athletic tape, hands behind his back, and then had him do 8 by 200m on the indoor track. That was classic.

2) A runner who had a stress fracture needed to cross train. The device used in this case was a stationary rowing machine. In order to tax his system more quickly, he pinched the guys nostrels with a clip and gave him a snorkel to breathe through, and then used athletic tape to tape off half of the opening. Poor guy lasted about 10 minutes.

wow... your coach seems to love athletic tape.

i love athletic tape, too. very versatile.

Actually, most high school meets I've been to run a 1-turn stagger on the 2-mile rather than using a waterfall start.

But you reminded of a meet I coached at once where the starter put out starting blocks for the start of the mile!

Qualifies closer to one of the tougher workouts more than weird, but Garry Henry, Australian, who still holds the collegiate marathon record of approx. 2:10:08, twice a year, ran a workout of 5 X 5 mile with 45-90 minutes rest between. His goal which he usually hit was sub 26:00 per rep.

back in HS, my coach plotted out a number of pay phone numbers of telephones in the area. then he gave us a certain amount of time to run to each pay phone and answer it. a good mix of sprints and tempo like runs. kind of like die hard with avengence with out the guns, gold bars or jeremy irons.

it was a pretty good workout and good diversion from the typical seriousness of workouts.

my high school was in a very hilly area and our coach used to drive around a follow us. On particular hills he'd drive the car real close and tell us he would run us over if we didn't go faster. Honestly we believed he would run us over, he was just that kind of guy.

He also had a work out where we would a couple 400's and 30 or so 100's.

Ran pretty buzzed a few times on alcohol and reefer way back then just to get in my runs.

Did a jog in a hail storm just to put an entry in the log.

My high school coach made us do a workout the day everyone got back from spring break that he called "Rotweillers" Everyone would have a partner, and you would start by doing an all out 200, tap your partner's hand, and while they were doing their 200 repeat you would have to job back across the infield and be their in time for your partner to tap your hand. He would make us do this until you absolutely couldn't anymore. He made sprinters and distance guys all do it together, and he wouldn't let us be done w/ the workout until at least 3 people had thrown up. It was brutal, but I look back on it pretty fondly now.

I went to Iowa State where we had a 300 meter indoor track. One time I had a tempo run scheduled, on a saturday in early May. We got hit with a late snow storm and the track was covered with the snow and the roads were icy. So I did a 33:11 10000, a PR at the time, on the track. About a month before that there was one of those Relay for Life anti-cancer fundraisers on the indoor track. I was a ringer for a departmental team that wanted to get the most laps and I talked them into giving me three consecutive 30 min sections. I went through the half marathon in 1:17:04, it was a good marathon paced long run.

Thats called a parlauff and we used to do the same thing as a relay race every year. There was a 4800m race (12 200's each) and a 9600m race (24 200's each). Having to run across the track in 30 seconds is not easy by the end of it!!

I heard that Zatopek used to hold his breath for as long as he could (often until collapsing). He was once found passed out by the road by some old lady. He also used to run in the bath in army boots. Crazy bastard!!!

Some kid who came on a recruiting trip to us told us he did 40 by 400 with 1 minute rests which seemed weird for a high school kid!!

That is a called a parlauff. We used to have a race like it every year. Seves as a great workout. Its basically the same as the 30, 30 drill for 200's but with jog accross the track after each rep. The long race was 9600m (24 each which was tough as hell.

I heard that Zatopek held his breath when running for as long as he could and was once found collapsed on the side of the road. He also ran in the bathtub in army boots as training. Crazy bastard!!

Nobody in Belgium under 18 has a drivers liscence,you can only get one when you turn 18.So many times after going out all night to a danceclub,I ran home 7 miles in dress clothes and dress shoes.

Eddy

What is the "Michigan Workout"? My coach was talking about it. SOmething like running a mile in between reps on the track?

These three workouts all orignated from a coach who was at two NC univerties and an NC high school. I would say they qualify as the most stupid workouts I've ever heard about. These are all workouts he had his athletes do in X-C season.

1) 100 x 100 - I'm not quite sure what this workout was supposed to accomplish.

2) 2 x 6 mile tempo. He used this workout with a team of marginally talented athletes(I don't mean to knock the runners). Again - I'm not quite sure what this workout was supposed to accomplish.

3) Stadium steps while carrying sand bags. Once Again - I'm not quite sure what this workout was supposed to accomplish.

This coach was a nut!