Hardest t&f workout you've ever done?

[EPelle]

We had another cool workout: ran an exchanged (9 athletes) 5x (100-100-200-400-800-400-200-100-100) with 5 min rest between each set (final 100m) as a group -- sprinters on the sprint legs and mid-distance guys on the 4 and 8. 3.31-3.32-3.33-3.33-3.32 1600m splits en-route to the combined 2400m. 2.49 1200m on first set between first 400m and the 800m leg.

[HawaiiFiveO]

Re: child abuse

For five years between my ages of 7-12, during the winter months, my father would have my sister and I do the following every night before bed time to build a base for the outdoor track season.

I'm all for exercise and fitness, but were you ever allowed to be a child? Were you happy doing this?

When my boys were in high school they bought Strength Shoes and followed the video to the letter. The temp. was usually 93 or higher when they worked out. While we were in the process of moving, my neighbor across the street told me that he almost called the police for child abuse. He didn't call because he saw that the kids were having fun and that I wasn't home to "push" them. If my kids had done your workouts, I would have been answering questions. You must be as old as I am.

[/quote]

To Dr Jay,
During that part of my life I thought that every other child was doing the same thing. It wasn't until around the age of 12 that I realized my life was different then the norm. Prior to 12 I was very happy because I was successful and winning competitions by large margins. I also excelled in another sport which was most likely due to my training. In my eyes track was life; I used to wear a headband everywhere stating "Born to Run". I knew nothing else. I was too young to know anything outside of what my father taught me. Also, my father was very lenient outside of academics and training so I pushed the limits as a child where others were hesitant.
I started to become unhappy and depressed at the ages of 12 and 13 when I realized how hard I had trained only to have children that matured early defeat me off of natural strength. I started to question my father and stopped training soon after.

To Oletimer,
You mentioned two things that I am all too familiar with: a.) Strength shoes b.) People wanting to call the police for child abuse.
When I finally matured and grew between 15-16 my father started training me again and purchased Strength shoes for 130.00 dollars. This was well out of the family budget but my father stated that it was a small investment compared to a college tuition. He devised a new training routine that was very ingenious when I think about it. Those shoes definitely helped to make up for lost time.
You mentioned the neighbor thinking about calling the police; we went through that with neighbors, strangers and some family I believe. People saw that we were very close and most of all happy so no one ever followed up with their intentions.


I have a son now and have decided not to push him into any sports. I let his mother enter him into gymnastics (one day a week) and soccer (one day a week). Gymnastics is fun for him because he gets to balance, jump, flip, hang and swing. Soccer allows him to run around and kick a ball with other children his age. I'm anticipating that gymnastics will help to develop his balance, overall body strength and coordination. Soccer will most likely develop his footwork. The good thing about both of those sports is that I know nothing about either. My conviction, I read books with him every night before he goes to sleep.

[Helen S]

Re: child abuse

. My conviction, I read books with him every night before he goes to sleep.[/quote]

Whenever I see a bunch of kids shooting hoops late in the evening, I always want to tell them that if they studied as much as they played ball, it would be more likely to pay for college and have a great job for life.

[Oletimer]

Helen, your statement may be accurate, but there is no reason that a kid can't do both.[/quote]

[HawaiiFiveO]

Helen and Oletimer,
I agree with both of you. Academic excellence was required from us as well. I was removed from AAU basketball in which I was the leading scorer (partially due to my track training) for bringing home a C on my report card. Luckily as a youth, I was self motivated when it came to academics. However, I despised reading out of Encyclopedia Britannica during the summer months at such a young age because I didn't recognize many of the words. I had very little comprehension of that which I was reading. I spent endless hours staring at pages acting as if I was reading. Just wanted to clarify that academia was just as important as athletics. My first message might have been misleading.

[Halfmiler2]

My toughest may have been a 15x440. Of course, it was after we had shoveled over a foot of snow off the track. :wink:

[RMc]

When I was in grad school at Michigan, we ran a "Michigan drill" which Warhurst had adapted from the famous Oregon Drill (1200 on the track, 3 miles steady to Lane CC, 1200 on the track there, 3 miles back to Hayward, 1200 on the track--hear several thousand would show up to watch). We ran a mile on the track in the low 4:20s, then 3 miles down to a golf course at sub 5:30 pace, then an 800 on the golf course, then 3 miles back up hill, and a 1200 on the track. I always dragged like hell on that last 1200, usually running around 3:30.

[RMc]

What might have been Brian Maxwell's most painful workout (bless his soul):

We ran 3 miles to a golf course, ran about 5 repeats of about a mile on the grass with a short rest, then ran 3 miles back on sub 6 min pace. Brian was lagging behind the group during the reps. I asked him what was wrong. He said he had run 28 miles in the morning in the hills [climbing from sea level to 1500'] in 3 hours. Our afternoon workout covered 16 miles. He had a 44 mile day!