7-Step Workout for Long Hurdlers
by Steve McGill

This time of year, I don’t necessarily do a lot of race-modeling work with long hurdlers, as I prefer to develop hurdle endurance before incorporating more speed-specific training. However, I’ll sometimes include some race-modeling work just to keep the fast-twitch muscles in good working condition, and to remind the athletes of the race feel, as we never want to stray too far away from that even in the offseason.

This month’s workout is a faster version of the 100 meter back-and-forth workout. In that workout, the athlete runs in one direction clearing five hurdles, then turns around in the opposite direction clearing five hurdles. The hurdles are placed on the odd-numbered hurdle marks for the 110H race (males) or the 100H race (females), and the athlete is to take 8 strides to the first hurdle, and then 9 strides between the rest. That’s a pretty relaxed pace, but the fact that up-and-back equals one rep makes it more challenging because of the fatigue factor.

So for this month’s workout, the hurdles are set up in one direction. 

The distance to the first hurdle is 17 yards (51 feet) instead of the usual 15 yards, but the athlete will still take 8 strides to the first hurdle, from a standing start. The purpose of extending the distance to the first hurdle is to get the athlete into the rhythm and speed that will be needed to take 7 strides to the second hurdle.

The rest of the hurdles are spaced 18 yards (54 feet) apart — 2 yards closer together than in the back-and-forth workout. 

For each rep, the athlete clears all five hurdles — 8 strides to the first one and 7 strides between all the rest — and then runs to the 100 meter finish line. Recovery is to walk back, go again.

A full workout consists of 2 sets of 4 reps. If the athlete is able to alternate lead legs effectively, I’ll have him do one set leading with the right leg every rep, and then the second set leading with the left leg the whole way, or vice versa. Recovery between sets is 4-5 minutes, maybe 6 minutes in extreme heat. 

The video below provides an example of the workout as done by a post-collegiate athlete, Tevin Colson, with whom I just started working about two months ago. We added a full-speed rep at the end over two hurdles, with the first and second hurdles at race distance. Even though we were on the straight instead of the curve, I wanted to get some speed in on the straight before moving to the curve, which we did the following week.

As indicated above, the next level version of this workout is to take it to the curve. Here, I used the 400 meter start line as our start line, and used the same spacings as when doing the workout on the straight. And again, we did one set leading with the right leg, and the other set leading with the left leg. And we finished with two 3-point start reps over the first two hurdles at race spacing.

By the way, investing in a measuring wheel is probably the best choice you could make as a hurdle coach. For all the spacings in these workouts and in plenty of others, the wheel allows me to do whatever I need to do in regard to changing the spacing. I got mine for about $70 a few years ago at a hardware store. The track where I train Tevin is a middle school track that doesn’t have any markings for the long hurdles. So the wheel is why we were able to set up the hurdles at the right spots. Below is the video of the workout on the curve:

Also, the spacing in this workout isn’t set in stone. I haven’t done this workout with a female hurdler yet, but if I did, I’m sure the hurdles would be closer together. Same goes for males who aren’t as advanced as my guy Tevin.