300H Race Indicator Workout
by Steve McGill
As high schools are entering their peak competitive season, we’ve entered a time of year when it’s important to do workouts that are specific to race preparation, and that can serve as race indicators. A race indicator workout is exactly that — a workout that provides an indication of how fast athletes should be able to run in their upcoming race. Race indicator workouts ideally should be done two days before the first day of a competition, and no more than three days before.
A favorite workout of mine for 300 hurdlers this time of year is 3×200. I used to do it over the last five hurdles, starting at the 200 start line. But because The sprint to the first hurdle is so much shorter than it is in a race, I’ve changed the workout so that it starts at the 300h start line, and the athletes clear the first five hurdles instead of the last five.
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So yes, the workout will consist of three reps, from a block start, with the coach giving commands. If I’m by myself, I’ll start the watch as I say “go” and I’ll place cones at the finish line so that I can clearly see when to stop the watch. If I have another coach with me, one of us will give commands, with a hand raised, and drop the hand upon saying “go,” so that the coach at the finish line knows when to start the watch.
The distance from the start line to the fifth hurdle is 185 meters (45-35-35-35-35). In making sure that the distance is correct, I use my measuring wheel to measure the final 15 meters. I have found my measuring wheel to be an essential tool, especially for workouts like this, where I’m measuring distance on the curve. As stated earlier, I’ll put a couple of cones down to mark the finish line spot.
In terms of how the workout serves as a race indicator, I’ll look at the 200 time and divide it in half, and then multiply it by three. So, let’s use a round number and say the athlete runs each of the three 200’s in 26 seconds. 26 divided by 2 is 13. And 13×3 = 39. So an athlete running the 200’s in 26.0 should be able to run 39.0 in a race. Obviously, very rarely will an athlete run the same time for all three reps. So the fastest rep indicates the best possible outcome, while the average of the three reps indicates the most likely outcome.
Recovery time between reps should be a lot — somewhere in the 8-10 minute range. We want every rep to be a high-quality rep.
Most often I’ll have the athletes do the reps individually, but in some cases it could help to have a hurdler do the reps beside a sprinter, or beside another hurdler of similar ability.
In deciding on target times for each rep, it will be a pace faster than the athlete’s current personal best. So, if the athlete’s current personal best is 39.0, we’ll want to go with something like 25.5 as a target time, or maybe even 25.0, which is a 37.5 pace. If the athlete can hit one rep at that speed, that leads to certainty that a new personal best is on the horizon, even if an actual 37.5 might be out of reach.
For 400 hurdlers, the workout would consist of 2×300 over the first 8 hurdles. Again, the recovery time between rest would be in the 10-minute range. From the starting line to hurdle eight is 290 meters (45-35-35-35-35-35-35-35), so it would be a 10-meter run off the last hurdle. Again, I’ll measure that with my wheel and put cones at the 300 mark.
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