Speed Workout for the Short Hurdler
by Steve McGill
For my hurdlers, whether they compete in just the short hurdles or both the short hurdles and the long hurdles, I’ll have one day a week that I want to dedicate exclusively to short sprints of under 60 meters. For the athletes who do come to practice a consistent five days a week, then a second day of such work will be added that might include some longer sprints at the end. This month’s workout is one such workout.
Here’s what the workout looks like:
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Three sets of 40, 50m, 60m
- Walk-back recovery between reps
- 3-minute rest between sets
- 5-minute rest after the last set
Three reps of 100m
- Walk-back recovery between reps
Athletes should do each rep from either a three-point start or a falling start, depending on which one they prefer and execute better. I prefer the three-point start, but a falling start works too.
Reps are timed only if the temperatures are above 50 degrees. Otherwise it’s best not to time them in order to avoid injury in cold weather. If the temps are below 50, it’s best to instruct the athletes to do each rep at about 85% of full speed. Or, if feasible, wait for a warmer day before doing the workout, as the purpose of the workout is to challenge the athletes to maintain high velocity for the entirety of each rep.
For the first part of the workout, the reason each rep is longer than the previous one in each set is because we want to establish a certain pace at 40m, challenge the athletes to maintain it over 50m, and then challenge them again to maintain it longer at 60m. It also teaches athletes to stay relaxed with their hands and upper body muscles and not “fight” to maintain speed. If the athletes are doing this workout the way they’re supposed to, each 60m sprint will feel very long.
The 3×100 at the end of the workout serves a similar purpose. Here, we’re looking for bad habits to be exposed so that we can address them — either here or on another day in a different workout. The kinds of bad habits we’re looking for include a loss of dorsiflexion (leading to running flat-footed or heel-striking), the chest sinking in, the hands lowering, knee lift lowering, back-kick becoming an issue, running too erect, allowing the head to wobble, straining the neck, etc. So, with the 100s we’re concerned with mechanics as much as we’re concerned with times, trusting that the times will get faster later in the season as the weather warms up and mechanics improve.
I do believe that this workout is useful even for long hurdlers who don’t run the short hurdles. Training the mind/body to be aggressive, in attack mode from the first step is beneficial for an athlete in any running event, especially any of them 400 meters or shorter. I would argue that a lot of long hurdlers go out too slow, trying to conserve energy, when the fact of the matter is that you should use the high-adrenaline energy that you have at the beginning of a race to its maximum. A fast start is not what causes fatigue late in races for the long hurdler; instead, it’s mistakes and unsurety in regard to stride pattern early on that messes up the latter stages of the race.
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