Starts over three Hurdles Workout
by Steve McGill

This month’s workout is specifically designed for 55-60m hurdlers who are racing indoors. Even in the outdoor race, the first three hurdles are the most important, as they represent a hurdler’s “drive phase,” to use sprint coach language, or, the acceleration part of the race. In the outdoor race, a strong first three hurdles goes a long way in ensuring that the athlete will not fatigue too soon and not suffer any late-race breakdowns. In the indoor race, the first three hurdles constitute more than half the race, so everything becomes magnified. Reacting to the gun, pushing out of the blocks, driving forward without standing up too soon, and driving through the first hurdle with your momentum going forward — these elements become vital to success, as any of them can be the difference between winning the race and having no chance. 

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Because of the reasons mentioned above, we won’t go over more than one hurdle in this workout until we’re doing everything we need to do going into the first hurdle. So, we’ll build up to three hurdles; we won’t start with three hurdles. Nor will we jump from one hurdle to three hurdles. We’ll go over one, then over two, then over three. Adding the second hurdle gives us a chance to work on the transition off hurdle one into the race rhythm of (assumedly) three strides between the hurdles. Not until the athlete is looking fast and aggressive with no balance issues between one and two do we add the third hurdle.

Spacings and height can vary for this workout, but if we’re specifically talking about using it for a consistent three-stepper who is preparing for an upcoming indoor race, the hurdles will be at race height for the workout portion of the session, although we might do some warmup reps over hurdles that are a click below race height. Similarly, the spacing will be close to race spacing; I prefer one foot (.3 meters) in from race spacing. As I’ve mentioned often before, I don’t like practicing with the hurdles at full spacing. I always move them in just a smidgen to make up for the fact that the adrenaline level is not as high in practice, and because we’re doing multiple reps in practice. 

So, assuming that the approach to the first hurdle doesn’t take up too much of the workout, the amount of reps we do will look something like this:

• 2 block starts with no hurdles
• 2 block starts over one hurdle
• 2 block starts over two hurdles
• 3-4 block starts over three hurdles

I don’t time the rest between reps. But I make sure that the athlete is ready to go full speed ahead before going again. We want every rep to be high quality. Any low-quality reps won’t be counted toward the overall total.

Generally speaking, when talking about athletes training specifically for an upcoming indoor race, we won’t go over more than three hurdles in this workout. If I want to make sure their hurdle endurance is where it needs to be for the outdoor season, we’ll do a higher-volume drill-based hurdle workout on a different day of the week. But this workout specifically is all about speed and mastering the first three hurdles. 

Athletes who are training through the indoor season in order to prepare for outdoors, and who don’t compete in the short hurdles indoors, this workout will look different. The amount of reps will increase, the amount of teaching I do between reps will increase, and the amount of hurdles we clear in the workout will increase. In this workout, I might give the athlete one technical cue to think about, but that’s about it. If we need to think about more than one thing technically, that’s probably an indication that we shouldn’t be racing yet.

Below is a video of Teri Pridgen doing a block start rep over four hurdles. She’s advanced enough that adding the fourth hurdle wasn’t a problem.

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