Fast Four-step Workout
by Steve McGill
This month’s workout is designed as an off-season workout for the 400m hurdler (or 300m hurdler). It serves three purposes in one: 1) it serves as a hurdle-endurance workout; 2) it serves as a way to develop and refine the ability to alternate lead legs, and 3) it can be used to address technical flaws.
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To a degree, the workout is a variation of the “100 meter back & forth” workout that has, in past years, been my go-to workout for off-season training for long hurdlers. But this year I’m working with an athlete, Lukas, who, although a high school senior, has very little background in doing hurdle workouts of varying rhythms with the hurdles at various spacings. So, when I tried to do the back & forth workout with him, it was an epic failure. He kept stuttering at hurdles, stopping at hurdles, and just generally exhibiting utter bewilderment. So after about 30 minutes of frustration with zero progress, I finally decided, this isn’t gonna work. This kid doesn’t have enough background in hurdle workouts in general to pick up the rhythm of this workout. So, to cut my losses, and gain some measure of quality in the session, I set up the first two hurdles of the 110 race, at 30 inches, and told him to take an easy, bouncing eight strides to the first hurdle, and then take four strides to the second hurdle, switching lead legs. He had a little bit of experience switching legs, so it felt safe to try it at 30”.
It went well, and we were able to space the hurdles farther apart and go faster by the end of that particular session, and we were able to raise the hurdles to 33” and add two more hurdles, for a total of four. That session led to the creation of the workout. The next session we set up six hurdles, and we were able to workout way up to race height (36”). The next session, we started at 36” and did the whole workout there, over six hurdles. In our most recent session, we did reps over eight hurdles, at race height.
That was a pretty long intro, I know, but here’s the workout, as it is done when the athlete is ready and in shape:
Set-up:
Place eight hurdles on the track, on the straightaway, all at race height for the 300/400mh. Place the first hurdle on the first blue hurdle mark for the 110mh. Place the second hurdle three feet beyond the second blue mark; place the third hurdle six feet beyond the third blue mark; place the fourth hurdle nine feet beyond the fourth blue mark; etc.
Each Rep:
The athlete sprints to the first hurdle from a standing start, making sure to start at least a got behind the starting line. Clear the first hurdle with the stronger lead leg, then keep sprinting, taking four strides between the hurdles, clearing the odd-numbered hurdles with the stronger lead leg, and clearing the even-numbered hurdles with the weaker lead leg. The rep is complete at touchdown off the last hurdle.
Number of Reps, Amount of Rest:
A full workout would consist of eight quality reps, not including warmup reps over a lesser amount of hurdles prior to the first rep over all of them. Rest would consist of a walk back to the starting line after each rep, and an extended recovery period (4-5 minutes) halfway through the workout. I like to take some time talking to the athlete between reps as well, discussing what went well and what we need to work on for the next one. If I’m filming the session, which I often do, I’ll show the film to the athlete so he/she can see how he/she looked. So that’ll add some rest time, which is okay, because I want each rep to be high quality.
Variations:
For female athletes, you may want to use the yellow hurdle marks for the 100mh as the basis for spacing, doing the same thing as described above for the males. Or, it might be easier to just use the blue marks for females too, but without increasing the spacing beyond the blue marks.
If the athlete is not ready to alternate at race height, start at a lower height. Likewise, if the athlete is not ready to do this workout over eight hurdles, start with six or even four. But you always want to choose an even number so that both lead legs are getting the same amount of work.
Other Thoughts:
This workout shouldn’t be done by an athlete who has no experience alternating lead legs. For such athletes, you would first want to have them start with slower, safer drill work so that they can build a trust in the weaker leg. This workout assumes a certain level of proficiency with alternating.
A lot of times, when doing this workout as the main component of a session, I’ll end the session with slower drills so that the athlete can work on some of the technical issues he/she couldn’t work on when running faster.
Doing this workout on the curve, using the 200m start line as the start line, could also make sense, even in the off-season, especially for a more experienced hurdler, especially if that athlete knows that he/she will most likely need to alternate on the curve. But since there are no 100/110hurdles marks on the curve, the distance would need to be measured out with a measuring wheel.
Below is a video of my athlete doing the workout over eight hurdles last weekend.
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