A Time Trial in September
by Steve McGill
Since the last issue of The Hurdle Magazine, I’ve been able to make some solid progress with my athlete, Brandon Johnson, as he prepares to make some noise in his senior year of high school. Starting back in May, we started back again as the strict quarantine restrictions loosened up a bit. As discussed in previous issues, we got to work on implementing the cycle-arms style that I had come up with several years ago. We started on grass fields in parks since all nearby tracks were closed, then we were able to access the high school track down the road from where I live, but then that was closed. So for the last few weeks we’ve been going to a college track in Winston Salem — down the road from where he lives but an hour drive for me. It’s all worth it as long as he keeps getting better. In this article I’ll update you on what we’ve been doing and how far we’ve come along.
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Three weeks ago we did a regular hurdle workout that consisted of block start reps, starting with no hurdles and building up to five hurdles. That workout looked good enough to let me know we were ready for a new challenge. In all of the reps, he was getting to the first hurdle in good position, and was cycling the arms with no glitches. It was looking smooth and effortless. So, with all the drilling we had put in throughout May – July, and then with the reps from 3-point starts and then out of the blocks over race-height hurdles, it was time for a time trial to see where we stood.
For the workouts, I always moved all hurdles after the first hurdle one foot in. For the time trial, we put all hurdles on the race marks. It was a 55 meter time trial over five hurdles and through the finish line, and I put cones at the finish line. We did two reps, with a 15-minute rest between reps. To make sure all of our bases were covered, I employed the help of both of Brandon’s parents. I worked as the starter, his dad served as the timer at the finish line, and his mom filmed the reps. For the timing. I clapped to replace the gun, and instructed his dad to start the watch as soon as he saw my hands begin to move, so that we’d get a more accurate time than if he waited for the sound. For the warmup, we took out much of the drilling that we usually do on hurdle days; instead, we focused on getting his speed up with some 20-meter bursts from the blocks, and then a few block starts over one hurdle and then two hurdles. So we were looking to mimic a pre-race warmup, keeping in mind that what that will consist of will remain open to change as the season goes on. But it will always emphasize speed over technique, as I don’t want my hurdlers thinking of technique on race day. I want them to trust their technique so they can react instinctively.
On the first rep, Brandon ran 7.9, and on the second he ran 7.6. Neither time was anywhere near where we will want to be once actual races start in a few months, but I liked what I saw, and I also like that I got to see what we need to work on. Most importantly, he was doing the cycle-arm action the whole time, which lets me know we don’t have anything to correct in that regard. The technique is on point. Last year, before corona and before we switched to cycle arms, his arms were very wild, which really threw off his timing and twisted his hips. Now, he’s not wasting energy with all that lateral movement and wasted motion. He’s keeping everything in a straight line as he moves down the track.
The biggest thing I saw that we were going to need to work on was that he was too high over the first hurdle. That could’ve been because he was getting too close to the first hurdle; even though he 7-steps, he still gets crowded at hurdle one because his long-jump background has made him super explosive. In the time trial, he was more amped up and fresher than he had been in the regular hurdle workouts, which would explain why he was getting too close here but not in the workouts. So, seeing that informed me that we needed to address his first hurdle specifically.
Other than that, the only other issue was that he wasn’t looking as quick between the hurdles as I had been expecting. He didn’t really seem to get into a rhythm until the fourth hurdle. But, as we discussed, we had done zero speed work up to that point in his training, so there really wasn’t any reason to expect to see the type of cadence that will lead to super-fast times. So we’ll take our 7.6, run by himself in early September, and use it as a baseline time to build on. We’ll most likely do one time trial per month in October, November, and December, and by that time we should be able to drop down to 7.2 or so, which would put us in the 7.40 range with automatic timing, which would be a very good time to open with.
So, this past weekend, we did the workout that is described in the article in this issue, “September Speed Workout.” For the block starts over hurdles, which are shown in the video below, his touchdowns were about a full tenth faster than they had been in the time trial reps, as we honed in on cutting the last step and pushing forward through the hurdle without allowing the hips to rise. “Stay forward” is a mantra that I preach all the time, but we had become so engrossed in mastering the cycle arms action that we had forgotten one of the basic tenets that makes it all work.
Excelling in the hurdles involves a lot of persistent effort and constant creativity. Right now we’re still putting all the pieces in their proper places, and I feel confident that Brandon will do something really special this year if we just continue to progress at the pace we’re progressing.
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