The 400m Hurdler during Indoor Season
by Steve McGill
The 400 hurdler is a relatively lonely athlete this time of year, as the long hurdler’s specialty event isn’t in the program during the indoor season. As a result, the long hurdler has options regarding what to work on in regards to training, and what races to enter during competitions. In this article I will talk about those options, and explain what I tend to do with my long hurdlers. Keep in mind, however, that most hurdlers whom I coach at the high school level compete in both the long and short hurdles outdoors, so that also affects the decision-making when it comes to training strategies, choosing when to compete, and choosing in which races in which to compete.
[am4show not_have=’g5;’]
[/am4show][am4guest]
[/am4guest][am4show have=’g5;’]
I actually like the fact that there is no long hurdle event indoors, because I’m not big on racing in one’s specialty event too sign, especially when it comes to highly technical events like the hurdles. In the short hurdles, coaches are too eager to throw their athletes into races before they’re ready. I know I’ve been on this soapbox before, but I continue to see this issue popping up, which is why I continue to address it. I was joking with one of the kids I coach privately, talking about how just a month ago we were doing easy five-stepping drills just to his legs over some hurdles again after not hurdling at all since the end of the summer season. Then a couple weeks later we switched his start from an 8-step approach to a 7-step approach. Then a week later he had a meet, and he competed in the hurdles! We still had a lot of hurdle-endurance work to put in, we still had a lot to figure out in regards to the 7-step start, yet here he was racing already.
So yes, I’m glad that, for the long hurdler, such a problem doesn’t exist. The long hurdler will have time to implement all that needs to be implemented prior to competing in his or her specialty event. That gives me time to be a coach as opposed to just rushing around trying to get ready for some races that, in the long run, don’t really matter.
So what do I have my long hurdlers do this time of year? The primary focus is on speed-endurance and hurdle-endurance. The hurdle-endurance work will consist of workouts that involve clearing a good amount of hurdlers, but nowhere near race pace. A workout like the back-and-forth workout described in another article in this issue is a staple for the long hurdler this time of year. Building hurdle-endurance (and speed-endurance) is of paramount importance this time of year because, once the outdoor season arrives, there won’t be time to implement the type of foundational work that is necessary to endure the rigors and demands of the event. I’m not big on stride pattern work this early in the training program simply because we’re talking about a 400 meter race over ten hurdles (or, in the case of many high school athletes, a 300 meter race over eight hurdles). Before you can begin implementing a stride pattern race plan, you have to know that the athlete is fit enough to actually be able to execute the plan. An athlete might be fast enough to, say, take 15 strides all the way around the track, but if the athlete isn’t in shape enough to do so, then such a race strategy will not work.
So yeah, the back-and-forths are a staple. Another staple workout that I use, for speed-endurance purposes, is the 4×600 workout. The athlete does 4×600 at a pace that I think he or she should be able to hit, with the recovery time being four minutes between reps. For the target times, I’ll go by a per-200m pace. With the girl I’m working with now, Sofia, she has a personal best of 44.50 in the 300 hurdles and 1:06 in the 400h. So, to start with, I’ll want her to run her 600’s in 2:00, which is a :40 per 200 pace. When she is able to do all four reps at that speed or faster, then I’ll speed up the target times. Done once a week, this 600 workout can serve as a barometer of progress. I’m not big on doing a whole lot of reps, but enough so that the last one provides a significant mental challenge. This workout also serves the purpose of making the 400m distance feel shorter. You always want some over-distance training in the program, at least once a week, for that reason. As I told Sofia, in addition hitting the target time, we also want to stay on the balls of our feet for the entire rep each rep. No settling back on the heels and no flat-footed foot-strikes.
This time of year is also a good time to work on implementing new things technically. If you want to teach the athlete how to alternate lead legs, now would be the time to get cracking on that, if you haven’t already. In order to build a proficiency in, and trust of, the weaker leg, you have to start slow and progress steadily. I’ll also have my long hurdlers do the same technique drills that my 100/110m hurdlers do, but at lower heights. Technique work can often be added in as part of a cool-down, although I prefer to dedicate one day out of the week to technique development. The better a long hurdler’s technique is, the less chance there is that he or she will suffer a late-race breakdown. For that reason, I put a high premium on technique work for the long hurdler.
As for competition, I have absolutely no problem with my long hurdlers competing indoors in various running events–from as short as 200 meters to as long as 800 meters. In some high school meets they have funky distances, like 300 meters and 500 meters. But it’s all good. I don’t think that the short sprint distances–like 60 meters–are beneficial for the long hurdler, as the long hurdler will never need the explosive block start nor the quick turnover that race requires. Running the 60m dash can actually do more harm than good, as it could lead to injury. So yeah, stay away from that race. As for the 60m hurdles, my long hurdlers will do that event only if they participate in the 100/110m hurdles outdoors. If they don’t, then there’s no point, unless the head coach is looking for points. The 200, 300, or 400m sprints can provide a useful gauge of the progress we have made up to that point in the season, although I don’t get over-excited nor overly disappointed by the times my long hurdlers run indoors, because our primary purpose is to prepare for the outdoor season, not to shine brightly in January and February. What I like about racing in these non-specialty events is that it gives the athlete an opportunity to compete, to race, and the reason that matters is because running races is the only way to get into race-shape. Meanwhile, because they’re not racing in their specialty event, there isn’t the pressure to master every nuance of the race. As for running the open 800m indoors, I like that for long hurdlers who have a middle-distance background, and who therefore feel that their 800 time can serve as a barometer of what they should be capable of running in the long hurdle race. For hurdlers who come from more of a sprinting background, running the 800 in meets can be counterproductive, although getting some in in practice can definitely be beneficial, although, for me anyway, that would be more true in the fall than in the winter.
Toward the end of the indoor season, I’ll begin introducing stride pattern work, weather permitting, as we begin to wean ourselves away from the speed-endurance and hurdle-endurance and move toward more speed on hurdle days as well as on non-hurdle days.
[/am4show]
