Race Prep Workout for 100/110 Meter Hurdlers

by Steve McGill

This month’s workout will be our last race-prep workout for a while, as next month we’ll begin focusing on off-season training. For 100/110 meter hurdlers, I find it is helpful to run the whole race distance in practice, while I don’t think it’s beneficial to run over a full flight of ten hurdles. Running a full flight becomes equivalent to running your race in practice, and I feel that it’s better to save that for the day of the race itself. However, running the whole distance gives the athletes a chance to feel the level of fatigue that they will feel in a race, and timing the reps adds the necessary level of urgency and challenge. With those thoughts in mind, here’s a workout that I used this past July with one of my athletes who was preparing for Junior Olympic Nationals:

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First, the athlete should do a full warm-up that mimics the warm-up he or she will do on the day of the race. The warm-up should conclude with a few blocks starts over the first hurdle and first two hurdles, in order to get the muscles firing and to get the race cadence ingrained prior to beginning the workout.

The workout consists of the following:

3x100m (females) or 3×110 (males)

A coach will give full commands (take your mark, get set, go), while another coach stands at the 100/110 finish line, timing each rep.

Stopwatch starts on the “go,” or the clap, or the gun (whatever the coach uses). 

Stopwatch stops when the torso of the athlete crosses the finish line. 

For the first rep, the athlete will clear the first three hurdles, then continue sprinting to the finish line.

For the second rep, the athlete will clear the first four hurdles, then continue sprinting to the finish line.

For the third rep, the athlete will clear the first five hurdles, then continue sprinting to the finish line.

For recovery, the athlete will take 8 minutes rest after the first rep, and 10 minutes rest after the second rep.

The goal for the first rep will be to run a second faster than the target goal time for that week’s race. So, if the goal is to run 14.0 in the race, then the target time for the first rep is 13.0.

The goal for the second rep is to run within .3 of the first rep. So, if the goal in the first rep was to run 13.0, the goal of the second rep is to run 13.3

The goal for the third rep is to run within .4 of the second rep. So, if the goal in the second rep was to run 13.3, then the goal of the third rep is to run 13.7.

The logic is, if the athlete can run 13.7 over five hurdles and sprinting off the fifth hurdle to the finish line, while doing so on tired legs that already did two full-speed reps, then the athlete can run 14.0 on fresh legs, in a competitive environment.

For the spacing of the hurdles, I will move in all hurdles after the first hurdle by one foot from race distance. If the surface we are training on is not mondo, and the race that week will be on mondo, then I’ll move in the hurdles two feet instead of the usual one foot. It’s always important to have the athletes feel the same cadence in this training session that they will seek to feel in the race. Ingraining rhythm is a big part of this workout, in addition to the speed element and the speed-endurance element.

Whether or not to have two or more hurdlers do this workout together is up to the coach. Generally I won’t, unless both hurdlers are mentally and physically on par with each other.

The girl I had do this workout last month, Falon Spearman, went on to run 13.99 in her semi-final race, and then 13.91 in the final. So I have a lot of confidence in this workout, although I only recommend it for athletes who are focused enough and self-motivated enough to derive maximum benefit from it.

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