Sprinting and Hurdling Workout

by Steve McGill

This workout is a combination of other workouts, sort of a “surf and turf” for hurdlers, if you will, combining sprinting with hurdling, or, to put it more specifically, combining sprinting with sprinting over hurdles. In this workout, I’ll reduce the volume of the sprints, and the volume of sprints over hurdles. The workout consists of the following:

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2 sets of 30m, 40m, 50m sprints, from a 3-point start.

• Walk-back rest between reps
• 3 minutes rest between sets.
• For each rep, the watch starts on first movement, stops when torso crosses the finish line. I’ll usually put cones at the 30, 40, and 50m marks, and stand facing the cone so that I can get an accurate read on when the torso crosses the line. If these sprints comprised the entire workout, we would do at least for sets, and as many as six in the off-season. But combined with the hurdling reps, starting off the workout with just two sets serves the purpose of getting the hurdler into the sprinter mindset.

2x30m block starts with no hurdles.

• Walk-back rest between
• Prior to doing starts over hurdles, I always like to get in starts without hurdles. These two reps here can be considered a warm-up for the block starts over hurdles that will come next. However, they are to be done at full speed.

5 block starts over the first five hurdles of the 100/110m hurdle race, with hurdles at race height, and all hurdles after the first hurdle moved in by one foot.

• Rest should be at least three minutes between reps, no more than five minutes.
• Here, the focus is on taking the sprinter’s mindset to the hurdling reps. The emphasis is not on technique, but on speed, aggression, and rhythm. Some hurdlers may not be able to go straight from starts with no hurdles to starts with five hurdles. In such cases, it can help to add in one start over just the first hurdle, and/or just the first two before going to five. It may also help to do a little hurdle drilling before going over all five at full speed. Usually, I will incorporate such easy drilling to the warmup prior to the sprint reps.
• I’ll also add a finish line after the fifth hurdle for these reps, and I’ll put cones where the finish line should be. The distance between the last hurdle and the cones should be the same distance as the run-in to the last hurdle would be in an outdoor race. If this workout were being done in the off-season, then a finish line wouldn’t be necessary; but this time of year, you don’t want athletes getting in the habit of relaxing off of the last hurdle.

2x100m on the curve (starting at the 400m start line and finishing at the 1500m/300m start line).

• 3 minutes rest between reps.
• Target times should be within .5 of athlete’s best open 100m time.
• The purpose of these last two sprints is to add the endurance element for the short hurdler, as all other reps in this workout are no longer than 55 meters.
• The purpose of doing the sprints on the curve is to add an element of challenge in terms of hitting the target time. These two sprints can also be done on the straight-away instead if the coach prefers.

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