Race Prep Workout for the 300/400m Hurdler

by Steve McGill

As high school teams and collegiate teams are entering the peak part of their outdoor season, with regional qualifiers and state championships on the immediate horizon, and national championships not too far off either, this is the time of year to do workouts that are fast, hard, and short. For the long hurdlers, nothing is more important than being efficient and mistake-free in the first half of the race. Even the slightest rhythm mistake early on can prove costly later on, accelerating the onset of late-race fatigue.

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A lot of times, people with untrained eyes will see a long hurdler stutter toward the end of the race and lament the fact that he/she fell apart after looking so strong, not realizing that a less noticeable stutter at hurdle two or three was what led to the late-race breakdown. With that thought in mind, I like for my hurdlers to be absolutely in command of their race for the first half. Depending on their conditioning, I like them to be in command for the entire race. But as fatigue sets in, it may not be possible to maintain the same stride pattern for an entire race. Therefore, I’ll provide my athletes with a couple options to consider for the last three hurdles, always with the instruction to trust their competitive instincts and to stay in attack mode. But I don’t emphasize the second half of the race a whole lot in practice because I feel confident that a well-conditioned athlete will not make mistakes late if he/she doesn’t make mistakes early.

With that thought in mind, here’s the workout:

300m hurdler: 3×150 over the first four hurdles, all-out, in spikes, out of the blocks, with commands, preferably with a teammate to compete against. Rest 10 minutes between reps so that every rep can be all-out.

400m hurdler: 3×200 over the first five hurdles. Everything else is the same as for the 300m hurdler.

Coach should time each rep so that the workout can serve as a race indicator. Watch should start with the “G” of the Go, and watch should stop at touchdown off of hurdle four (300m hurdlers) or as the athlete crosses the 200m start line in their lane (400m hurdlers). The times the athletes hit at the race’s halfway  mark should give an indication of how fast he/she is capable of running in that week’s meet. (This workout should be done two or three days prior to competition, by the way).

Let’s say you have a male 300m hurdler, and your goal for him is to run 40.00 at the next meet. In this workout, you’ll want him to run the 150’s in 19.0, allowing that the second half of the race won’t be as fast as the first half. Even if only hits the target time one rep, that’s enough to let you know he can run 40-flat if he executes properly on race day.

Last week I had a girl who is only a high school freshman and had only run the 300m hurdles twice prior to her conference meet. Her best time up to that point was a 49.4, hand-timed. In the workout, her fastest rep indicated that she was capable of running sub-48. That would be a big drop in time, but the workout indicated she was capable of it. And surely enough, she ran 47.58 automatic timing. The workout doesn’t lie.

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