Extensive Drilling in Cold Weather Workout
by Steve McGill
As we head into these colder months, coaches need to find ways to get hurdle work that don’t involve too much speed, as it pertains to training outside. For schools that have viable indoor facilities, this may not be an issue, but for the many of us that don’t, it’s a very real issue. Here in NC, where the temperatures dip into the 40’s and 30’s during the winter months, training outside remains a necessity for the most part because there is only one indoor track in the whole state. While hurdling in hallways and gyms can be okay for certain drills and for teaching beginners, the limited space will almost always present a problem.
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So, when it’s not feasible to work on the start (to me, “feasible” is 50 degrees or warmer), I’ll have my hurdlers do extensive drilling. By “extensive” I mean that I’ll add more hurdles than the usual 4 or 5. The drilling will allow us to continue working on technique and rhythm. And even though we won’t emphasize speed, the rhythm work will let us know what it “feels” like to run fast, with the hurdles coming at us more and more quickly down the line. There is also a hurdle-endurance element to such drilling, although that aspect isn’t emphasized as much as it is in the fall (September – November).
In a recent workout with my regulars — Raelle Brown and Janie Coble — the temps were in the 40’s, so I decided to go with heavy drilling, with the hopes of maybe doing a few block starts toward the end if their bodies warmed up enough and if the temps rose high enough. Oh, and Sadie Buchanan was with us too. It’s a 90-minute drive for her so she doesn’t come on a weekly basis.
I started with marching popovers with the hurdles at 27 inches, spaced 12 feet apart. I brought all ten of my practice hurdles with me. So we started by repping over four, then over six, then over eight, and then over ten. We did two reps at each height, and then raised the hurdles to 30 inches and increased the spacing to 13 feet. And we went through the same series, doing two reps over four hurdles and adding two hurdles after every two reps, building up to ten hurdles.
So, to list the progression more directly:
- 2 marching popover reps over four 27-inch hurdles spaced 12 feet apart.
- 2 marching popover reps over six 27-inch hurdles spaced 12 feet apart.
- 2 marching popover reps over eight 27-inch hurdles spaced 12 feet apart.
- 2 marching popover reps over ten 27-inch hurdles spaced 12 feet apart.
- 2 marching popover reps over four 30-inch hurdles spaced 13 feet apart.
- 2 marching popover reps over six 30-inch hurdles spaced 13 feet apart.
- 2 marching popover reps over eight 30-inch hurdles spaced 13 feet apart.
- 2 marching popover reps over ten 30-inch hurdles spaced 13 feet apart.
From there, I’ll move into some quickstep drilling. My goal was to get up to eight hurdles quickstepping, but the girls’ legs were more tired from the popovers than I had anticipated, so we only got over four hurdles with the quickstep drill. We did six reps with the hurdles at 33 inches, spaced 24 feet apart, with a six-step approach to the first hurdle (33 feet from the start line to the first hurdle). Ideally, that would’ve been two reps over four, two reps over six, and two reps over eight. Maybe next time!
Below is a video of a couple of Raelle’s marching popover reps over 30’s. The first rep is eight hurdles and the second rep is ten hurdles. As you can see in the video, the drill forces you to maintain your angles, to stay relaxed, and to quicken your tempo between the hurdles. With Raelle, we were also working on staying on the balls of the feet between the hurdles, as that’s been an issue for her in previous workouts.
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