Workout: Sprint Block Starts Followed by Hurdle Block Starts
by Steve McGill

This month’s workout is one that I’ve never done before until this past weekend, on October 13th. But it’s one that I should be able to do more often. Two of the girls I work with regularly – Raelle Brown and Janie Coble – were joined by Sadie Buchanan, who lives 90 minutes away and therefore can’t come to practice as often. Three weeks ago, I had Janie and Sadie do block starts together over three hurdles, as both of them were ready for the challenge of competitive starts over 33’s. This past weekend, I added Raelle to the mix, as her last workout over 33’s by herself went very well. 

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But one thing I’ve learned about hurdlers over the years is that you can’t let them settle into a rhythm; you have to keep emphasizing speed so that they’re forced to quicken their hurdle rhythm. Also, because hurdlers can become obsessed with technique, it becomes necessary to remind them that speed is the most important aspect of technique (because it sets up the ability to execute the technique).

While Sadie, Raelle, and Janie have quite disparate personal bests from last year, our training this fall had shown me that they’re really not that far apart. Sadie’s best from last year is 14.5, Raelle’s is 15.4, and Janie’s is 16.5. Sadie came to me a couple months ago with very good technique, while Raelle had a ton of things to fix. And Janie, who runs for my school team, simply didn’t get enough reps in to progress but so much because of her gymnastics obligations. 

So, kind of as an experiment, I started the workout with some sprint reps before we put any hurdles up. I chose 55 meters as the distance since that’s the distance of the sprint race and the hurdle race at the North Carolina indoor state meet. Let me go ahead and break down what we did, then I’ll add some explanations:

• 3x55m, out of the blocks, competitive, with commands.
• Three minutes rest between reps.
• Five minutes rest after the third rep.
• Hurdle Warmup
  • Five-stepping over four hurdles with the hurdles at the boys’ blue marks.
  • Two block starts individually over one hurdle.
  • One block start individually over two hurdles.
• Three competitive starts, with commands, over one hurdle
• Two competitive starts, with commands, over two hurdles
• One competitive start, with commands, over one hurdle
• All hurdle starts will include a “finish line” ten yards or so beyond the last hurdle cleared.

So, the 55 meter hurdle-free sprints were quite revealing, as all three girls crossed the finish line at almost the exact same time all three reps. That verified what I already thought to be true: that Janie and Raelle are at or near Sadie when it comes to flat speed. 

The hurdle reps were similarly competitive, although, to be fair, Sadie was dealing with a poison oak rash that was driving her crazy. She had gotten the rash while doing relief work near her home in Western North Carolina, which had suffered significant damage from Hurricane Helene a few weeks ago. So she was physically and emotionally exhausted from the volunteer work, and that poison oak rash certainly didn’t help. But still, fought like hell and had a good workout, even if we all knew she wasn’t at her best. 

What I liked about the workout was that doing the sprint reps first made a statement about the importance of speed, of driving and accelerating, of not being impatient and standing upright too soon. All those lessons carried over to the hurdle reps.

I generally won’t do any type of competitive work in fall training, but these are exceptional circumstances, as I do want to get all three girls ready for indoors, and all of them have progressed enough that they don’t need to focus solely on drilling and technique. And perhaps most importantly, the weather was beautiful – mid-70’s, still wind, not a cloud in the sky. Once the temps start dropping in the next month or so, we won’t be able to practice block starts outside for a while. So I wanted to take advantage of the circumstances (good weather, all three girls there at the same time) while I could.

This workout works best when you have two or more hurdlers who are of similar ability levels, and whose technique is solid enough that they can handle a competitive atmosphere this early in the year. Otherwise, it’s best to hold off on a workout like this until the early part of the outdoor season (or the indoor season if you have access to an indoor facility).

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