Training Methods: How the Professionals
Train

What George Hall, professional hurdler, does to train for meets:
(An excerpt from an interview on www.edgate.com.)

1.) Warmup with 2 miles of easy jogging.

2.) Drills that involve a series of running, marching, skipping, backwards running, butt kicks, karoake (sideways running), big foot (kind of like roller skating, a side-to-side stepping), and air Jordan (leaping off 1 foot into the air).

3.) Stretching, full suite including hurdle stretches, and leg swings.

4.) Hurdle strength drills, consisting of placing about six hurdles close together and doing trail leg drills, leg-overs, and walking over hurdles backwards and forwards, etc. This is very demanding on the hurdle muscles, and builds good hip flexibility.

5.) Stadium steps:10 reps of charging hard up the steps, then circling slowly around to the next steps to come down and circling back to repeat

6.) Cool down with 2 miles of easy jogging.
This is a tough workout and I only do hurdle work like this once or twice weekly.

How Larry Steinrauf, professional runner and jumper, trains in three-day intervals: (An excerpt from an interview on www.edgate.com.)

DAY 1: About one hour on the stationary bike, followed by half to one hour on the weight machines. This includes both upper and lower body work. My favorites are the bench press and the squat. The hamstring curls give potential for improving sprinting speed. I do the squat exercise only with machines, and I never bend the knee more than 90 degrees. I prefer the vertical squat machine but the 45-degree machine is OK. I stay with weights where I can do at least 10 reps.

DAY 2: This day is swimming, using the frog flippers on my feat, otherwise I just sink to the bottom of the pool. I have never learned to do rotary breathing, so I use the backstroke, and I can make good time with the flippers. I do at least one hour with the last five minutes as hard as I can go. Swimming the back-stroke is the best therapy that I know for the rehabilitation from hamstring injuries.

DAY 3: The third day is running. I run on grass or a soft indoor track. If indoor, I use the stationary bike as part of my warmup. I use a very long warmup with very gentle stretching of those parts that are likely to give trouble. I also must adjust my metabolism to the endurance cycle.

I start the running part of the warmup with long, slow running and then easy intervals. This part takes about 30 minutes. The production part of my workout is either long distance or intervals. If I have a partner, we do the long steady distance. The distance is at about seven minute/mile pace. After the distance, I usually do four times 200 meters at a quick all-out pace.

I seldom take a day off, but about once a week I take an easy day. The goal of this schedule is to avoid injury. No one, under any circumstances, should do the same hard workout on successive days. This is just asking for trouble.

2004 Track and Field Events

100-meter dash

200-meter dash

400-meter dash

800-meter dash

1,500-meter dash

3,000-meter (Steeplechase)

5,000-meter dash

100-meter hurdles

400-meter hurdles

400-meter relay

1,600-meter relay

High jump

Pole vault

Long jump

Triple jump

Short put

Discus throw

Javelin throw

Hammer throw