Woke up early and got a good 5.5 mile run in. Got some quality dynamic stretching and drills in after the run and loosened up a bit with the rolling stick before breakfast. Then I headed over to the college to get my first hurdle drill workout in of the season. Pretty excited to add this component to my training. It’s been over 18 months since I last did any hurdle work, let alone a steeple chase, so I will need all the time I can get to train and perfect my form before I race on in February/March.

The drills that I was used to were pretty standard hurdle work. Legs going through the motion of lead leg, trail leg, and the combo. First couple drills were a disaster. My form is in pretty rough condition. I met up with my hurdle coach and he said the same. Definitely a lot of work to do. The one thing I liked that he said is that any drills that aren’t applying the hurdle form in motion over the hurdles are a waste of time. Strengthening the core, hips, and pelvis are important but that can be accomplished through single leg over hurdles, marking steps, and being very technical with the drills. One of the first things my coach said was that in order to compete with the Kenyans (who dominate this event), you can’t lose any time on the hurdles. The fact that he jumped straight to the highest level of competition and wasn’t messing around made me like him even more. After an hour of drills, my form had already improved.(Hurdles are easier to work with than the steeple barriers because you can set them at different heights for training purposes, much more mobile, and they don’t take up 4 lanes.) Did about 1.5 miles to shake out the legs after the hurdle work.

3 hours rest and then back to the track for my workout. Normally we aren’t on the track on Mondays but training is being ramped up.

2 mile warm up
10 x 100 strides
6 x 200 with 100 rec
400 easy
4 x 400 with 200 rec in between intervals
400 easy
3 x 400 with 200 rec
400 easy
3 x 400 with 200 rec
800 easy
2 x 400
Mile easy
800 fresh
Mile fresh
10 x 100 strides

Felt sore at the end but considering the faster speed intervals for the 400’s (between 57 and 62 for all of them), it felt much easier than the last time. Nice salmon and sweet potato dinner. Not sure why I shared that info but I thought it tasted pretty awesome (and I made it). Some great questions and comments coming in from the Ask Nick button. Keep ’em coming.

About 19 total for the day.

We Are One 365.

AR. NF. NR.

Nick