Steeple Workout Advice

Just my 2 cents, but personally I wouldn't have someone run hurdles at a pace faster than their 3k steeple race pace. Seems like it would throw off their timing.

Anyway, when adding hurdles to a workout, my rule of thumb is 0.5s per hurdle and 1.5s per water jump.

Add about 4-5 sec for a full lap with 4 barriers+water jump

Doing steeple work faster than race pace is important. We used to finish a workout with faster 150s over a barrier to simulate a kick. You have to be comfortable going over barriers at a faster pace

It depends on the runner. Some are efficient over the hurdles, and only need about 2 or 3 seconds per 400. Some are really bad, and need 5 or 6

Thanks for the great advice everybody!

Anyone else have any different advice?

Depends on how good their form is. Excellent form 3.5 secs per lap. Average form 4.5-5 secs. per lap. Terrible form 6 secs. to 10 secs per lap!

I like to use .5 per barrier and 1.5 per water jump as well.

I think 62's are pretty quick and would like to make sure their form is really good before doing that.

Adidas rules wrote:

Doing steeple work faster than race pace is important. We used to finish a workout with faster 150s over a barrier to simulate a kick. You have to be comfortable going over barriers at a faster pace

Agreed, it's definitely helpful to practice at a "kick" pace, especially if the runners don't have any prior hurdling experience. Personally I would not have them do a whole workout at that pace, though.

Old sub 8:40 guy here.

Never ran workouts over barriers/waterjumps. Practiced barriers/water at faster speeds to simulate late race but for technique not actual workout. It's about the running. I believe you are encouraging injury by running full workouts over the actual steeple "course". A lot of potential for mis-step etc. Save it for the race.

oldwornout wrote:

Old sub 8:40 guy here.

Never ran workouts over barriers/waterjumps. Practiced barriers/water at faster speeds to simulate late race but for technique not actual workout. It's about the running. I believe you are encouraging injury by running full workouts over the actual steeple "course". A lot of potential for mis-step etc. Save it for the race.

I agree. I would do workouts over hurdles and barriers sparingly. Run 3k workouts and work on hurdle technique.

I would not have them doing the same workouts as the non-steeple guys, just over barriers. At least not most of the time. Steepling just beats you up too much, and as another poster mentioned there's the additional risk of injury.

I was by no means elite, but I usually only did like 3 (and usually shorter) workouts a season over the barriers. Did a bunch of hurdling drills before and after, but most of my VO2max type track workouts were done without barriers.

To answer the actual question, slightly less than a second per regular barrier, and slightly more for a water jump, so 5 maybe even 6 seconds per lap (depending on how good of a hurdler; world class guys closer to 4 seconds).

So I would say the same level of effort for 8x400m in 62, would be like 6x400m in 67. Which is still a hell of an effort!

Good luck!

Like someone said before me, be careful with the water jumps. Unless your runners can easily clear the whole thing, the landing on the "slope" puts a LOT of strain on the Achilles tendons.

Also I agree with the occasional faster-than-steeplechase-pace workouts to simulate changes of pace/kicks in a race.

Oldbutnotwornoutyet wrote:

oldwornout wrote:

Old sub 8:40 guy here.

Never ran workouts over barriers/waterjumps. Practiced barriers/water at faster speeds to simulate late race but for technique not actual workout. It's about the running. I believe you are encouraging injury by running full workouts over the actual steeple "course". A lot of potential for mis-step etc. Save it for the race.

I agree. I would do workouts over hurdles and barriers sparingly. Run 3k workouts and work on hurdle technique.

8:52 steepler here. These guys ^ offer good advice and I concur, for the most part. I always thought doing workouts over hurdles or barriers had some merit, but it was never something we did on a weekly basis. We would occasionally incorporate hurdles/barriers into a workout once every couple of weeks or perhaps for the last 2nd or 3rd of a "regular" workout. (And don't ever include water jumps in the regular interval workout.)

In short, steeplers are distance runners. Train them like distance runners first, and then make sure hurdle drills and water jump practice gets thrown in afterward.

Again, thanks for the great advice! I am planning on incorporating hurdles into workouts sparingly like some of you recommended. I definitely agree that the main key to becoming good at the steeple is to be a great runner over 3000m. I just want to idealize my the form of my guys to maximize their potential.

And thanks again for the advice!