Athletics Track from Hell

Here’s a fun workout that can be done anywhere but I recommend doing it at your local athletics track. It’s a bit of a lower body killer so go as hard as you can for as long as you can sustain it, and then enjoy your legs in the morning! Here we go.

  • Run at 80% round the athletics track (should be 400m), timing yourself
  • Start at the starting line
  • Perform burpees walking (see instructional movie No.1 in the members’ section) working your way forward 10 metres. This works by placing your hands slightly further forward each time you start an individual rep.
  • Once you have gone for 10 metres straight away turn and sprint back to the starting line. Make the reaction time between the burpees and sprint as quick as possible.
  • This time perform burpees going forward for 20 metres, repeating the whole process.
  • Next perform burpees for 30 metres, sprinting back again once done
  • Once the sprint is completed go straight into another 400m run. Here you MUST beat your initial time.

  • That was set 1, set 2 is going to be with lunge steps, same premise as with the burpees, going through your 10m, 20m and 30m distances, finishing again with the 400m run that MUST be faster than your initial run at 80%

  • Set 3 is lunge switches, left leg leading. A lunge switch is where you perform a lunge step then change the position of your legs via a short, explosive jump that is performed on the spot. The next rep you lead again with your left leg performing a lunge step forward and go from there. Again we finish with a 400m run.
  • Set 4 is exactly the same as set 3 with the right leg leading.

So that’s the basic workout. The key benefits come from the running, both with the explosive nature of starting the sprints and the endurance nature of running your heart out for 400m with burning legs. It’s also an easy workout to modify. One challenge I have is to see if anyone can just do the burpee set but work the whole way around the track, that is go 10m and sprint, then 20m, then 30m, then 40m right through to 400m. If you attempt that make sure you bring a stretcher!

Let us know how you go on the forum. Post it in the S&L page of the Article Discussion section. Be good to see where everyone’s breaking point is here, can you make it to 50m/100m for each set. Does the 30m kill you as it is? Feel free to discuss.