The word "insane" is often overused, but in this newsletter, we feel it's justified and by the end, we think you will agree.
Karsten Warholm is the world record holder and defending Olympic gold medalist in the 400m hurdles—arguably the toughest event in track and field.
You won’t miss him before the race. He’s the guy slapping his face and letting out a primal scream as he gets into the blocks.
If he wins, he might tear off his shirt (something he apparently does often in training). His intensity is no act; Warholm is the real deal, a modern savage in both training and competition.
The infamous "red days"
Warholm's “red days” start at 10 a.m. and last a brutal nine hours, three times a week.
The day kicks off with a comprehensive warm-up that includes continuously jumping up 21 stairs in just three jumps.
Then, he dives into 30 sets of 60m sprints.
After lunch, he moves on to 10 sets of 9 hurdle sprints. If these are at hurdle marks, that’s 350m reps x 10. Then it's on to a serious weight training session, where most of the shirt-ripping happens, wrapping up by 7 p.m.
But wait, there's more
To toughen his mental and physical resilience, Warholm runs shirtless in just shorts and spikes in -5 degree temperatures.
And for recovery? Forget a quick soak. Warholm spends so long in the hot tub that his coaches wife started timing him. His record? A ridiculous 3 hours and 47 minutes.
Even with all his past triumphs and signature intensity, Warholm’s path to gold is anything but assured. For the full scoop on who else he’ll be up against (enter Rai Benjamin) and when to watch, check out our handy guide.
An entirely different level of training insanity
If you think Warholm’s training is impressive (which by all accounts it is), let me introduce you to Emil Zátopek.
Now, Emil wasn’t a 400m hurdler, but he is the only track and field athlete I can confidently say makes Warholm’s training seem like a warm-up.
At the 1952 Olympics, he won the 5,000m, 10,000m, and then decided to enter the marathon—a race he had never previously run—and won.
Something that has never been done before or since. Over his career, Zátopek set 18 world records and won 5 Olympic medals, 4 of them gold. In 2013, Runner’s World named him the greatest runner of all time.
But his training was even more remarkable
Zatopek famously said, “I already know how to run slow,” so he focused on learning to run fast through interval training, A LOT of interval training.
He would complete 5 consecutive days of 40 x 400m intervals with a 200-meter jog in between each in the morning, followed by another 40 x 400m in the afternoon.
That’s not a typo, that’s 32,000m of intervals and 16,000m of jogging per day for 5 days in a row. Eventually, he pushed himself even further, reaching a staggering 100 x 400m intervals in a single day.
He also ran 1000's of miles in heavy army boots in sand and snow to simulate the fatigue he would face in races.
He ran at night carrying a torch. To build endurance, he would hold his breath until he passed out, pushing his body to the absolute limits of oxygen deprivation.
His thinking was that after that kind of training any race on a flat track would be easy, saying:
“It is better to train under bad conditions, for the difference is then a tremendous relief in a race.”
Common sense says this is a bad idea
To be clear, we are in no way advocating this type of training (also, holding your breath until you pass out just can’t be good for you).
Even doing a quarter of this workload is a recipe for overtraining and injuries for most athletes.
In fact, it caught up to Zatopek, who suffered injuries and pains throughout his career that sometimes “prevented him from walking.”
Then, in 1956, he suffered a major groin injury and was hospitalized for six weeks.
He resumed training the day he was discharged and, six weeks later, ran the marathon in the Olympics, finishing 6th.
He was never the same and eventually retired in 1958.
Nevertheless, Zatopek's story is a fascinating look at the capabilities of the human body.
He revolutionized endurance training with his use of speed intervals.
Many of his ideas, like making training harder than races and building a massive reserve of mental toughness, can be applied without the extreme measures.
As Zatopek himself said:
“By a persistent effort of will, it is possible to change the whole body. The athlete must always keep in mind this concept of change and progression. He must never accept his limitations as being permanent, because they are not.”
Beautiful.
Every athlete is unique in their intensity and volume needs.
Understanding and recognizing these specifics is crucial for optimizing performance and preventing injury.
Auburn Sprints coach Ken Harnden experienced this firsthand with athletes Walter Dix and Ngoni Makusha.
Despite achieving similar results—Dix running 9.88 and Makusha 9.89 in the 100m, both winning NCAA titles and competing at the Olympics—their training methods were remarkably different.
“Walter Dix could handle a volume of work that I'd never seen an athlete handle before. We could go out and do flying 30s until the cows came home"
"Ngoni Makusha could do 3 and we were done and that was the end of the day."
"As soon as I understood that about those two athletes they both got better. One because he got stronger and worked more and was able to do more volume of work and the other one because I kept him healthy."
When it comes to intensity and training volume:
"I think getting as close to that line as possible without crossing it is is the ultimate goal."
Training consistently without major injuries is crucial to develop speed. Injuries disrupt progress and they also have a significant psychological impact, affecting an athlete's confidence and motivation.
When training is well-balanced, sprinters stay motivated and excited to train, which almost always leads to success.
