I could prescribe some specifics, but you need to figure this out on your own based on several factors:
Your health. Are you hurt or fatigued?
Facilities. What do you have access to? (weights, outdoor track, indoor track, other stuff)
Weather. Is it good enough to go outside?
Needs. What areas are you most trying to improve? (conditioning, technique, speed, strength)
Most of you need to continue to work on the following components. You might emphasize some over others, depending on the factors cited above.
Strength (2 or 3 times during the break)
Stick with our weight protocol if you can. If you can’t access enough free weights for the deads, you can substitute using cleans, step ups or squats. If you only can access machines, you can use leg press or hack squat machines. If you only have bodyweight to work with, do single leg squats and add plyometrics – quick hopping – within a minute after a set. If you don’t do weights at all, do more vigorous plyometrics with less emphasis on quickness and more on power – big hops, skips, bounds and jumps (dropping off a 2-foot platform, landing and springing upward quickly). Keep the total number of ground contacts for plyos to about 50 (5x10 or 10x5, for example). If you do them in conjunction with the lifting – about 9 contacts per set.
Skill (1 or 2 times – preferably on a strength day)
If you can access hurdles, do the drill work as per usual and if the weather is good, you can do some fast stuff over 3 to 5 hurdles (discounted distance and/or height). Keep the total volume around 20 to 30 hurdles total. If the weather is poor, you can still hurdle, but don’t worry about speed. Do up-and-back hurdles using 4 or 5 hurdles in one direction, 5-stepping up and then 5-stepping back over 4 or 5 more set in the other direction. You also could do this with 3-stepping but at the ½ space arrangement you have done in practice.
For intermediates, work on counting and stride pattern between 3 hurdles. Bigger, faster guys are going for 15 strides. For others, the target may be 16 to 19. Run the 3 and then walk the remaining part of the track and go again. Repeat 5x. After that, do a couple randomly spaced hurdles on the curve and/or straight to work on your ability to position yourself to take off at an appropriate distance from the hurdle and to work with either leg as it comes up.
Time permitting, you always can do drill work after the main part of the workout to work on technique. Of course, use an appropriate warmup before any of these workouts. And a cooldown and stretching after.
If you have access to field event equipment and facilities, you could do some work there, too, especially approach work for jumps. You could do some jumps if conditions are good enough.
Speed (1 or 2 times – preferably on a strength day)
If you are outside, you can do these a little longer than we could do inside. Something around 40 to 50 meters is good for now (if you are on a track marked for 400 meter hurdles, it’s the distance from the last hurdle to the finish. If marked for 300 hurdles, you can use the second last hurdle to the finish, which is 45 meters. Another option is to use the 8.5m hurdle marks – 6 segments = 51m. Use about 20 to 25m for a fly-in and then time the segment if you have a stopwatch. Run reps until your time drops off by a tenth or so, but no more than 10. Take 4-5 minutes rest between each. After 5, you can reduce the recovery by a minute if you want. After 7, you can reduce it by another minute if you want. Just remember to stop when you can’t make the cutoff. Otherwise, it’s not a speed workout.
Conditioning (between the speed or skill days)
Extensive tempo runs work well here – 2x6x100m with 45 seconds rest between reps and 2 minutes between sets. Keep the intensity relatively low – 15 to 18 seconds. You also could run 200s or 300s at similar pace. If you do 200s instead, run 2x3x200 31-37 seconds. If 300s, go 2x2x300 at 48-54. Remember, this is just conditioning/recovery, so don’t get carried away here, even though the pace may seem a little slow. If you have somewhere where you can do this on grass, even better. Don’t even deal with time in that situation. Time isn’t important with these; it’s just to help you make sure you aren’t going too fast. A good gauge is whether you can carry on a conversation or not. If you can’t, you’re going too fast.
There are lots of other things you can do for general conditioning: medicine ball work, calisthenics, biking, other sports and such. The key here is that whatever you do, keep intensity low, volume high, recovery short.
Rest – don’t train every day. Take a day or two off. If you are hurt or tired, even more.
