Hills are tough and challenging. They break your rhythm, make it harder to run a fast time and put an immense strain on your body.
But hills are good for you and they’re good for your running. Training on hills improves leg-muscle strength, quickens your stride, expands stride length, develops your cardiovascular system, enhances your running economy and can even protect your leg muscles against soreness. In short, hill running will make you a stronger, faster and healthier runner. What’s more, the benefits are relatively quick to take effect. In as little as six weeks of regular hill training you can expect a significant improvement in your muscle power and speed.
Hill sessions force the muscles in your hips, legs, ankles and feet to contract in a coordinated fashion while supporting your full body weight, just as they have to during normal running. In addition, on uphill sections your muscles contract more powerfully than usual because they are forced to overcome gravity to move you up the hill. The result is more power, which in turn leads to longer, faster running strides.
Going Up
Running hills well is all about rhythm; if you let the hill break up your rhythm you will slow dramatically. But if you make the proper adjustments and maintain your cadence you’ll make molehills out of the mountains. Here’s how:
· As you start uphill, shorten your stride. Don’t try to maintain the pace you were running on the flat.
· You are aiming for equal effort going up as well as down, not equal pace. Trying to maintain the pace you were running on the flat will leave you exhausted later in the race or session.
· Take ‘baby steps’ if necessary and try to keep the same turnover rhythm that you had on the flat ground.
· Your posture should be upright – don’t lean forward or back – your head, shoulders and back should form a straight line over the feet. Keep your feet low to the ground.
· If your breathing begins to quicken it means that you’re either going too fast, over-striding or bounding too far off the ground as you run.
· Use a light, ankle-flicking push-off with each step, not an explosive motion, which will waste energy. If the hill is long or the gradient increases, keep shortening your stride to maintain a smooth and efficient breathing pattern. If the gradient decreases, extend your stride again. Try to maintain the same steady effort and breathing throughout.
· In a race, or when you’re training on a undulating course, run through the top of the hill. Don’t crest the hill and immediately slow down or pull back on your effort.
· Accelerate gradually into the downhill.
Coming Down
Most runners make one or two obvious mistakes when running downhill. They either sprint, which causes severe muscle soreness later on, or they’re so hesitant to surrender to gravity that they’re constantly braking, which fatigues the quadriceps muscles. To help your downhill technique, follow these simple tips:
· Try to visualise gravity pulling you down the hill.
· Try to maintain an upright body posture, keeping your torso perpendicular to the horizontal.
· Keep your feet close to the ground for maximum control, and land lightly.
· As you increase your pace, emphasise quicker turnover rather than longer strides, though your strides can be slightly longer than normal.
· The key to efficient downhill running is to stay in control. When you start, keep your stride slightly shortened and let your turnover increase. When you feel in control, gradually lengthen your stride.
· If you start to run out of control when descending, shorten your stride until you feel you are back in control again.