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Running Hills Takes Skill
Hills can be tough, but when you have understanding and skills for it, you can enjoy a great advantage on the way up and on the way down. You can excel at them, rather than just try to survive.
More than raw strength, hills take skills. The more skillful you are on the way up, the more energy is conserved. The more skillful you are on the way down, the more free speed you can tap into.
You can ‘run’ slopes you have the skill for. The more skill = run freely on more difficult slopes.
When Going Uphill
Emphasize the use of your upper body. The swing of your arms can help you feel like you are lifting your torso, making it lighter.
The rise of the ground in front of you may distort your perception of your fall/lean forward, so you need to tune this perception to the slope. The ground is closer and therefore it may appear that you are leaning when in fact you are not. You still want to use gravity to help you fall forward. If you lean too little, there is no gravity being channeled into forward motion. If you lean too much, you may find your are bending at the waist and will feel strain in your back.
Let the entire foot make contact with the ground, maintain a sense of light touch. As you pull off the ground, pull the whole foot with the heel barely coming off the ground first. Don’t go onto the toes.
When the slope is quite steep and it feels too steep for your achilles tendon to stretch and keep your heel on the ground comfortably, turn at an angle to the hill and run up at that angle – like climbing a switch back road. This will reduce the dorsiflexion angle.
There are runnable uphills, and then there are hill you must walk that are so steep, or when you are so tired, that running will move you no faster yet use far more energy than walking – so go ahead and walk, while maintaining good posture, a slight lean, and taking, quick small steps.
When Going Downhill
Emphasize the use of your lower body. Let legs be soft and relaxed as much as possible to absorb the greater fall.
You can let go and let your legs and body fly on slopes you’ve trained for. But once it gets so steep that you feel you could lose control or traction, you should restrain your speed to keep your body safe. You can expand the steepness of hills you can run on with practice which builds skill and strength for those.
Use the lean of the body to control speed. Continue to strike the ground just under your center of mass, where you can land on the ball of the foot to absorb the greater impact force of down hill running. Avoid reaching in front and striking on the heel first.
Runnable downhills
- Loosen hips
- Lengthen stride
- Let gravity pull
- Soften the body
Restrained downhills
When hills are steeper than your skills allow you to open up on, use your lean to help you slow down, and stay in control of posture and stability.
Keep landing on the ball and mid-point of the foot. Avoid landing on the heel, especially on loose ground where you could more easily lose traction.
Take much smaller steps – micro steps if needed. You will maintain a fast cadence. Smaller, faster steps mean less impact force per step.
View more focal points on the Run Drills & Focal Points page.
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