Part 3-B: Hill Running

Uphill Workouts

So why did I decide to leave hill-specific workouts out of the last post and give them their own short spot here?  Because I don't do them.  I don't believe in their effectiveness, I don't see them as useful, and I think they may even be counter-productive sometimes.  If there are hills on a course I am running, so be it (and here in WV, there probably are!).  But I never go actively looking for them, an I don't do hill repeats.

People tend to put hill workouts early in their training cycle to build leg strength - running against gravity does force more leg muscle fibers to be recruited, stimulating improvement.  But squats do the same thing, and they can be done in addition to your running on a given day, instead of replacing it.  Cross country coaches (I hate to badmouth people who are giving up their time to coach young runners, but so many of them are so bad at it) tend to not only put these workouts early in season, but also during any week before a race on a hilly course.  How many times have any of you been in a race that you ran up the same hill 10 times?

Generally speaking, if you run uphill with good form (lean into it, hips forward, etc.), you can let your conditioning do the work, and you don't have to try to prepare specifically for any hill.  This particular view is my own, based on experience and observation, not any particular research I've done - take from it what you will.

Downhill Running

While I don't advocate doing specific downhill workouts, I do suggest doing one or two sets of downhill strides after easy workouts.  They don't have to be long or steep, the point isn't conditioning, it's practicing safe downhill running form so that when you have to go down one in a race, you don't get hurt, or fall, but can still keep pace and not give up any ground.

Here's the sciencey bit as to why I don't do these as a true workout.  Downhill running requires significant eccentric contraction of the leg muscles.  This is when your muscle must contract and provide strength while it is in a stretched position - you typically get this from braking forces during each stride just a little bit, but downhill it is much greater.  Eccentric contractions can provide a great workout, but they have a huge downside:  they almost always leave you sore.  Very sore.  So sore that I feel the benefits don't outweigh the consequences.  So I try to do maybe one set of 5 or 6 runs downhill of maybe 100 yards after an easy day sometime in the spring.  If I don't find time for it, oh well.  I can always practice running form during my easy runs.


As for my training, I felt 100% better Wednesday afternoon, and was burning to get out there this morning for a hard workout.  Cold and clear (28 degrees), I piled on the layers, and hit the road for 1/4 mile repeats - 12 of them, at around a 6:40 pace.  I hit most of my targets, but was utterly gassed out by about the 8th or 9th interval.  I'm glad I don't have to do that again until Tuesday.

I hope everyone is ready for it, because we're heading into the meat of my training philosophy, tempo (Part 4) and interval (Part 5) training...