I get crushed on hilly courses and I want to change that

If I've not practiced the downhills for awhile, I'm quite uncoordinated on them the first session back. The second second is much better though. You get used to them quickly, and the more practice the better.

A lot of people try to push too hard with each stride on hills, causing the cadence to drop and the effort to increase. Your strong quads might tempt you to do this, but you can focus on keeping your cadence light and quick up the hills. This might feel like you're not covering much ground with each stride, but that is okay, because you're running lighter and you get up the hill more quickly this way.

The downhills are not just a matter of being coordinated in general, but a matter of gaining that coordination from the practice of running them regularly. Once you gain the coordination, then it's easier to maintain and get back. Just focusing on your form won't do as much as actively practicing the downhills regularly and running your best.

dkny64 wrote:

I'm generally a heel striker, but when I ran the short, steep uphills at Van Cortlandt, I treat them like stair climbing and don't let my heels touch the ground;

Isn't this kind of obvious? Heel striking on an uphill would be quite the feat.

xenon I am surprised to hear you have muscular legs... I always associated that with good hill running, not rhythm runners.

Barakus Obama wrote:

that means do short and explosive hill repeats.

A Duck wrote:

Perhaps try some long intervals on the treadmill, at a good incline?

J.R. wrote:

In that case focus on short steep hills.

LeadvilleNative wrote:

For short explosive hills, again, find a long hill-3/4 of a mile-and run your 20 or 30 second bursts, and then a short rest. I still think long hills will help your leg strength. I think longer-90 or 100 second help me more.

Also c'mon, you guys are all over-thinking it.

"Deeee Heeeeel!" "What hill?" "Any heeeeelll!"

Horizontal, strong quads, suck at uphills. Sounds like your calves need some training.

In general, run intervals uphill the same way as you would run them on the track. Long reps for stamina, medium long reps for anaerobic ability, short reps for rhythm and form. There is nothing mystical about uphill interval training.

Build up the same way as you would do with intervals on the flat. For better form, start with short alactic sprints and over a few months build up to about 30s reps, just like you would do with 200m reps. This should strengthen you calves as well. Massage your calves several times a week and never run hard if they're stiff.

Barakus Obama wrote:

that means do short and explosive hill repeats.

A Duck wrote:

Perhaps try some long intervals on the treadmill, at a good incline?

J.R. wrote:

In that case focus on short steep hills.

LeadvilleNative wrote:

For short explosive hills, again, find a long hill-3/4 of a mile-and run your 20 or 30 second bursts, and then a short rest. I still think long hills will help your leg strength. I think longer-90 or 100 second help me more.

Short Sprints or Long Intervals on the hills

why not both?

Question for LeadvilleNative:

Do you ever do longer reps on your 1300 yard hill or do you strictly do 440 up w 220 rest? You indicate that you prefer longer hills to those of 20-30 seconds. Do you ever go up 880 yds or the Full Monty?

How did you end up at the happy middle of 440yds?

Thanks

I perused most responses and didn't notice any mention of plyometrics. This can be extremely important.

Hopping, bounding, skipping and jumping will help to put some power in your legs. It sounds like you may already have the requisite strength, but you need to engage it more quickly.

-Frog jumps (jump from 2, land on 2)

-Bounding R-L-R-L

-Max sprint on short steep hill

-Vertical skips

-Hopping L-L-L

be careful to get a good warmup before these workouts. Do them all on a moderate- to steep incline, preferably on a soft surface. Low reps -- like 8-10 strides or jumps -- but absolute MAX POWER with each and every stride. Walk down for recovery.

Cheers

xenonscreams wrote:

I should note that it feels totally muscular to me. It's not like I get to the top of a hill and I need to catch my breath or anything, it's more like (even when I try to stay steady) my legs are burning so much they feel nonfunctional.

I have the same problem. Always have, even when I do hill workouts regularly and strength train. I usually avoid hilly courses, but can't do that with cross country. The short, steep hills make my legs cramp and burn. Downhills are okay, but I don't feel like I make up the lost time from the up.

On some of your easier days, run some hilly routes and pay attention to your form on the hills. In particular, when running uphill, where are your hips? It may be that they are shifting back and maybe you're bending over a bit to engage your gigantic man-quads. What you want to do is to keep your hips forward and engage your hamstrings and trunk junk.

Yes, I do occasionally do 880s-or even top to bottom. The reason I like the 440 up, 220 down stairstep is that it gives me a short rest with half the downhill pounding jogging back down, and I can do a set of 5 on my hill. If I go 880 up, I have to go 880 down-that's too long a rest for me, as well as more pounding, etc. If I stairstepped the 880 with a 440, I'd get a set of 2-which just violates my sensibilities-I mean how can a pair be a set??An ideal hill would be one with a switchback halfway up, and then a trail shortcut back to the start. I could do what you propose-880 up, 440 down on any number of hills in Colorado, but my 1300 yard site one is 5 minutes from my office, and perfect for lunchtime workouts. Sadly, I'm a creature of habit. But maybe this little exchange will fire me up to expand my horizons a little.

Sparky Hill wrote:

Question for LeadvilleNative:

Do you ever do longer reps on your 1300 yard hill or do you strictly do 440 up w 220 rest? You indicate that you prefer longer hills to those of 20-30 seconds. Do you ever go up 880 yds or the Full Monty?

How did you end up at the happy middle of 440yds?

Thanks