My legs feel pretty heavy going uphill but then feel fine again while racing a flat or downhill part. I think the uphill is slowing me down more than it should.
Is going up the hill fast a better strategy? Is it more painful to go uphill slowly because the pain lasts longer? Maybe after some sharp fast pain it will all go away on the straightaway, and I will waste less time.
The best way to run hills is to maintain a steady effort. Don't accelerate or try to pass on hills (unless it is hard to avoid). Lean forward, chop steps slightly, and get up on toes. Practice hill repeats so that your legs get used to the increased power required by inclines. Do all of it together and you should be fine.
Hills don't require increased power. Hills require maintaining the same power as you do on flats and that's a tricky part, because you have to slow down depending on a grade, takes time to practice that. Stryd power or going by HR helps.
The Predictor wrote:
My legs feel pretty heavy going uphill but then feel fine again while racing a flat or downhill part. I think the uphill is slowing me down more than it should.
Is going up the hill fast a better strategy? Is it more painful to go uphill slowly because the pain lasts longer? Maybe after some sharp fast pain it will all go away on the straightaway, and I will waste less time.
Forget power and forget heartrate. When running uphill you're going to be limited by your legs or by your lungs, so that's what you have to focus on: don't let your breathing get out of control or your legs get so stiff you can't speed up at the top. Also, don't spend either so much that it comes back to bite you in the ass later in the race.
You're going to breathe harder and your legs will complain. That's alright. Just control how much.
Faster uphill running is always more demanding than slower, it's common sense. If it hurts too much, slow down. If you reach the top slightly faster and are so lactic you can't really speed up, what's the point? There's way more ground to be made on the flats and downhills.
Train running hills a lot.
That also helps you on the flat.
It's downhill racing that always bothered me.
You are constantly breaking, which goes against the nature of trying to run fast.
Some people are real good at flying downhill.
Also, I run on my toes which doesn't help downhill.
It’s also a matter of physics, a bigger runner will go slower up a hill then a smaller runner, but then has the advantage going back down
I love running hills and I've found the two cues which help most are to maintain high knee lift, and to engage my adductor to keep my knees nice, neat and close.
I think the first helps by encouraging maximum elastic return from Achilles, and the second by keeping this return aligned along parallel force vectors.
I try and not even think about toe-off, concentrating solely on knee lift to drive forward, and cue myself to try and 'brush' the knees together as they pass, although of course they don't get that close together.
I'm particularly interested in how a really hard hill effort affects the remainder of the race, and think that applying a heart rate limit may help?
Star wrote:
Train running hills a lot.
That also helps you on the flat.
It's downhill racing that always bothered me.
You are constantly breaking, which goes against the nature of trying to run fast.
Some people are real good at flying downhill.
Also, I run on my toes which doesn't help downhill.
Nobody runs on their toes downhill.
There's a dude on my team who runs on his toes no matter what when or where. He's as fast as me too
Today I did a 5 mile tempo and was so inefficient in hills. I would be at 6 flat pace and then up to 6:30s. There was one mile where I averaged 6:30 and then did 6:02 on a more flat mile. I used to be able to get pretty even splits on this course. Weird.