So I was wondering what changes occur when you run hills a lot. Obviously if you train on hills then you will be better at running hills than those who don't, but what happens physiologically? Is it solely a stronger neuromuscular connection? A strengthening of muscle fibers? Learned discomfort? All of the above?
It recruits new muscle fibres, your leg needs to "push" more and also provide more upwards power, therefore more fast twitch muscle fibres are recruited. It is vital for runners with a high percentage of slow-twitch muscles. Fast-twitch runners should focus more on flat sprints as they need the bounce and stiffness in the tendons.
Journey to Elite wrote:
It recruits new muscle fibres, your leg needs to "push" more and also provide more upwards power, therefore more fast twitch muscle fibres are recruited. It is vital for runners with a high percentage of slow-twitch muscles. Fast-twitch runners should focus more on flat sprints as they need the bounce and stiffness in the tendons.
Interesting. I figured a fair bit of it was muscle fiber recruitment.
Also, speaking of running hills, what's the proper technique for running up hills? Because it can feel one of two ways to me. The first is running up a hill like an easy run on flat ground, so it just feels harder than a usual run. The other way is running hard up it which feels more like pushing off really hard with solely one leg at a time. Like the work is isolated per leg instead of shared