In a recent cross country race, my daughter said a coach who has been working with a couple of her friends told her to charge the hill. I’m going to assume he said that because it was with about 400 meters to go and, regardless of the hill, it was just time to go.
If not, I found a point in which I disagree with this coach who my daughter says sounds just like me because we’re always saying the same thing.
But don’t you always hear people saying you should charge the hill in a race?
Yes, it’s true. A lot of people say that. That doesn’t make it the right thing to do, though.
The problem with charging the hill throughout most of the race is that you’re less efficient when running uphill than when running on level ground. Not surprising, you’re more efficient on downhills.
So take less efficiency and multiply it by a harder effort and you get even more wasted energy.
What to do instead?
So, if you shouldn’t charge the hill in races, unless you’re at the very end of the race, what should you do?
You should maintain your effort on the uphill. This will mean that you slow down. That it fine. Go a little slower. Let people pass you if they are going to. What you will find is that the people who passed you are often spent by the top of the hill and they slow down. You can then re-accelerate and pass them right back.
On the downhill, on the other hand, you’re more efficient. You’re using less energy to maintain the same pace. So take advantage of that, lean into the hill a bit and let your pace increase while again maintaining a consistent effort. If you’re really good at downhill running, you might even find that you’re increasing pace while reducing effort.
Note: If you’re running a long race with a lot of early downhills, you might want to temper your enthusiasm a bit. At a race like the Boston Marathon, you can do a lot of damage to your quads if you fly down the hills early and then pay the price later.
So, instead of attacking the hills, maintain effort on the uphill, settle right back in at the top, then let gravity help you out on the way down. With some practice, you’ll find that those who pass you on the uphill will quickly come back to you at the top and you’ll be ready to blow by them on the downhill.