This past weekend, I was at a high school cross country meet. I spent a good amount of time watching the runners go both down a good hill and then back up it after looping around a bit.
It’s amazing to see the various teams go down the hill. You can really see which teams give downhill running a good focus and which ones don’t really worry about it.
So, if you’re going to give some focus to downhill running, what should you work on?
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After last week’s post about racing on hills, I realized I should share some thoughts on running hills in general. So let’s go over good form for running hills, whether training or racing. I’ll start this week with running uphill, then cover running downhill next week.
So, what do you need to know about running uphill? Primarily, just two things: keep your stride rate up and your hips forward.
…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.
…Very early in my running life, I was introduced to hill repeats. Over the course of my life, I’ve done all kinds of different hill repeat workouts. While I haven’t always loved the workouts (they can be brutal) I’ve always been a fan of the results.
What makes hill repeats so valuable? A few answers can be found here, as well as some ideas for workouts.
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Think of your last run. Did you do anything before starting to prepare your body for running?
If your answer is no, I’d encourage you to consider changing that answer for your next run.
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