Uphill running
How to ensure your hills pay the bills
“Those hills killed me!”
Does this sound like you? You aren’t alone, but you are in luck this week as we take a look at how to keep your cool when the road ticks up.
Running uphill is a specific skill that requires muscular and cardiovascular adaptations. There is also some technique involved.
You certainly want to make this adaptation if your upcoming races are on hilly terrain, but even if flat races, the gains from a bit of specific strength work can go a long way.
A technical focus
A few cues that have helped me with improving on the inclines:
A slight chin tuck
A slight forward lean with the torso
Quick feet! Don’t get bogged down
Relaxed but powerful arm carriage. Don’t be a robot.
Too often, I see runners tense up because uphill running requires an increase in effort. You’ll have to try harder without a doubt. It is hard work, but tension in the neck, head, and arms will only add to the discomfort.
I also frequently see runners arching their backs or letting their feet slow down, almost “falling up the hill”.
Putting yourself in a position of power, as described above, may initially take some work, but it will make the experience more fruitful when the hill is not dominating you, but rather, you are dominating it.
Don’t abandon your gym routine
The overarching goal is generating Power Per Step. While it is unclear whether there is a direct correlation between strength training and injury prevention, there is some evidence to support strength training for performance improvement. Spending time running uphill is important, but you can take it a step further with a gym routine.
The glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, and calves all play together to give you the power to go uphill fast and efficiently. A focus in these areas for raw strength and explosive power is advised.
Heavy unilateral work with lunges, single-leg squats, and calf raises to name a few can help improve muscle performance in a position similar to that of a running stride.
Incorporating a plyometric program with some hops or jumps can also improve your “springiness” in your running stride.
How to implement
Tolerating hills comes down to three main training components:
Endurance
Generate power (via strength)
Move quickly
You’ll want to blend a mixture of speed and endurance into the normal training.
A hilly long run in your weekly training is one great strategy to cover the endurance side. You may be best served by throwing any pace expectations out the window and letting the terrain dictate the effort. If endurance is truly the goal, keeping a lid on the intensity to avoid the spikes is advised. As you get fitter, through exposure, pushing sections with terrain is a worthy progression.
However, if you only run hills at a relatively low intensity, you’ll miss out on part of the equation. Remember that you want to be fast and efficient uphill. We can approach this from a few angles:
Very short, maximal uphill bursts (5-8 seconds)
Longer, still intense, but submaximal repetitions (20 seconds up to 5 minutes)
Early in the season, I’d opt for shorter reps at higher intensity to get a neuromuscular benefit. We know that this confers gains in running the economy if done regularly.
As the season progresses and training becomes more specific, longer reps can be part of the program.
An additional and anecdotal note: Hill reps mixed with flat terrain reps have been something that works well for me and the athletes I coach. There seems to be something about the contrasting nature of incline work that translates well. An example of this type of workout would be:
4x200 hill reps—recovery period is the time it takes to jog back down
4x200 track reps—200 jog recovery
The athlete is then observing the differences in feel between the two. All reps are performed at 90-95% effort. Never truly maximal.
Add a couple of easy run days and perhaps a tempo session/track workout, and you have yourself a robust week of running.
What if I live somewhere flat?
Living in the heart of America, like I do, or on the coast, can make hill training more difficult to implement. It is unlikely that there are no options for incline near you, so your first option is to explore the local scene to see if you can devise a circuit with some terrain in a lap-like fashion. Even if the hill is short in length, you can still reap the benefits of the hill reps as mentioned previously.
There are still options if that is not your style. A treadmill is not always preferred but can be a helpful tool. A set of stairs can be similarly helpful as it taxes the same muscle groups.
Finally, a lack of hills does not make you immune to the strength training routine that is also advised earlier in the article.
All hope is not lost when you live where it is flat. Think outside the box.
What about downhills?
If you have done a race on a hilly course, you know that the downhill can do more damage than the uphill, especially if it is late in the race. Improving downhill running is an area I need to explore some more as it is a weakness.
Looking at downhill running from a problem-solving lens, we know that it loads the legs with eccentric muscle contraction. This means that the muscle is absorbing loading rather than creating propulsion like when going uphill. You are throwing on the brakes instead of hitting the gas. Therefore, strength training gets another point (do you see a theme here?) because most exercises involve training through a full range of motion where you get both concentric and eccentric muscle function.
Another area that I have found helpful is ‘keep the legs under you”. If you let the legs go too much, you are prone to over striding which will increase the braking forces. Keeping the legs under your center of mass with a shorter stride can decrease the ground contact time, thereby altering the total forces on the body.
For specific downhill workouts, this is something I have not explored. Some of the research in the article linked here suggests that there are mixed results for engaging in a specific downhill protocol for improving downhill running. Theory would suggest that exposure to such demands would be helpful, but the data are unclear and there is likely a higher injury risk with ripping downhill reps.
Closing remarks
Armed with a few technique cues, a gym program, and a balanced approach to training, you can begin your attack by using hills to your advantage.
It won’t be something that happens overnight or comes easy, especially for a newer runner. It will be worth it, however, when you are passing everyone like they are standing still.