Runner Question Answered

I received a question the other day that was a really good one and thus I wanted to take the opportunity to answer this one as an additional post. Perhaps others have this same question and may be able to gain insight about training. The question was something like this; “If I can run 27 minutes now, but it still takes me a few minutes to run a big hill – where should I put by emphasis in training? Should I be running hills or focused on my progress toward thirty minutes and worry about the hill later? I feel like, when I am on the flat I can run non-stop and do well, yet I still need to slow down and even walk a hill sometimes. Is this OK and what should I be doing about it?

Here is the big picture answer: for now, you need to be OK with walking the hill and continuing to slowly enhance your endurance. Now here is the why to that answer, because I would not be teaching a running class if I did not think that the runner needs to know and understand why we train the way we do.

Training on hills is it’s own class content. They are tough and require a few new form techniques and a lot of patience. The whole idea with hills is to adapt to them slowly, just like you do running long distances. We started walking before we ran and we’ll start hills by walking them or by proceeding up them with equal effort NOT equal speed. That is to say that if your run is a (perceived effort rating) of 4-5, so that you can talk and sing while running, the run is about half of your total output. Remember that these runs are 70-80% of your total running volume or training. Your heart rate (easy to measure if you have a watch or a heart monitor) would be at about 60% of your output with these workouts. If you use the Maffetone method to calculate this heart rate number, I want to run at 180, minus my age (42) = 138 beats/minute.

So when I run along I want to stay at around 138 bpm, and that should be about a perceived effort of 4-5. When the hill comes, I want to head up the hill at that same effort, which means that for now, speed will change. I will slow down to keep a 138 heart rate and a PE of 4-5. Over time I will adapt – just like I adapted to being able to run farther – so that I can run the hill, or head uphill faster using the same amount of effort.

For great coaches like Arthur Lydiard, hills were considered to be the athlete’s weight room. Alberto Salazar and Jeff Galloway will tell you that running hills is equal in effort to doing speed work. Which means, don’t overdo it. All these coaches will agree that hills will make you faster, for several reasons. You develop new muscle definition in your legs for hill work, your body adapts to higher workloads, and you gain confidence that you can crush any terrain you train to conquer.

There are a ton of great reasons to train on hills but we have to be smart about it as well. To run up the hill early on is no different that seeking to run too fast initially in your program. You risk too high a heart rate, not having the where-with-all to continue running once your reach the top, being injured from the effort or being a bore from “overtraining syndrome”. Will all of this happen to you the first time you run up a hill? No. But you do need to consider that if it feels like a huge effort, than it probably is, and that our program is based around gradual attainment of limitless endurance in a near tireless state. While that seems a lofty goal, recall how far you have come so far, by proceeding gradually. If you are not injured or discouraged, then you’ll continue to develop and push yourself and we have time for that a bit later.

Know that I have participants who run to church – 7 miles each way, and some of it up hill. My personal distance record is 42 miles from Elkins to Buckhannon and back, but I still walked once in awhile. Yes, I enjoyed nearly every minute of it. Everyone who has ever run an ultramarathon (any distance over 26.2 miles) will tell you that no matter how much you train, walking remains part of your event sometimes – especially to eat, drink, or when the terrain becomes too steep, as to steal your energy for the rest of your event.

Running well is about pacing yourself and knowing when to push and when to hold the pace. After many weeks of running hills, and after you can run 30 minutes continuously, you’ll know when you can push up the hill a bit without overdoing it, and your body will tell you also; in respiration rate and heart rate. Listen to what it tells you and ease into hill just as you do your running. So start some hills now – sooner rather than later – and walk what you need to. Even at a walk you are building adaptations for this type of terrain, but remain a smart and thinking runner when you tackle these challenges and we’ll talk more about hill (up and down) in an upcoming class.

Keep at it, Carl

Running Hills

Hills – Mountaineers are better runners.
“Going to the mountains is going home” – John Muir

Runners from Ohio complain about them and the Boston Marathon has the notorious “Heartbreak Hill” as part of it mythology but runners who know the benefits of running up and down hill know something – they have both the competitive and mental advantage on their competition.
This part of your running can easily comprise 35% of you total mileage & will develop your stride and physical capacity to run more easily. You’ll also never fear a racecourse - something flatlanders get chills about regularly. Again, Danny Dryer’s book CHI Running is a great resource here in dealing with hills because technique can help your newly acquired powers to get up any hill efficiently.

Flow and glide – is the earth flat? Easy question - but think about the last time you enjoyed a roller coaster, surfed a wave, rode a mountain bike or snowboard over that very non-flat planet of ours. That slowing and accelerating feeling you enjoyed can be learned and integrated into your running and while it will not be easy, you already have many of the tools to do this well. Concentrate on an easy and efficient pace going up and learn to love that fast gliding down and you’ll start to reap the physical advantage of hill running.

Physical developments – no matter how fast (or slow) you go uphill you’ll be working at a higher PE than you typically do on a training run. You will be gently adjusting your workload and this gives you better cardio capacity while building powerful hip flexors, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. Towards the end of a race as fatigue sets in runners may shorten their stride and lack muscle endurance to raise their knees and ankles into the next stride. Hill running build stamina in these key areas and prevents fatigue. You’ll have more power to keep running.

Hill repeats – In the same way that we are able to start running or do speed work in small doses – you can also run uphill in short bursts so as to not tire of it completely and still get most of the benefits. Folks who do not enjoy hills or feel intimidated by a hilly course will find a hill that takes one minute to run and run it at a “regular pace” (PE 4) multiple times. At the top you turn around and gently glide back down, resting as needed at the base before heading up again.

Proper form – we have discussed before that if your form suffers while doing this running then you’re not doing yourself any favors and need to slow down. You get some of the benefits from walking the hills too – find a pace you can handle – progress gradually.

Uphill - You will use your upper body more when traveling uphill. A slight lean forward would come from leaning at the ankle. Your focused breathing to power your body upward, and your arm swing – all play an important role. Think about the little engine that could. Small lean and small strides as well as a relaxed state governed by our breathing rate. You do not want to overwork your hamstrings and calves with long strides and pulling yourself up the hill. Small strides, never stepping past your hips, shoulders slightly ahead of your hips, keeps you pushing yourself up the hill in a controlled way. Take it easy and let your breathing determine your pace. Relax your legs and make sure feet are flat on the ground, heels down, and you’re not asking smaller muscles to do bigger jobs. Conserve energy and know that going uphill is always a bit slower. Pump your arms, thinking about elbows moving back, coordinated with your stride to give you extra momentum moving uphill. Your eyes look up – to the top of the hill and your long straight spine allows more air into the runner for hard work. Think about a positive mental image and know that every up has a downhill too.

Downhill – Done poorly, you’ll pound your legs, feet and lower back with 6-10x your body weight with each footfall, hammering your legs and possibly your ability to run later in the week! While not all hills are runnable, many are and you’ll get better at the “glide” skills with practice & enjoy the down without the pounding. Relaxing both physically and mentally allows you to loosen up your knees and quadriceps, give in to the speed a bit and enjoy the movement which can be much faster than you ever run on the flats. Stride, cadence, and orientation to the ground help smooth out the ride you’ve earned.

Think about your hips, shoulders and upper body. You want your hips and pelvis level while you run. Your shoulders and upper body should stay centered over your hips. Leaning away from the hill and bracing will shift your legs forward and as they act like the brakes - you’ll transfer impact to heels, quadriceps, and your lower back. This is a time that you want to stay light and footfalls/strides will be much faster than usual.
Your cadence (number of strides per minute) will increase and those smaller steps will keep your feet under your hips and landing quickly and lightly on the ground. If you need to take longer strides as your speed increases, think about the stride getting longer in the back, or behind you, so your feet do not come past your hips and you are recruiting muscles from the posterior of the body. One item to focus on is peeling your feet off the ground from the heel. This tends to make the mid-foot land first for your next step and keeps your footsteps closer to the pelvis – reducing impact forces to your body. Another way to look at it is to lead with the toe – plantar flex the foot – toes point down as you descend and your mid-foot will hit first and quickly transition to the next step.

Safety – while accidents a few, if you start running 35% of your mileage as hills you may want to take an hour one afternoon (on a grassy slope) to think about falling properly. Cyclists do this annually and skiers do too as their falling season starts. If you practice a tuck and roll, drop a shoulder style of falling you are much more likely to avoid road rash and to stop sooner, post contact with the ground. You want to tuck things in and not splay them out – do not make tender and breakable appendages responsible for stopping your trajectory. If this practice drill sounds scary, remember to walk the steepest descents so that you are in control.