Training Question - hillrunning

sean_d

Hi,

Theres a few accomplished hillrunners on the board so I hope they won't mind me tapping into their expertise...
I have issues with running downhill, specifically easy/non technical descents, (the entire of Annacurragh and from the tarmac road down to the finish in Trooperstown as good examples) and am losing 2-4 places and a good chunk of time per race as a result....getting frustrated hammering past people on the trickier/steeper descents and then losing it again once it gets easier.
My leg speed isn't up to the standard of those around me, and after a few hundred meters, I get a jarring sensation in my torso with every step which is pretty uncomfortable and can make it difficult to breathe deeply.

(i) is this common and can it be rectified?
(ii) are there any particular drills or intervals that would be good for improving my speed in this aspect?

Thanks,
Sean

donothoponpop

From the jarring in your torso, I'd say you're making the (very common newbie) mistake of leaning back as you run down. Basically, if you're not used to running downhill fast, you tend to put on the brakes and overcompensate for a fall. Do you heelstrike as you go down? You should aim for landing on the ball of your foot. This will also ensure that you hit the ground at a more perpendicular angle to the decline. So lean foward slightly as you go down.

If this sounds too technical, basically all you need to do is "let yourself go" on the downhill, and take off the brakes, something thats learned from experience. Your leg turnover rate will increase, and I'll soon be regretting giving you this advice during imra races;)

sean_d

Excellent answer, thanks.
Will pay more attention to that and see how it goes.

I'm a good way off challenging you just yet, the top few boards singlets will remain a spec in the distance for some time to come I think...
Maybe by the big races in the summer I'll have attained enlightenment

Peterx

if you're good on technical descents and poor on easy fireroad descents you possibly need to work on your raw speed and leg turnover rates.
Interval sessions on da flat to improve your speed will improve your speed on easy descents.
Another thing is you may be going flat out on the technical descents and then find yourself wrecked heading into the dreaded fireroad, either keep a little in reserve for the horrible fireroad or else start playing mental visualisation tricks to convince yourself you actually love horrible fireroad:)
focus on your technique and really drive through each step and get a flow going.

Slogger Jogger

donothoponpop's answer was fairly comprehensive. Practice makes perfect.. so you'd benefit from doing some training on the hills as part of your overall training. Practice some hill repeats like 400m uphills with jogged downhills. Reverse it and do the sprint downhills with jogged uphills. Most of all, enjoy it.

Stark

Training downhill can be as important as training uphill I find. I found I concentrated on the latter in my training for most of last year and then found myself getting absolutely killed on the downhills while racing. Eventually figured out that the best way was to run as donothoponpop suggested, but that is seriously tiring on your quads so best to get used to it in training

Enduro

All good advice.

I'd add that its always a good idea to do specific training, so maybe something like downhill fartlek training on easy fireroads might be of benifit.

If you're quads become an issue on downhill running (they often do, particularly on very long races like the Wicklow Ultra), then doing some cycling can help this enourmously (and improve your climbing speed too)