Uphill Running Tips

Fi H

Following on from all the fantastic advice from the downhill running tips thread I thought I would see if there are any tips for the uphill bit too!

Thanks a million to everyone who contributed to the downhill one - I am getting there very slowly

baza1976

A good bit of advice I always use: When running steep hills shorten your stride......... faster shorter strides.

RoyMcC

Use mental tactics, tell yourself it's flat really

InTheTrees

Its a common cause of shin splints isnt it? Pushing too hard uphill?

ElectraX

Shorter strides, leaning slightly forward into the hill and increasing my arm swing helps me.Also push hard off your back foot to propel you forward.
That said even with all that, I still find uphill running exhausting:D

PositiveNegativ

Years of running training helps greatly.

n-dawg

I try and use short strides but keep my leg turnover quite fast. Normally I will try to keep a steady rhythm by counting in my head 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4... I will also focus on something in the middle distance... not the top if its a long climb but 100-200m ahead of me and then when I reach that point I pick a new point

I also found that when I started cycling a lot more my uphill running speed got quite a bit better. I don't know if there is any direct correlation or if it was just because I was getting fitter, but I think others have mentioned it too.

donothoponpop

PositiveNegativ wrote: »

Years of running training helps greatly.

Months of stealing training tips helps also:):

*Shorter strides, baby steps
*Keep the engine motoring, its all about effort
*Use the upper body to help drive the momentum. Swing those arms.
*Keep the breathing under control. Lose this and you're in lactate hell.
*Don't walk. Even if you have to slow right down, maintain a running motion
*ZigZag rather than go straight if its an especially steep bit (and you've still a ways to go to the top)
*Run past the summit, gradually altering your gait as you do
*Practice drills, practice knee lifts, practice terrain, practice short, practice long: PRACTICE.

jeffontour

Lose body fat! I lost a bit of gut last year and it made a huge difference. Given the option of carrying a dumbell or not I think everyone would opt for not. The points about shortened stride apply but if you want to improve your uphill speed without huge amounts of extra training eat less cakes.

I must add I love cakes and run more to justify eating more cake.

Fi H

jeffontour wrote: »

Lose body fat! I lost a bit of gut last year and it made a huge difference. Given the option of carrying a dumbell or not I think everyone would opt for not. The points about shortened stride apply but if you want to improve your uphill speed without huge amounts of extra training eat less cakes.

I must add I love cakes and run more to justify eating more cake.

Damn - I feel like you know who I am
This is definitely on the cards - but looking for other tips too of which there seem to be a good few!

Thanks guys - will add the short baby steps to the list of practice stuff! and the not walking bit! (and the other stuff too)

jeffontour

Fi H wrote: »

Damn - I feel like you know who I am

Not intended in a smartass way in case it may have came across that way! But in reality there are not many among us who could not drop some useless mass and reap the rewards. I will never have a diet clean enough to get waiflike but I can see the gains less blubber have given me.

In terms of technique people have mentioned picking a point, running to that and then picking another target and going for it, that works I find.

Also though I think that if you can pace the climb well it helps. By that I mean control your effort across the entire length of the climb. Don't attack it and burn out 50% up. Try control your pace so that you can push on towards the end of the climb.
And don't forget the bit after the climb. In race conditions you will make places up if you can kick on after the summit and attack the subsequent section. People can tend to use the section after a summit to recover, if you kick on and grit your teeth for a bit after the summit you will break their spirit. Even if you are about to collapse, once you're in front of them they can't see your tears!

ocnoc

hit the nail on the head jeff.

Some runners are carrying anything up to an extra 5kg on them. Thats the weight of a Mountain Marathon Rucksake!

Get constant training in, shed a tiny bit of weight and climbing becomes so much easier.

Sadly I enjoy sweet coffee and breakfast rolls on route to the race and a massive bottle of sugar mix for after my races.... Aaah well :rolleyes:

If you want to get good at climbing... climb!
However, climbing too much can slow you down. If you find the trade off line of speed V power, your one of the lucky ones.

Mac Cormaic

donothoponpop wrote: »

Months of stealing training tips helps also:):

*Shorter strides, baby steps
*Keep the engine motoring, its all about effort
*Use the upper body to help drive the momentum. Swing those arms.
*Keep the breathing under control. Lose this and you're in lactate hell.
*Don't walk. Even if you have to slow right down, maintain a running motion
*ZigZag rather than go straight if its an especially steep bit (and you've still a ways to go to the top)
*Run past the summit, gradually altering your gait as you do
*Practice drills, practice knee lifts, practice terrain, practice short, practice long: PRACTICE.

How do you mean keep the breathing under control or you're in lactate hell? Does breathing affect your lactate levels when running uphill?

donothoponpop

Mac Cormaic wrote: »

How do you mean keep the breathing under control or you're in lactate hell? Does breathing affect your lactate levels when running uphill?

Lactate levels elevate when the muscles are getting insufficient oxygen, during periods of intense anaerobic exercise, such as tough hill-running. So you can use breathing as an indicator of effort. If you are gasping for air, you've probably overcooked it, and breached your lactate threshold -no problem if you're near the end of a race, but most hill climbs mean you're not even half way to the finish. Your muscles will become more acidic, and their performance will be reduced- you'll find it very hard to run efficiently.

Running fartlek, or doing short fast hill repeats, or tempo drills, are very good ways of increasing your lactate threshold, so that you can run harder, faster, longer, up hills.

By the way, the best piece of advice to run hills faster is Jeff's one on losing weight (I can waffle on all I want about lactate threshold or keeping her lit running motion, but I'm lugging 5kg of lard up hills that needs to be shed first:o)

Enduro

I think everything has been well covered here. I'd just re-emphasise the cycling tip as well. It's always noticable that when pure MTBers turn up to hill races they climb like pros (and descend like goobers).

YFlyer

After watching 'Born to Run' online, and seeing it years ago on TV. Seb Coe used to do both short and long reps uphill. The hill he used for the longer reps was long enough for him to do a number of them with short breaks.

However, if you have a hill that is only about 800m in length and you want to do either 600m or 800m hill reps. Would the amount of time to get back down the hill be too much of a break?

Thanks

ocnoc

YFlyer wrote: »

Seb Coe

Wasn't interested in racing up hills

YFlyer

ocnoc wrote: »

Wasn't interested in racing up hills

He trained hard up hills.

Krusty_Clown

A question from my hill run last night, where I was experimenting with a few different styles on loops that included uphills:
When running up a fire-road or scree (or any surface for that matter) should your foot be flat to the ground, or should you be climbing on your toes?

I find that flat-footing it puts additional tension on my achilles, while trying to run on my toes is quite strenuous. Should you build up to a point where you can run on your toes comfortably, or run flat-foot, and build more flexibility in your achilles/calf muscles, or both?

n-dawg

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

A question from my hill run last night, where I was experimenting with a few different styles on loops that included uphills:
When running up a fire-road or scree (or any surface for that matter) should your foot be flat to the ground, or should you be climbing on your toes?

I find that flat-footing it puts additional tension on my achilles, while trying to run on my toes is quite strenuous. Should you build up to a point where you can run on your toes comfortably, or run flat-foot, and build more flexibility in your achilles/calf muscles, or both?

For me it depends on how steep it is. When its over about 10% I would be on my toes otherwise I would be more or less in my natural running position. From doing lots of hill running I have found that my feet have got a lot stronger and my calfs/Achilles have got much more flexible.

El Director

What I found helped me in becoming a better uphill runner:

• Like a previous poster I think that training on the bike helped
• A faster cadence helps for sure, getting into a rhythm, kinda like speed walking!
• Some strength work on the legs, calf raises and squats especially

I used to hate the hills but now I find it is were I catch most of the people I pass so I kinda look forward to them now

DubGreggie

jeffontour wrote: »

Lose body fat! I lost a bit of gut last year and it made a huge difference. Given the option of carrying a dumbell or not I think everyone would opt for not. The points about shortened stride apply but if you want to improve your uphill speed without huge amounts of extra training eat less cakes.

I must add I love cakes and run more to justify eating more cake.

I can so empathise with the latter sentiment. My biggest problem is a profound and long time love of food, i cook it, i taste it, i experiment, i can't live without the enjoyment that is the fine flavours of foods. as a result, i'ma about 20 kg over what ai should be, but working on losing that. i've reached that point where i can't eat any more!

as for the running, my distances have gone from my first 10k last April, to 2 half marathons last year, and now looking to my first marathon in Limerick in May. Why Limerick? simple, i don't know anyone there! My long term goal has always been a reasonable marathon time, being 38, i don't expect to be world threatening, i just want to be the best i can, without killing myself.

thanks for all the help and comments, its makes us amateurs feel part of the bigger, and obviously more experienced community.

Happy running
Greg