how should I handle hills in HIM or IM run?

jaleslie

I see/understand a lot about how to "attack" (or NOT attack, more accurately) hills in the long course bike.  However, I haven't seen anything that I can recall on what to do with hills on run.  For example, I'm doing Austin HIM this weekend, at it is a 3 loop run course, with a steep (at least it seemed steep last year!) hill that one has to do three times (maybe 1/4mile long?).  I saw most folks walking it (at least the slowpokes still out on the course with me).  I tried to run it, but it seemed like a waste of energy.  I have NO prior run experience (cross country, marathon, etc) and have only been consistently running for a little over a year now.  The more I run hills, it seems to me to be different from biking hills.  The effort to get up seems similar between bike and run, but the descent is WAYYY easier on the bike.  I can soft pedal or coast and recover quickly.  If I ease my way up a hill (on a run), feeling reasonably rested at the top, then I feel forced to fly down the descent....this is not as easy as descending on the bike.  Sure, I'd rather run downhill than uphill, but it is still a bit of an effort to maintain leg turnover to try to use potential energy of a descent to my advantage.  So, I often run up the hill at a much higher RPE than my flat RPE, suffering on the way up (HR shoots up of course).  Then on the descent I don't feel it's as much effort (or perhaps I'm just easing back into my flat pace) to just let gravity and whatever leg turnover I can muster take care of the descent "naturally".  

Does this make sense to anyone?  In a race, should I just ease up it at the same RPE or HR (however slow that pace may be), or should I push it and then recover on the downside until RPE and HR return to baselines?  I find myself preferring the "push the effort up the hill" approach over the maintain RPE/HR up the hill approach.  I suspect the latter is better, for same reasons as on the bike (ie....burning matches), but would love some input from more experienced runners/athletes.

Thanks in advance.

 

cgres123

In a race, should I just ease up it at the same RPE or HR

BINGO... keep your stride short leg turn over as 90ish on the way up, head up good form. Then going down hill enjoy the view as you pass others who just crushed themselves running up the hill don't over stride but enjoy some free speed.

Al Truscott

+ 1. Don't let your HR rise as you go up, don;'t let it fall as you go down, Maintain cadence by shortening or lengthening your stride as needed. RPE works as well if you're used to using it.

Where I live, it's nothing BUT hills - I've got a hill for the first 3/4 mile out of my house, gradient between 4 and 12% (pretty steep). So I've learned how to hold it in going up, in order not to be exhausted at the start of the run, and also how to run well going downhill.

Key to downhill running is to tilt *forward* a bit. This prevents you from using your heels as brakes, which is what pounds your legs. Accept the speed, think light on your feet - meaning feet in contact with ground as short a time as possible. Use arms as outriggers to stabilize.

MattAaronson

Totally agree with the above. I live in the flatlands so when I get to a race with a hilly course I just keep my RPE the same, shorten my stride, and don't walk. Walking is just so much slower than however slow you might otherwise run up that hill. And I totally agree with Al on tilting forward on the downhill. A quarter-mile hill is really not too bad...probably about the same as the one hill on the 70.3 Kansas course. There is no reason to walk it!!

Michael Byerts

I agree with what was said above, with one small qualifier. Matt and Al are two of the lightest (and fastest) runners in EN. So, the hills don't hurt them nearly as much as the clydesdale/almost clydesdales. I think Patrick published a podcast in 2011 or 2012 discussing the difference in energy consumption between a hilly marathon and a flat marathon and finding it was almost zero. People just run the uphills too hard and the downhills too slow. I disagreed a little, because it did not consider the physiological cost of running the downhills as fast as suggested. But the underlying point is valid. You miss out on a lot of free speed if you blow yourself on the uphill.

That said, and especially for the 190 (or 200) pound plus athlete, at a certain steepness and depending on your running speed, the physiological cost of running is not worth it because walking just isn't that much slower than running. For me, in a race, if I cannot run up the hill at faster than 10:30 or 11:00 per mile (given HR/RPE restraints) then I walk. I can walk faster than 12:00 per mile, at a much lower cost.

Coach Rich

I think running uphill has been discussed. Downhill: it depends on the steepness, at what speed your head wants to put on the brakes, and where the hill is located in the race. The Wildflower run course has 3-5 (depends on how you define them) significant downhills that come at pretty important portions of the race. In my workup to the race, I'll target some beefy downhills in my area to:

1. Increase the speed at which I want to apply the brakes, ie, increasing my comfort with very, very fast downhill running.
2. The ^above^ is a great tool for building leg durability but you need to be very careful with it. It doesn't take much.

But across the WF course you can probably run 1-2' faster for your entire run split but preparing yourself to just let it fly down these hills.