Running up hills with cadence rather than brute force

Running up hills with cadence rather than brute force

Learning to work with what you have.

If you had asked me about hill racing 10 years ago, in my road racing days, I would have told you to attack the hills.  In any race there may be hills but they are only temporary, and pain is only until you get to the top, so suck it up Nancy and power through the top of that hill.

Well, I might not have been that direct but I was a very strong hill runner then and I would advocate using the hills to your advantage.  I would attack the hill, drive myself up the hill with my legs and recover on the back side.

The form would be to keep your head up, pump your arms and focus on lifting the knees like you had strings tied to your hands. Each pump of the hand to your ear would pull one leg up and drive the other down until the hill was crested.  That’s how you attack a hill.

If you are young and in shape and have been training hills this is still good advice.

It’s actually great mental training to teach yourself to ‘embrace’ and ‘celebrate’ the hills like this instead of being intimidated by them.  I see so many people in races deflate before they even get into the hill.  They have convinced themselves that hills are hard and you can see their body language change when they see the hill.  Remember folks – a big part of racing is mental.

If you had asked me when I was racing the USATF Mountain Goat Series 5 years ago I would have given still different hill running advice.  Since those mountains were thousands of feet of elevation gain in a few k’s I quickly learned that there was no ‘attacking’.

The hill running advice I would have given then would be to find a pace you can manage and hold it as long as you can, then power-walk when you could no longer run.  By alternating between the run and the power-walk systematically you could make the best time up the mountainside in a race.

Recently I’ve been recovering from an injury and haven’t been able to push as hard as I used to.  I’ve had to find a new and improved way to run hills that fits my current state of entropy and gravity sickness.

If I were to attack the hills in a road 10k today I might survive the first one or two but my legs would lock up before I got to the top of the third one.  I just don’t have the fitness to press race pace up the hills.  I would lose more time trying to get my quad muscles unlocked than I gained with the attacking.

On the other hand these were not mountains in an ultra-trail-race.  There was no reason or profit in walking every time a hill came into view.  In a road race the difference between running and walking is significant to your overall pace.

In the past three or four years I have been learning and using heart rate based training.  A big part of this Lydiard-based training is doing a bunch of runs in Zone 2 heart rate.  When I do these runs I have to consciously slow my pace and effort down.  When I slow my pace and effort down I an focus on my mechanics and my form.  I use these Zone 2 runs to become a much more efficient runner.

When heart rate training, instead of focusing on effort and pace your focus on form, foot speed and turnover.  You learn to run with a nice, light, quick step and cadence.

Over the last few months I’ve had some hilly road races and I’ve been able to combine the form discipline of Zone 2 training with getting up and over hills in my road races.  I think this may be helpful to some of you who don’t have the fitness to attack a hill on a race or are just intimidated by hills.

The secret sauce here is that I have taught myself how to run hills in a race without wrecking myself but keep the pace up and not walk.  Some trick, huh?

Again, probably the most important aspect of this is that I have a proactive strategy that allows me to go into the hill with a positive attitude, unafraid.  Don’t discount the value of the mental part of racing.

Here’s how it works.  When I go into the hill instead of attacking, instead of slouching into a trudge, instead of walking, I pull my mechanics into a Zone 2 posture and increase my cadence.  The rapid turnover puts less stress on my quads and I ‘spin’ up the hill like riding a bike.

My Pace still falls off by 30 seconds per mile or so but I don’t end up staggering at the top with dead legs and I don’t have to walk.

What exactly do I mean by form?  Pull yourself up straight and tall with your shoulders square and high.  Hold your hands high and loose, close to your chest. Keep your head up and looking up and ahead.

The next part is very important.  Push your hips forward.  If you can only remember one thing, this is it.  Push your hips forward like you have a dog leash attached to your belt buckle and it is pulling you.  This will force your entire posture to straighten up.

With your form upright, gently lean forward from your ankles. If you weren’t moving your feet to catch yourself you would fall forward.  Not at the waist or back or shoulders, lean just slightly at the ankles.

Now the other most important thing.  Speed up your cadence.  Move your feet quickly. So they land lightly on the ground directly under your center of gravity, touch the ground and pop back up.  Almost like riding a bike.  You shouldn’t be driving the feet or pistoning the legs. Your torso should not be swaying back and forth, side to side.  Keep you upper body upright and quiet.  Spin the feet with quick, little, light steps up the hill.

By shortening my stride and increasing my cadence I am able to maintain a reasonable pace without fatiguing my quads and legs during the climb.  By holding good, quiet form I am able to keep my heart rate and effort level within bounds.

When I get to the top I’m fresh and can quickly recover the handful of seconds I lost by racing the down-hills.

Nice huh?

Focus mainly on two things .  Hips forward.  Quick cadence.  The rest will fall into place.

Cheers,