Downhill Running

Triathlon Forum
1

i will be running boston for the first time in 5 weeks.

there was an article in the most recent runners world magazine about how tough the boston downhills can be on your quads. a good friend of mine said that his first time at boston was wrecked because he was not prepared properly for the early downhills.

i knew it was hilly, but now i’m a bit nervous as i just read/heard how necessary specific downhill training is.

  1. am i too late to do specific downhill training with only 5 weeks left?

  2. what is the best training for this? the longest downhill stretches aronud here are very short, so i put 1.5" risers under the back of my treadmill to get an effective 5-6% decline, but should i do intervals, or l.s.d. downhill?

thanks in advance.

2

Boston is NOT hilly. Heartbreak Hill is not that bad, despite the hype. I ran Boston 2 years ago and am running it again this year. As far as hill specific training, I am taking Runner’s World advice and trying the shortened stride. My legs didn’t hurt until after Heartbreak Hill, and then they were pretty sore… but not too bad that I couldn’t handle it, though I did slow down a bit. The first time I ran I lived in an area where there were NO hills at all, therefore did no hill training at all. I live in a very hilly area now, but I can’t run several miles downhill at a time, and it’s almost too late now to worry about it. You do your best and deal with it as best you can, imo. My bigger concern is the heat - if it’s a warm day, I’m going to suffa (to quote Phil Liggett).

3

IMHO. The biggest challenge to the hills/downhills at Boston are that it is generally downhill for the first 7 - 10 miles so most people tend to go out way too fast, and are dead by the time they get to the climbs later in the race. Heartbreak Hill isn’t that bad if you are feeling ok, but it comes at the 21 mile mark.

That being said, your quads can take a pounding going downhill. Shortening your stride and picking up your cadence (stride rate) will help. You don’t want to be ‘bounding’ down hills, you may feel fast, but the constant ‘braking’ going on will hurt you in the long run.

4

i knew it was hilly, but now i’m a bit nervous as i just read/heard how necessary specific downhill training is.

  1. am i too late to do specific downhill training with only 5 weeks left?

  2. what is the best training for this? the longest downhill stretches aronud here are very short, so i put 1.5" risers under the back of my treadmill to get an effective 5-6% decline, but should i do intervals, or l.s.d. downhill?

I believe that some specific prep is required for good downhill running, whether you’re going to go fast or slow. 5 weeks out is plenty of time. A simple suggestion:

– Week 1, do some easy repeats (just how short are your local downhills?); try to run 15 minutes or so total going downhill. Go easy, keep it smooth and don’t land on your heels (like somebody else said, Boston is not steep, so you won’t be landing on your heels);

– Week 2, do the same, but maybe push the pace up to marathon-pace ;

– Week 3, do week 2, but do it twice that week.

– Week 4, do week 2 again.

I’ve been doing a lot of downhill running (prepping for World’s Toughest Half), and got comfortable with it after a few weeks. It’s basically a non-issue now. I descend a 900-foot drop, 2.25-mile stretch of asphalt road 4 times a week these days. It is really amazing what our bodies can adapt to, because the first time I came down that hill I had to lay down in the grass at the bottom for a while. Now, it’s just part of the run; I did a three-lap round trip up and down the hill last Friday.

5

As long as the downhill is not so steep that you end up ‘braking’ with every stride (hence the quad soreness due to eccentric contractions), downhill running on a moderate downhill slope can be a nice little tool to increase natural stride frequency.

6

thank you for the specific advice and also the encouragement.

cheers.