Running Hills

courtneymal17

Hey guys!

Ok, long story short, I signed up for my first 10K on saturday (which in and of itself I'm freaking out about). I do run/walk intervals, and I know I can finish the distance. I'm not too worried about it, I'm a bit worried about finishing last, but I'm trying to make myself ok with it. There's an awesome surf board medal at the finish, and I'm using it as my goal (I know, lame but whatever works right?!) Here's the scary thing...I just saw the 'elevation map" of the race (which first of all ELEVATION MAP?!?!!!) and the course is SUPER hilly. I'm FREAKING out about it. I live in a SUPER flat area where hills basically consist of the up and down ramp from the sidewalks to the cross streets. So, I've never run on hills. Obviously training on them is ideal, and in the future I plan on finding some to run. But the race is saturday and I don't think I have lots of practice time lol. I'm ok with walking what I have to when I just can't run the hills, but here's my question. Is there a form difference for running up (or down) hills? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys!

Chieflrg

Uphills is easier on the knees because your leg is not stomping down as much. You want to stay on the balls of your feet.

Downhill will hurt your knees if your not careful. Shorter strides, don't lift your feet as high. more of a shuffle.

Perhaps you can do a half hour of hill repeats 2 or 3 times this week. They really help with the cardio aspect of elevation changes.

amybg1

How many hills are there? Take it easy going up those hills, especially since you technically never did any before and walk part or the whole hill if you have to. The downhill is the chance you get to pick up the pace again, though do it in a controlled way..Runing downhill at breakneck speeds isn't ideal. Listen to your body duyring the race as hills can do a number on you - especially if it'll be your first time.

Chieflrg

I run at least 10K every day and usually half marathons on the weekends all with tons of elevation changes on all different surfaces while dealing with a pretty nasty joint disease.. Another thing to concentrate on is when uphill concentrate on your quads pushing off the balls of your feet.

courtneymal17

How many hills are there? Take it easy going up those hills, especially since you technically never did any before and walk part or the whole hill if you have to. The downhill is the chance you get to pick up the pace again, though do it in a controlled way..Runing downhill at breakneck speeds isn't ideal. Listen to your body duyring the race as hills can do a number on you - especially if it'll be your first time.

The course looks like someone was charting a game of pong lol! It's scary! I think I'm sort of freaking myself out, but Im just going to take it easy and do what I can on the hills, walk what I have to, etc. If I end up walking most of it, oh well, at least I'll cross the finish line

Thank you everyone for the advice!

michellekicks

On the way up the hill don't power through it... keep your effort level the same. On the way down, hold your abdominals tight and don't just let it all fling down the hill. You may find you get some cramping on the way down - this can be from poorer form on the way up (less upright) and the shift to extending the torso too much on the way down. Stretch your hip flexors for 30 seconds or so if that happens.

You'll be fine.

courtneymal17

Thanks for all the advice! The hills were pretty brutal (I'm fairly sure there wasn't a FLAT part of the course! But I ran(ish...most people would call it a slow shuffle lol!) up most or most parts of the hills. It was a lot of fun, and even the distance wasn't bad. The first hill was completely brutal (It was over a 1/4 mile long and over 200 ft!) But I started and finished running it..with a little bit of a walk break in there lol! It was a lot of fun though, and I'll definitely add more hills in my training!