flexibility vs strength

Thanks for the useful replies. Having seen much less pre/post race stretching in fell running than road races, I had wondered if this was for a reason, e.g. less flexible Achilles gave added ankle stability on downhills. However, looks like we are just less public about it. Better commence the squats before my back seizes up!

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Originally Posted by newbie

Thanks for the useful replies. Having seen much less pre/post race stretching in fell running than road races, I had wondered if this was for a reason, e.g. less flexible Achilles gave added ankle stability on downhills. However, looks like we are just less public about it. Better commence the squats before my back seizes up!

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I think that in order to be able to do what I ask my body to do week in week out - which is to run up and down hills - I just need to do lots of running up and down hills, I trust my body to work out the rest. I only stretch when I feel like I would really like a stretch, not because I've been told to stretch. I like to think of my tight leg muscles as coiled springs ready for work, I wouldn't want to have a loose floppy springs. No. My body has decided it wants tight leg muscles so that's what it's got.

i do 2 stretches (20secs) of each leg
quad, hamstring, calf after each run
that's 2 x 20 x 3 x2 = 4 mins well spent