As anyone that knows me will confirm. I am crap at running up hills.
I have tried loads of different methods.
Looking down at the ground in front.
Looking up at the brow of the hill.
Short fast steps
Long striding
Leaning into the hill.
Hill reps.
Hilly run, flat run for speed, hilly run.
Steady downhill, and then pushing up hill.
Whatever I try, I don't seem to get any significant improvement.
So, what is the secret of getting up hills?
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
Only thing that works for me is losing some weight and hard work and suffering, put on some weight recently but not worked hard and done the wrong kind of suffering (been a lazy arse)Originally Posted by Flightless Bird
Wonder if i'll be faster downhill now (belly + gravity = watch out below, runaway fatty)
Good luck with the search FB, hope lawbreakers don't find out your crap uphills, they'll all be doing hill reps
Hills and Guinness!
Blame your parents, it's mainly their fault.
You will go a little faster by losing weight, training etc.etc. But chill out, accept you're crap going uphilll, have another beer and enjoy the view. There's more to life (fell running) than races.
Don't roll with a pig in poo. You get covered in poo and the pig likes it.
Kev Shevels' book "Uphill Techniques for Off Road Runners" (Trailguides) is worth reading if you've not come across it.
It's not a very expensive book - and there is a copy in the FRA Library.
Everyone has it within their ability to improve, but everyone has to accept that due to their individual body make up that there are limits as to what they can do and improve to.
Just accept that you struggle on the hills, continue to try to improve and hope that your performance does not go backwards.
Paul C.
... continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.
You need more power in your legs i'd say, start with the basics. Some peeps are also reluctant to go through the pain barrier and the definition of pain is subjective.
Luke Appleyard (Wharfedale)- quick on the dissent
Some good answers.
BUT
Ask yourself the question, "what causes you to run slower or walk on a hill?"
When you answer that you will know your area of weakness and what to work on.
Simples.
I don't want to reduce a good and well balanced book like this into a three words, but basically - get stronger legs!
As long as your technique is OK (and running uphill isn't as technical as running downhill), then you're limited by how powerful your legs are. The good news is that in Kev Shevels excellent book "Downhill techniques for off-road runners", one of the ways to improve your descending is also to get more powerful legs.
There are several ways to do this. These range from the well-known ones, such a hill reps, to less commonly used ones such as bounding and hopping. I would recommend you read the book for more information on these, as it talks about the injury risks and how to do them properly.
There seems to be a pretty good correlation between being light/having huge quads, and being good at running up hills.
Do lots of cycling - uphill.
I'm gonna get that cwazy gwouse...
For me a good test of whether I'm getting better running up hill is just how far up a steep hill side I can get by.... running. (Hehe, rocket scientist at work). I have one route that I do a lot and about 4 miles in it requires me to up up the side of Plover Hill from Foxup. This climb starts at a nice gradient but gets progressively steeper and steeper and steeper until eventually the path becomes slabbed steps to the crest. In the beginning I could get half way to the steps before being forced to walk but by gradual improvements I can consistantly reach the steps nowadays. In fact every now and then, when I have the puff, I can actually run half way up the steps too and here's to the day when I actually nail the bastard and run all the way
Last edited by Stolly; 23-06-2010 at 09:40 AM.
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