Don't call me Buttercup!
5K coming up in May that my son's school is putting on. The race is essentially on my regular neighborhood running route, with a few zigs and zags that I don't normally do. One of those zags involves running down a big hill. Ok, a medium hill, but all hills are big to me! Anyway, the times I have run down this particular hill, I've ended up going waaaay too fast, just from the momentum, and I usually end up with a side stitch a quarter of a mile later, because I'm breathing too heavily or whatever.
Since this hill is at the beginning of the 5K, I obviously need to be able to run pain free afterwards. Anyone have any downhill running tips? I've Googled, by the by, so please don't introduce me to that button. I'm here because ya'll have all been there, done that, and I'm hoping someone has some words of advice.
Thanks in advance.
Slow and steady wins the.... wait a second! I've been lied to!
Will run for scenery.
(Hi Di !)
Sorry if this is too lame, but ... practice. Your legs need to learn to turn over at a faster rate than normal without the effort that running the same speed on the flats would involve. So there's some muscle learning that has to happen.
Also, runnung downhill (correctly !) involves a fair amount of eccentric contraction, which most people's legs aren't used to. When your legs aren't trained for it it can hurt about 1.5 days afterwards (DOMS, delayed onset muscle soreness). The good news is that your legs recover - better stronger faster - and you're more able to run down hill comfortably and in control.
The one thing you don't want to do is absorb the energy in you joints, say by landing like a pile driver. Rule of thumb : red stuff (muscles) can recover nicly from a little abuse, white stuff (everything else) can't.
One tip I found really helpful while training for downhill : try to keep your butt about 3" closer to the ground. You can't, but just trying it will shift the load from your joints to your quads.
Good luck !
Stupid feet!
Stupid elbow!
One of the enormous advantages for me every year in the Charleston Distance Run is that I save my energy going up the hill and power down what is about a 1 mile long descent down Louden Heights Road. It's amazing how many people I pass on the downhill section that passed me on the uphill and I never see them again. The reason I can hammer the downhill so effectively is because I spend a lot of time leading up to that race training myself to run hard downhill. It does take practice and it's important to practice it because downhill running places unique demands on your body.
So, whether you want to or not, go find some hills and run downhill hard once a week and easy one other time each week. If you don't have a hilly route, then do repeats.
Short term goal: 17:59 5K
Mid term goal: 2:54:59 marathon
Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life. (I started running at age 45).
I was told (don't know if it's true) to run sort of by trying to lean backwards when going up and forwards when going down (so run down without trying to apply the brakes. Just let yourself flow downhill). I did a lot of hill work for Boston and I agree that practice is the only way to prevent hurting with the downhills. So start now if your race is in May!
PRs: Boston Marathon, 3:27, April 15th 2013
Cornwall Half-Marathon, 1:35, April 27th 2013
18 marathons, 18 BQs since 2010
Since it is pretty close to your neighborhood route why not do as much of the course as possible? One of my favorite 5ks in the past included maybe 80% of my daily route at the time and also 1 large hill which came at the end. This hill came at what was normally mile 3 of a 6 mile daily run. A lot of folks were sucking wind at the finish but I knew every part of that hill so it went well. Unfortunately that race ended so I only got to do it once. Obviously yours is a downhill but familiarity with a course helps a lot.
Thanks, everybody! I appreciate the input.
RSX - I'm actually planning on running the route at least once a week until the race, in addition to my normal runs. I know I need to practice going down that darn hill. Most of the routes I run are flat or flat-ish, and I just don't have any real experience with hills except the handful of times I've gone down this particular hill in the past. Mostly I've avoided hills because I am a wuss.