I am happy to release a NEW portaPT workout: Rolling Hill Trail Run – What Goes Up Must Come Down. Be sure to check it out and add to your running routine. Stay safe and train SMART!
So in a few weeks, Arizona will be holding their 2nd Phoenix Marathon. The full marathon course is a Boston Qualifier while the half marathon course is an Olympic Qualifier. The Phoenix Full Marathon, if you look at the course, is considered a downhill course. Now let me say this…those of you who live in this area and know the Las Sendas subdivision, know that this section is anything but downhill, yes there are parts but what goes down, also goes up. So its NOT ALL DOWNHILL and flat 🙂 Just want to clarify that, haha, (some feel that doing a “downhill” described marathon to qualify for Boston is a bit like cheating, but I say “Whatever!! PF Chang Rock n Roll Full Marathon is considered to be a flat course and let me tell you, when you are running it, it sure “don’t feel flat” 🙂 AND the Boston Marathon is considered a FAST DOWNHILL marathon :)”
Anyway, when I would ask others if they were doing the Phoenix Marathon, I would get alot of people saying “Oh no, I can’t do that one, its all downhill and downhill hurts my knees (another one you hear people say that about is the St. George Marathon held in Utah). But here’s the thing, just like you train for uphill runs, you NEED to train for downhill runs in order to keep safe and injury free. It doesn’t mean you don’t do it or shouldn’t do it or can’t do it. You prepare the body for the type of course you are running and you come out injury free (of course that means putting ALL of the PIECES OF THE PUZZLE together, recovery, nutrition, stretching, foam rolling, etc.)
The following insert is from Competitor Online Magazine
Improve Strength And Speed With Downhill Training
- By Mario Fraioli
- Published Jun. 11, 2012
“The main benefit from downhill running is the strength gains you can get from it,” says Steve Magness, exercise scientist and a coach with the Nike Oregon Project. “This is extremely helpful for training for races where you’ll spend a lot of time running downhills because now you won’t have this weak link in your chain that hasn’t been accustomed to the pounding that it has to withstand. Additionally, even if you aren’t training for a race with downhill in it, some of this training can serve as an injury prevention method to strengthen that area.”
Proceed with caution when barreling down a decline, however. Running downhill may require less effort than going in the opposite direction, but it’s much harder on the body. One of the main things to be wary of when running downhill is overstriding, which causes a braking effect, forcing you to land harder on your heels and sending greater impact forces through your body that make you more susceptible to injury.
“Downhill running puts an enormous eccentric load on both your quads and hamstrings, which is the reason people tend to get sore when doing much downhill running,” says Magness. “What happens though is your body adapts to this stress load by repairing the microtears in the muscle fiber and strengthening the tendons so that they can withstand that eccentric strain in the future.”
So how do you become better at running away from the top of a hill? Gary Brimmer, the 1996 U.S. 50K trail running champion and a running coach in San Antonio, Texas, suggests carefully and gradually sprinkling some downhill running workouts into your weekly routine, and even incorporating tempo runs on a net downhill course into training.
“We mix in downhill tempo efforts either on portions of the same course or on a treadmill,” says Brimmer, whose athletes do specific downhill training only when preparing for either the 3M Austin Half Marathon or the Boston Marathon. “This helps the runners get used to running race pace while going downhill and helps condition the quads for the pounding.”
Next time you’re preparing to tackle a tough set of hill repeats, remember: what goes up is also worth going down.