Most new athletes are excited about running downhill instead of uphill but running down hill is harder on your body and stressful and can introduce more fatigue into your body without the proper technique. Don't let downhills keep you from a pr.
Here are a few tips to help that. Be sure to practice these things during your training runs on downhill sections. If you have an upcoming race with a high percentage of downhill sections be sure to train on sections like this during your training.
1. Lean from your hips and ankles not from the shoulders.
This will require practice but it is how you should be running all the time. Let gravity do the work. You also do not want to lean back or straight up against gravity, it will make things worse.
2. Balance is everything running downhill. Since gravity is pulling you down you don't need as much power to drive yourself downhill from your arms or legs. Gravity is doing all that work for you so take advantage of it. Instead of driving your arms up and down, keep the farther out to the side and loose. It may look a little silly but it actually gives you better balance. I learned this when I started to compete in more trail races. After watching elites run the downhills I thought, these guys are onto something!
3. Make sure you fully engage your core which should always be done. This is why strength training, yoga-core work is so important. Power comes from the core. The stronger the core and more engaged your core is the more power and control you will have in the downhills.
4. Your stride rate (cadence-rpm) needs to be high. Less impact time the better. I am sure you have heard think of the ground as being hot lava or coals and you can not keep your feet on the ground for longer than a second.
5. Don't over stride! Your feet should be landing directly under your body, This allows you to extend further out on the back side of the cycle ( think heel to put and pushing the foot towards the person behind you to push them away from you. Think about a more circular motion with your legs.
6. Look down the hill, 50-100 feet in front of you and not at your feet to also help maintain balance and control.
7. Find a downhill section to run down that takes 45 secs to 1 min to get down. If you have a camera, phone, GoPro, record yourself running downhill a few times and then analyze it. If you have a coach have them look at the video as well. Being able to see what your doing can be helpful and a majority of people learn visually.
I hope these tips were helpful! Let me know what you think.
Do you have tips for running downhill? Let me know I would love to hear them.
