Running up hills question

I am pretty new to barefoot running. The day I injured my calf from TMTS about 5 weeks ago, I was doing a trail run that had lots of little ups and downs on it. I have always been told, and self taught on this as well prior to barefoot running, that when running up hills you are to lean and dig into the hills. Not a lot, just a little.

On this particular run, about 3 or 4 miles in, I straightened up my body so I was almost completely vertical. Not sure why I did this, but it had an extradinary effect on that hill that I noticed instantly. Instead of "pushing" my body weight up the hill, it was almost more like I was "pulling" my weight up the hill. I ran the rest of the trail this way. It was amazingly easier for me to do and I barely slowed down at all for any hill because it was so much easier. I'm sure I'm not desciribing this very well, but does anyone know if this is normal or did I just have a flukey day? Is it even good form?
 
I'm sure you'll get more

I'm sure you'll get more experienced runners posting a reply soon but the key that I've found with hills is cadence. I almost feel like I'm pedaling a bike in a high gear while going up a hill and it feels effortless. I'm working up towards a cadence of 180 but my average is still quite low... except on hills where I really focus on my cadence and it's always amazing. I'm sure the same principle works all the time and I look forward to developing that higher average cadence asap.

As for being vertical, I try to stay vertical from the waist up when running. My leaning forward would be from the ankle. I've never noticed if I change my posture at all going up hill. I know for going down hill I pop my feet up (lifting) to allow a choppy, quick, decent in which I try to avoid fighting against gravity.

I'm only in my 3rd month of BFR'ing and only in my 2nd year of running overall so take all that with a grain of salt.
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I think you are describing

I think you are describing it well, and I get what you are saying! I always enjoyed running up hill, and found even more improvements once I started running barefoot. I think running up hill exemplifies how you should be running on flat ground, at least i notice this. I get into this nice comfort zone running up hill, everythings seems to click (of course the cardio part is working hard!).



Others may say this, and I agree, that when running up hills imagine yourself stepping over logs, with no pushing off. If you felt like you were being "pulled" up the mountain, sounds like nothing should be changed.
 
I feel like I have more

I feel like I have more control over my uphill strides when I keep my back vertical and straight.
 
I've always hated running up

I've always hated running up hills and have been terrible at them. The slowest of runners have always passed me and walkers kept up with me. With this one tweak in my form I was able to run nearly as fast up hill as I was on flat and downhill. Unfortunately, thanks to my calf injury I haven't been able to test this out yet. Today was my first run and I was trying to be careful and take it easy and work strictly on form and not re-injuring myself.

Going downhill on the other hand, is one of my favorite things to do. I love running fast and being almost on the brink of out of control it seems. People have always asked me how I was able to do that but I've never been able to explain it, I would just say I dunno, I guess I just sort of let myself go because it hurts to slow myself down constantly. When reading BF Ken Bobs book, he explains how he runs downhill and I thought, holy cow, thats exactly what I've been trying to explain to people for years! At least part of running came natural to me. ;-)
 
   I have also found staying

I have also found staying upright helps, I also keep my hips forward. But than, we ain't got many hills in these here parts.
 
I agree with AJW... pedaling

I agree with AJW... pedaling a bike in low gear is a really good analogy. My cadence is 200+ when going up hills... definitely helps dial in the form too.
 
I think we go faster downhill

I think we go faster downhill than shod runners because we don't have any breaks! It's like Watchout!

Good analogy indeed, AJW. Will have to use that one.
 
Unfortunately Ram, I almost

Unfortunately Ram, I almost always run from my house and any direction I go I will have a hill either on the way out or the way back. Thankfully I have a couple directions that I can go that are lesser hills. Good training I guess. As far as the cadence thing, I have been trying to work on that for quite awhile now but I really have no idea where I am at with it because my Garmin does not count cadence(that I know of). I mostly just like to know my heart rate, distance, and time and the rest of the time just enjoy myself and work on my form.
 
To me hill running is all

To me hill running is all about maintaining rhythm through cadence and stride length.

Shorter stride length, faster cadence for hills, longer stride length, slower cadence for the flats with a smooth transition between the two to maintain rhythm.

If your finding hills tough you may be over-striding.
 
The 3 things that help me

The 3 things that help me most on up hills as a Newb to running barefoot are:

1) Center of gravity perpendicular posture from the waist up, leaning from the ankles, a la Ken Bob. This seems to engage my butt and upper thighs more and I do feel like I'm "pushing" myself up the hill with my butt, which makes it easier. It also lets me pick up my feet and put them down rather than pushing back against the hill, so no blisters.

2) Shorter steps while keeping the 180s/m cadence. I plan to walk any steep hills in my half and next year in my marathon. An up hill trudge and a slow up hill jog are really pretty close together and one leaves you gassed and the other is almost a recovery.

3) Hold on to your breaths longer. One of the multi-marathoners in my running club passed this along to us and I've tried it this week, as I've found myself running more and more hills lately, and it works! I think he said it has something to do with quicker breaths not using all the oxygen and speeding up your heart rate or something...all I know is it works! Instead of huffing and puffing, I hold my breath in for 3-5 steps before I let it out and I seem to be able to keep my pace up and recover quicker after short steep hills.

Hope that helps!

-Jonny
 
After reading these comments

After reading these comments went for a 1st run in Inov-8 Roclite 285's on some varied and hilly terrain. Tried the more vertical running, faster cadence, even thought about stepping over logs. It all seemed to make the hills a little more scale-able. Also remembered to hold my breathe a bit, which seemed to work though is a difficult transition. My mind is telling me breathe quickly.

Though not a barefoot run, I was sockless:) The 285's also have a 6 mm heal-to-toe differential so plenty close to the ground for the scree I encountered.

Love all the great advice, keeping posting your running knowledge;

Nathan
 
I can see that Gentile.  I

I can see that Gentile. I went for a run yesterday, very short run and re-injured my calf. Did some research on it and apparently running hills all the time, like you and I do, can lead to higher amounts of strain on the soleus calf muscle, which is exactly where I've been hurting for the last 5 weeks or so. May have to start driving from my house to find some flat ground until I get completely healed back up. Anyhow, just found that interesting yesterday.

That's awsome Oranjeboom! Glad everyone's input helped!
 
NickW wrote:Unfortunately

NickW said:
Unfortunately Ram, I almost always run from my house and any direction I go I will have a hill either on the way out or the way back.



Same here, I live on top of hill. For runnning, I find this to a huge advantage, because I never have to do speed work, hill running = speed work.

I live in a very hilly area as well. The times I notice that running hills has an advantage is during races, I usually smoke people on the up hills.
 
This is a very well timed

This is a very well timed thread indeed, I was thinking of asking for some advice myself. So far the bigger hills I have been running up have basically rendered me useless for the rest of the run, I'll have to try out some of these techniques when I go out next.
 
If you have a Garmin, you may

If you have a Garmin, you may be able to set an alert and just count your steps.

Though I have only done this once I did a 40 minute normal distance run on the University of Wisconsin - Parkside Cross Country Course. I set my watch to alert me every 30 seconds to count my cadence for 30 seconds on one leg.

Sorry if that was poorly explained.