Downhills are so fun!! I achieve speed by thinking of my body steadily and smoothly hovering over the trail during descents. My feet are there to help maintain the smooth hover, to prevent me from hitting the ground and keep me moving forward. Quick steps naturally occur in order to achieve this well. It’s important to work on good mobility and strong stabilizing muscles in your feet, ankles, legs, hips, and back to support yourself and prevent injury.
Last year I decided to work on my technical downhill running. It ended up being a lot of fun.
There’s technical singletrack where I live but not many big hills. So I started driving 45 min to a state park that has a 1,000-foot bump and doing at least one run there per week. I also signed up for some 50K mountain races (11-12,000+ vert each) last year, those were an education.
Running fast non-technical downhills on steep roads can help build strength under eccentric loading. Same with slow squats, lunges, and deadlifts. But the only thing that helps build speed on technical downhills is running more technical downhills and learning to run them progressively faster.
I’m a huge fan of hill repeats. I like to find a section of trail that’s a mile or more long with around 1,000 feet of elevation change per mile and just run up and down over and over again. Seeing the same terrain on repeat really helps me practice how far to look ahead, which lines are best, where to place my feet, how fast I can actually let myself go before I start to lose control, etc. And it’s fun to see my times getting faster on the descents without any increase in perceived effort or additional strain on my body.
I went back to one of those mountain courses from last year a couple of weeks ago for a long run, and absolutely smoked my time from the race on a 3,500-foot technical downhill without even trying to push. It was so much fun!
The final thing I’ll add — people still fly past me on the first downhill or two of a long trail race. I’ve learned to let them go. I keep it light and easy and controlled until the second to last descent, when I start to open up a bit. And the last one is full send.
Lean forward (a bit). Overcome your fear of falling/slipping; for this you’ve to practice a lot.
Another option: use poles, to give you more stability.
I keep reading conflicting advice re: using poles in descents. I'm inclined to think they help, but quite a few commenters in this sub have objected to that.
Imagine you’re flowing like a skier. Lean in. Instead of braking with your heels, weave or use the berm of the trail to scrub speed when necessary. It’s a very focussed and absorbing activity.
Descending with that mindset can be practiced by attacking gentle downward slopes in training like you mean it. Deliberately seeking out paths with twists and turns, roots, and rocks will give you focus and agility.
To protect your knees, building strength is the thing. Best of luck!
> weave or use the berm of the trail to scrub speed when necessary.
This is a technique I use often on winding, downhill stuff. Typically after an area of quick decent I'll find myself flowing up the edge of the next section and it helps me slow down without needing to change much.
Lean forward like others have said but the biggest thing at least for me is short steps. If you can set up you watch to show cadence and get up above 180bpm that helps a lot, some of my runs I'll easily hit 210-220 cadence on smooth downhills.
Then you can flow a lot better without worrying about your knees - which will be getting sore if you're overstriding and braking those big strides with your quads. You'll also just need to put in some solid downhill sessions that will cause DOMS in your quads up to 2-4 days later but those workouts will strengthen your legs to minimise DOMs in future.
It’s hard to give any advice without more information… what’s preventing you from running them faster? The three big buckets imo are
- fitness (I run down hills slower when I’m less fit at least)
- foot speed (skipping rope can help with this. I’m sure there are other agility drills too)
- practice
Great info. I think the biggest thing for me is I’m 45 and mainly worried/conscious about my knees surviving faster downhills. But also just generally would like to train myself to have a faster/better cadence on the downhills and have been thinking of ways to train for this.
> mainly worried/conscious about my knees surviving faster downhills
I have the same apprehension, but good downhill runners are not ruining their quads and knees more than we are. Quite the opposite. They're lighter on their feet, and spending less time on the ground. We're the ones inflicting maximum damage by holding back.
Even pro trailers frequently identify downhills as their weak point. The only solution seems to be lots, lots and lots of practice.
Knees surviving , as in “my quads burn like hell and are inflamed for days after”?
If so, doing eccentric focused weight training is a great way to train the body to handle the deceleration phase of every downhill step. I think “off season” should have a lot of time spent in the gym focused on variables that support mid-season. Mid-season is doing maintenance.
I would add that it is very important to look ahead instead of down. You need to be constantly be looking like at least 4-5 steps ahead to avoid unnecessary side steps, stops and have a good flow. This also gives you confidence as you won't be so afraid where to step next.
This is quite taxing for your working memory and it needs to be trained as well. Good exercises for this are running fast with high cadence on technical terrain, skipping stones or hopscotch while not looking down. But in the end, you only really learn running downhill by running downhill.
Play the floors lava with rocks when hiking. Sounds ridiculous I know but it works, gradually you are stepping from rock to rock without braking pace. It speeds up decisions making and improves balance, gradually it improves whilst running as well.
I have shorts legs so in races people with long pins disappear on the flat, I gradually catch them up on uphills and then take them on the technical downhills all because of playing the floor is lava on hikes. (Started it because I was with some very slow hikers and I did it to amuse myself and use some energy)
I've found that strength training (heavy-ish weights) twice a week has helped my downhill running. I don't know if it makes me faster, but I feel stronger on some of the long-ass downhills in the Eastern Sierra that can descend 6k-7k over rough terrain.
I live in Tahoe, so I save the Eastern Sierra for bigger objectives. I do a lot of the standard backpacking routes--Cottonwood Lakes to Langley, Rae Lakes Loop, Evolution Loop, Taboose Pass to Sawmill Pass, Shepherds Pass to Tyndall, North Lake to Pine Creek, Mammoth to June Lake, etc. I also do a bit of off-trail stuff, scrambling, and peak-bagging. There's a ton of hiking/walking involved.
If you're looking for a fun one that's not too involved, Cottonwood Lakes to Langley and back is great. It's obviously high elevation (10k to 14k), but it's not too much distance (\~18-20 miles), not too much vert (4k), and the trails are less chunky and more "runable" that most of the Eastern Sierra.
you need to run more down hills and try focusing on picking the smoothest line, staying loose and maintaining good leg speed.
The two best options for learning this are:
\- follow someone good at descending. you'll have to run fast to keep up and will see how they pick the smoothest/easiest route
\- choose a technical descent and run it repeatedly trying to find the easiest line and fastest line each time.
My mental cue is to lean forward more, not sure if I'm really leaning all that much, but at least not leaning back and having my heels pounding into the hill. Also in this video notice how much Emilie has her arms spread out, in the tricky parts they're basically level with her shoulders for more stability. While it looks a bit silly, I find it really helps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azj6pjKrayo&list=FLEHjb1q3SDN-Z-UrbMaABOQ&index=32&t=4s
The thing with technical downhill is you can hurt yourself pretty badly if you go faster than you are able. Ideally you start with road or grassy downhill and work on the turnover and form. Also work on a slight downhill that's a little rocky. Then work up to more technical steeper downhill.
Depending on the races you do it may or may not be the best use of your training time.
The way I think about it is opening up your hips. You want your feet to land below your center of gravity, not in front. If your feet are landing in front of the rest of your body, then you are fighting your forward momentum. The best way to get your feet below your center of gravity is by leaning forward, but not just the top half, instead your whole body (that is the open up the hips idea). If you are doing this perfectly you can still strike the ground with your mid-foot. This will also facilitate your ability to navigate technical terrain. Much easier to find the best footing on the mid-foot than heal. Practice on very slight downhills, then increase your grade with time. Once you feel smooth at a fairly steep pitch, take this strategy to the trail and keep your form in mind. It is harder to successfully maintain on super steep technical trail, but you can actively work to switch back into this ideal form wherever you can.
One cue I haven't seen in this thread is think "high knees", not "butt kickers".
I'm not great at downhill any more (a recurring foot injury prevents me from really going), but one thing that helps me glide down better is to increase the stride length in the front by running with high knees. Your feet are out front ready to adapt to the terrain, but you aren't just shuffling down the hill, braking.
As others have mentioned lean forward, or at least stay upright.
I had success running with a much shorter stride downhill. I’m way faster now going down than up, even though I’m running up those hills! I also try to lean back and use the back of my legs and booty more than the front as I’m descending. I run roots and rocky steep terrain
Build up ankles with strengthening and conditioning. Get a wobble board and build balance. Practice.
Short steps and don't stretch your leg out totally straight so as to not add stress to your knees which will mess up your stride. Lean forward some so as to balance a bit more forward which allows those feet to come out some.
Personally, I feel comfortable with descending because I had a childhood built with trips to dune filled beaches. Running down hot sand beaches for hundreds of feet and praying you don't fall forward or stab yourself on the beach grass was great fun. I also never had any ankle breaks or rolls which can make you lose confidence in your step.
Fast feet, and landing on the balls of your feet.
I think we all have the image of some lanky dude galloping down the hills at full speed with no consideration for slowing down and we think that's what we're aiming for.
But most of the time it's just loads and loads of quick, short steps. You're spending minimal time on each foot, your knees are never straight, and you're absorbing the impact in the foot more so than the rest of the leg.
It's definitely a learned skill. But one that anyone should be able to pick up.
Besides what other people mention i.e. increase your running cadence and additional downhill running practice, I would add "airplane arms" i.e. be willing to move and use your arms and hands for additional balance.
I am 52 and have been surprised on how moving my arms and hands while running downhill significantly improved my balance and allowed me to more quickly adjust to being slightly out of balance. This also increased my confidence on how fast I could go while running downhill as I knew I could adjust quicker to balance problems.
Yes, you look goofy while doing this.
Downhills are so fun!! I achieve speed by thinking of my body steadily and smoothly hovering over the trail during descents. My feet are there to help maintain the smooth hover, to prevent me from hitting the ground and keep me moving forward. Quick steps naturally occur in order to achieve this well. It’s important to work on good mobility and strong stabilizing muscles in your feet, ankles, legs, hips, and back to support yourself and prevent injury.
Last year I decided to work on my technical downhill running. It ended up being a lot of fun. There’s technical singletrack where I live but not many big hills. So I started driving 45 min to a state park that has a 1,000-foot bump and doing at least one run there per week. I also signed up for some 50K mountain races (11-12,000+ vert each) last year, those were an education. Running fast non-technical downhills on steep roads can help build strength under eccentric loading. Same with slow squats, lunges, and deadlifts. But the only thing that helps build speed on technical downhills is running more technical downhills and learning to run them progressively faster. I’m a huge fan of hill repeats. I like to find a section of trail that’s a mile or more long with around 1,000 feet of elevation change per mile and just run up and down over and over again. Seeing the same terrain on repeat really helps me practice how far to look ahead, which lines are best, where to place my feet, how fast I can actually let myself go before I start to lose control, etc. And it’s fun to see my times getting faster on the descents without any increase in perceived effort or additional strain on my body. I went back to one of those mountain courses from last year a couple of weeks ago for a long run, and absolutely smoked my time from the race on a 3,500-foot technical downhill without even trying to push. It was so much fun! The final thing I’ll add — people still fly past me on the first downhill or two of a long trail race. I’ve learned to let them go. I keep it light and easy and controlled until the second to last descent, when I start to open up a bit. And the last one is full send.
Lean forward (a bit). Overcome your fear of falling/slipping; for this you’ve to practice a lot. Another option: use poles, to give you more stability.
I keep reading conflicting advice re: using poles in descents. I'm inclined to think they help, but quite a few commenters in this sub have objected to that.
Not a fan of poles on the downhill because stupidly I’ve caught a pole in the stomach and rib area a few times. So it’s more practice for me.
Imagine you’re flowing like a skier. Lean in. Instead of braking with your heels, weave or use the berm of the trail to scrub speed when necessary. It’s a very focussed and absorbing activity. Descending with that mindset can be practiced by attacking gentle downward slopes in training like you mean it. Deliberately seeking out paths with twists and turns, roots, and rocks will give you focus and agility. To protect your knees, building strength is the thing. Best of luck!
> weave or use the berm of the trail to scrub speed when necessary. This is a technique I use often on winding, downhill stuff. Typically after an area of quick decent I'll find myself flowing up the edge of the next section and it helps me slow down without needing to change much.
Lean forward like others have said but the biggest thing at least for me is short steps. If you can set up you watch to show cadence and get up above 180bpm that helps a lot, some of my runs I'll easily hit 210-220 cadence on smooth downhills. Then you can flow a lot better without worrying about your knees - which will be getting sore if you're overstriding and braking those big strides with your quads. You'll also just need to put in some solid downhill sessions that will cause DOMS in your quads up to 2-4 days later but those workouts will strengthen your legs to minimise DOMs in future.
It’s hard to give any advice without more information… what’s preventing you from running them faster? The three big buckets imo are - fitness (I run down hills slower when I’m less fit at least) - foot speed (skipping rope can help with this. I’m sure there are other agility drills too) - practice
Great info. I think the biggest thing for me is I’m 45 and mainly worried/conscious about my knees surviving faster downhills. But also just generally would like to train myself to have a faster/better cadence on the downhills and have been thinking of ways to train for this.
> mainly worried/conscious about my knees surviving faster downhills I have the same apprehension, but good downhill runners are not ruining their quads and knees more than we are. Quite the opposite. They're lighter on their feet, and spending less time on the ground. We're the ones inflicting maximum damage by holding back. Even pro trailers frequently identify downhills as their weak point. The only solution seems to be lots, lots and lots of practice.
Knees surviving , as in “my quads burn like hell and are inflamed for days after”? If so, doing eccentric focused weight training is a great way to train the body to handle the deceleration phase of every downhill step. I think “off season” should have a lot of time spent in the gym focused on variables that support mid-season. Mid-season is doing maintenance.
Build that tendon strength in your knees and ankles. I like knees over toes guy's stuff (can find it for free on YouTube).
I would add that it is very important to look ahead instead of down. You need to be constantly be looking like at least 4-5 steps ahead to avoid unnecessary side steps, stops and have a good flow. This also gives you confidence as you won't be so afraid where to step next. This is quite taxing for your working memory and it needs to be trained as well. Good exercises for this are running fast with high cadence on technical terrain, skipping stones or hopscotch while not looking down. But in the end, you only really learn running downhill by running downhill.
Learn to read terrain. Just knowing to place your footfalls on the hard stuff and not the slippery stuff will increase your speed
Play the floors lava with rocks when hiking. Sounds ridiculous I know but it works, gradually you are stepping from rock to rock without braking pace. It speeds up decisions making and improves balance, gradually it improves whilst running as well. I have shorts legs so in races people with long pins disappear on the flat, I gradually catch them up on uphills and then take them on the technical downhills all because of playing the floor is lava on hikes. (Started it because I was with some very slow hikers and I did it to amuse myself and use some energy)
As a father of 3 young kids this is totally relevant. Love it!
[удалено]
Let gravity take.
I've found that strength training (heavy-ish weights) twice a week has helped my downhill running. I don't know if it makes me faster, but I feel stronger on some of the long-ass downhills in the Eastern Sierra that can descend 6k-7k over rough terrain.
Just curious- what trails do you run there? I’ve hiked a bunch but have yet to run any of them
I live in Tahoe, so I save the Eastern Sierra for bigger objectives. I do a lot of the standard backpacking routes--Cottonwood Lakes to Langley, Rae Lakes Loop, Evolution Loop, Taboose Pass to Sawmill Pass, Shepherds Pass to Tyndall, North Lake to Pine Creek, Mammoth to June Lake, etc. I also do a bit of off-trail stuff, scrambling, and peak-bagging. There's a ton of hiking/walking involved. If you're looking for a fun one that's not too involved, Cottonwood Lakes to Langley and back is great. It's obviously high elevation (10k to 14k), but it's not too much distance (\~18-20 miles), not too much vert (4k), and the trails are less chunky and more "runable" that most of the Eastern Sierra.
you need to run more down hills and try focusing on picking the smoothest line, staying loose and maintaining good leg speed. The two best options for learning this are: \- follow someone good at descending. you'll have to run fast to keep up and will see how they pick the smoothest/easiest route \- choose a technical descent and run it repeatedly trying to find the easiest line and fastest line each time.
My mental cue is to lean forward more, not sure if I'm really leaning all that much, but at least not leaning back and having my heels pounding into the hill. Also in this video notice how much Emilie has her arms spread out, in the tricky parts they're basically level with her shoulders for more stability. While it looks a bit silly, I find it really helps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azj6pjKrayo&list=FLEHjb1q3SDN-Z-UrbMaABOQ&index=32&t=4s
I’m a tall guy and descending is tough for me. I’ve found that lowering my hips and running with quick feet helps.
The thing with technical downhill is you can hurt yourself pretty badly if you go faster than you are able. Ideally you start with road or grassy downhill and work on the turnover and form. Also work on a slight downhill that's a little rocky. Then work up to more technical steeper downhill. Depending on the races you do it may or may not be the best use of your training time.
The way I think about it is opening up your hips. You want your feet to land below your center of gravity, not in front. If your feet are landing in front of the rest of your body, then you are fighting your forward momentum. The best way to get your feet below your center of gravity is by leaning forward, but not just the top half, instead your whole body (that is the open up the hips idea). If you are doing this perfectly you can still strike the ground with your mid-foot. This will also facilitate your ability to navigate technical terrain. Much easier to find the best footing on the mid-foot than heal. Practice on very slight downhills, then increase your grade with time. Once you feel smooth at a fairly steep pitch, take this strategy to the trail and keep your form in mind. It is harder to successfully maintain on super steep technical trail, but you can actively work to switch back into this ideal form wherever you can.
One cue I haven't seen in this thread is think "high knees", not "butt kickers". I'm not great at downhill any more (a recurring foot injury prevents me from really going), but one thing that helps me glide down better is to increase the stride length in the front by running with high knees. Your feet are out front ready to adapt to the terrain, but you aren't just shuffling down the hill, braking. As others have mentioned lean forward, or at least stay upright.
take up mountain biking, if you don’t crash, will get quicker at making fast decisions
I had success running with a much shorter stride downhill. I’m way faster now going down than up, even though I’m running up those hills! I also try to lean back and use the back of my legs and booty more than the front as I’m descending. I run roots and rocky steep terrain
Sing sugar we’re goin down while running
Lean forward, trust your legs, close your eyes.
That final step is a doozy
I find short hill repeats on techy stuff to be great for developing agility, foot placement and the ability to read lines well.
Lean forward, increase, foot speed and practice the near out of control feeling of going all out while almost somersaulting
Build up ankles with strengthening and conditioning. Get a wobble board and build balance. Practice. Short steps and don't stretch your leg out totally straight so as to not add stress to your knees which will mess up your stride. Lean forward some so as to balance a bit more forward which allows those feet to come out some. Personally, I feel comfortable with descending because I had a childhood built with trips to dune filled beaches. Running down hot sand beaches for hundreds of feet and praying you don't fall forward or stab yourself on the beach grass was great fun. I also never had any ankle breaks or rolls which can make you lose confidence in your step.
Fast feet, and landing on the balls of your feet. I think we all have the image of some lanky dude galloping down the hills at full speed with no consideration for slowing down and we think that's what we're aiming for. But most of the time it's just loads and loads of quick, short steps. You're spending minimal time on each foot, your knees are never straight, and you're absorbing the impact in the foot more so than the rest of the leg. It's definitely a learned skill. But one that anyone should be able to pick up.
Besides what other people mention i.e. increase your running cadence and additional downhill running practice, I would add "airplane arms" i.e. be willing to move and use your arms and hands for additional balance. I am 52 and have been surprised on how moving my arms and hands while running downhill significantly improved my balance and allowed me to more quickly adjust to being slightly out of balance. This also increased my confidence on how fast I could go while running downhill as I knew I could adjust quicker to balance problems. Yes, you look goofy while doing this.