Hill Running Secrets of a Big Sur Survivor

In late April, and eight months after knee surgery, I ran the Big Sur Marathon, one of the most beautiful—and hilliest –marathons in the U.S.  In fact, I counted about 6 equivalent Heartbreak Hills over the course of Big Sur.

Needless to say, I was intimidated by the elevation maps of the course and stories from past participants, not to mention the prospect of training and running a race on a knee that underwent meniscus repair last August. But the story has a happy ending. Using my Chi Running technique and a relatively slow pace, I emerged from the race exhilarated and 

intact, at least as far as my legs were concerned.

It was all about proper training and technique. From a training standpoint, I did very little speed work, but a lot of hill work. All my long runs involved steep inclines and declines and few of my shorter runs were done on flat surfaces. I dialed back my usual average mileage in deference to my delicate knees and the rigor of my longer runs.

Now, about attacking hills. Actually, you don’t. I never try to race up hills, especially steep Pacific Coast Highway hills. Instead, I focus on maintaining the same steady turnover as I do on flat surfaces—for me that’s a cadence of 86 steps per minute—slower than optimal, but it works for me. As the incline steepens, I shorten my strides while maintaining my cadence.  On especially long climbs (the longest Big Sur hill rises steadily for 2 miles!!), my central focus is on relaxation.

The key focus in Chi Running is taking your legs out of the game. That means letting gravity pull you along while your core maintains your posture. With hill running, I pretend my legs are like a transmission with endless gears. Whenever I feel tension and resistance from the hill, I “downshift” to release the tension from my legs—in other words, force my column from my butt to my feet to relax and just let my forward lean move my body forward.

It takes tremendous concentration. But on long hills, you have to keep downshifting to remove the resistance and just sort of glide up the hill. On the famous 2-mile Hurricane Point climb at Big Sur, I counted about 12 downshifts to shake the tension and resistance out of my body. It’s not easy to do when you start getting tired, but not impossible if you focus hard enough.

I know this sounds weird, but it does work. The downside is you’re taking such short choppy steps, your movement up a hill sacrifices speed. The upside for me, however, is I didn’t breathe hard on even the toughest hills and didn’t use up excess energy, which means you can theoretically make up any lost time on descents and flat surfaces.

I also employed other standard hill techniques, including a more forceful arm swing to help propel my body forward and focused on maintaining a correct upright posture (eyes straight ahead, neck relaxed, shoulders-over-hips-over-ankles)—slouching leaks energy.

These days, at my advanced age, I tend to bonk at marathons around mile 18. But, for some reason, I made it to mile 22 at Big Sur before my body started screaming no mas! I attribute that to a disciplined approach to hill technique and a healthy terror of a very challenging race.

For more about running hills and the Chi Running approach, check out the website.