This weekend, the Nanjing Marathon and the Hangzhou Marathon will start on the same day. For the participating runners, both courses share similar characteristics—some sections are slightly narrow, with many turns and significant elevation changes. Especially the bridge sections, which can be quite challenging for many runners.

When you're leisurely jogging along and suddenly encounter a steep slope ahead, it may not be steep enough to make you look up and lose your hat, but the long incline can still make runners scratch their heads. A long uphill stretch can cause faster energy depletion and more severe lactic acid buildup.

Similarly, downhill sections can also be tiring. Although downhill running seems to benefit from gravity and consumes less energy, it actually requires higher muscle strength for impact resistance, cushioning, and support.

Therefore, correctly handling uphill and downhill sections during a marathon is crucial for finishing smoothly and achieving good results. Today, I'll explain what you should pay attention to when encountering slopes on the marathon course.

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Reducing speed and maintaining a steady rhythm is most important.

When the marathon course has significant elevation changes, both amateur and professional runners will slow down.So, those runners who always stick to a specific pace need to be cautious.

If you encounter a steep uphill and still focus on maintaining your pace, the exercise intensity will suddenly increase, making it easy to become exhausted and disrupt your rhythm. At this time, you should pay more attention to exercise intensity and heart rate. If your heart rate significantly increases and you are out of breath while going uphill, it indicates that you should control your pace.

When encountering elevation changes on the course, maintaining a steady rhythm is more important than maintaining a steady pace. When the rhythm is good, running feels smooth and efficient, and you may not feel tired even after continuous uphill and downhill sections. Conversely, if the rhythm is chaotic, running will feel awkward, and you will waste more energy, making it harder to handle the climbs.

Regarding rhythm, we should not only keep it stable but also maintain a relatively fast cadence, while not taking too large steps. During uphill and downhill running, the muscles already bear more force, and if the cadence is too slow and the steps too large, each step will increase the pressure on muscles and joints, leading to muscle tension, fatigue, and various injuries during the race.

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Adjusting running posture is key to handling uphill and downhill sections.

1. Leaning the body forward

When running on flat ground, we often mention that the body should lean slightly forward to create a forward force, which is more conducive to forward movement. When going uphill, gravity pulls us downward and backward, so we should lean slightly forward to better counteract gravity and accelerate the forward and upward movement of the body's center of gravity.

During downhill running, gravity accelerates our downward movement, so we should use gravity and inertia to naturally run downhill without being too tense or trying to brake and slow down, which can lead to muscle tension or injury. Keeping the body upright or slightly leaning back helps stabilize the center of gravity and prevents losing control while running downhill.

2. Pay attention to landing technique

For amateur runners, whether to land on the forefoot or heel on flat ground is not very important. What matters more is the rhythm, coordination, and forward movement of the center of gravity. However, this changes when running uphill or downhill.

Generally, when running uphill, it's better to land on the forefoot because the forward lean of the center of gravity makes it easier to land on the forefoot. Using the forefoot to grip the ground helps the center of gravity overcome gravity and move upward.

When running downhill, landing on the heel is more efficient than landing on the forefoot because the center of gravity is not as forward-leaning. Landing on the heel also helps stabilize the center of gravity and prevents losing control while running downhill. Although forefoot landing is more efficient, many high-level athletes who usually land on the forefoot switch to heel landing on steep downhills.

3. Prevent overstriding

Overstriding means landing with the foot ahead of the body's center of gravity. Many runners like to take large steps to run uphill faster, but this creates a braking effect, which is counterproductive for pace and increases the risk of injury.

When running downhill, leaning the center of gravity slightly back and landing slightly ahead is acceptable, but overstriding should be avoided. Due to gravity, each downhill step has a greater impact, and landing too far ahead of the center of gravity increases this impact. Therefore, we should always aim to land close to the center of gravity.

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How can you run more easily? Hill training is worth trying.

Using hill training to strengthen the leg muscles needed for running is a very effective training method. If you usually train on flat roads or tracks and suddenly race on a hilly marathon course, you may find it hard to adapt. Therefore, targeted training is beneficial.

Hill training not only strengthens the glutes, quadriceps, calves, and soleus muscles but also helps improve speed and climbing ability during races. Hill training can improve pace and enhance performance in subsequent speed training.

If possible, runners can choose softer surfaces like grass, dirt roads, or sand for hill training. These surfaces reduce the risk of injury and are beneficial for strengthening lower limb muscles, core strength, and coordination.

If such conditions are not available, you can choose roads or bridges with inclines for hill training. Regardless of the training environment, it should be safe and familiar to reduce the risk of accidents.

Think of hill training as special weighted running. Once a week is sufficient, with a distance of 12-20 kilometers and moderate intensity. This training is a significant challenge for the cardiovascular system, requiring increased energy output to overcome gravity.

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Conclusion

It's important to emphasize that beginners should not engage in hill training. Good flat running ability is the foundation for all training. Runners with relatively weak lower limb strength and running technique should avoid hill training.Beginner runners should only start hill training after reaching a certain training level and meeting lower limb strength requirements, following the above guidelines.