UKC

I'm fine running trails and undulations, but the moment I'm on the mountain steep paths I can't keep going, even finding I have to stop to recover for a few minutes, then can run max 50m before repeating.
Any tips or just keep plugging away.

In reply to JamButty: Walk the ups, run the flats and the downs. As you get better you can run more and more of the uphills/walk them faster.

Don't get too blown at any point if you can help it.

R

In reply to JamButty:

Like most things - it never gets easier, you just get faster

In reply to JamButty:

Couple of things I tried.

Don't stop to catch ur breath, slow down or walk. Just don't stop.
Run on your toes if its really steep.
Take really small steps if poss, ok on paths not too easy on rocky steps.

One other thing I did was count my steps in my head, sounds silly but I find it takes my mind off the pain which will eventually go away.

In reply to JamButty:

Running up hills isn't easy, so it's important to drop down the gears and not try and run up to fast. Quite often fast uphill walking is more efficient.

If you are struggling to keep going not just on the uphills then this sounds like you just need to get used to the nature of the running and that the rhythm is different to trails due to the roughness of it.

In order to make this easier to get to grips with though you can improved you recover time by doing interval training. I prefer hill intervals as these build the muscles also. A set could involve running up and jogging down a steep hill for two pyramids of 15, 30, 60, 90,60,30,15 seconds with a bit of a break in between. These should be pushing hard, and should probably make you feel a bit ill! But do them, or other variations for a few weeks, and you will certainly notice the difference!

Good luck with the running!

In reply to JamButty: Thanks for comments, its probably what I expected. I'm actually ok on road hills, its just steep mountain routes that seem to get me, and I try and do it so I don't have to stop but perhaps am pushing it too much.
Once I'm on top and have got my breath back I'm happy as larry....

In reply to cezza:

I've discovered a corollary to that:

then as you get older you get slower

Still enjoy it though.

In reply to JamButty: shorten your stride and take baby tiny steps but keep the cadence high. if it's really steep put your hands on your knees. don't worry about the speed up hill as you can make up for it on the downs and flats!

In reply to JamButty:

As has been said, they don't get easier - you just get faster.

I found that doing hill reps once a week helped massively, it takes about four or five weeks for everything to come together. The hill doesn't want to be too steep, maybe 20%, and it should be long enough for a two or three minute effort. Make sure your start and finish points are obvious marks/features. Get warmed up first with a gentle run on the flat of a mile or two then do your reps: try and judge your effort so that you are struggling just as you reach your turn round point; jog back down and repeat. After your last rep keep moving and gently jog on the flat to cool down.

On really steep paths, it's more efficient and not much slower than running to walk but put your hands on top of your knees and push on each stride - you slide your hands back and forth slightly on your thighs.

I had a loop to the top of the local hill that before doing hill reps used to take me in the region of 62 - 64 mins. A month or so of hill reps and it was down to 59mins, about another month later and suddenly the time plummeted, first to 52mins (i.e. a 7 minute improvement between two runs) and eventually to 49mins. The improvement showed in races too - I think I achieved PBs in every race I did that year.

HTH

ALC

In reply to JamButty:

When I got ok at it, some days it felt like my legs were taking me for a run, like being on a horse I was riding on them, keep going it'll come. nowadays I have trouble walking round the park

In reply to JamButty:

Nope its a painful affair throughout and then you get to the steep bits.

In reply to JamButty: No.. you just recover quicker.. if anything the more experienced you are the more of a state of trashedness you can get yourself in to..

But never stop, you want a continuous ascent rate, even if that's walk.. I sometimes do run/walk/run/walk which can help me keep going sometimes, but generally try to keep a steady momentum.

I think biking, road biking, helps for uphill running.

Get lighter, increase your basic CV fitness, pick a sensible pace, do reps and er.. man up..

In reply to JamButty: embrace the pain, choose it, hunt it down and make it your weapon of choice.

In reply to JamButty: Choose an easier hill and as others have said, don't stop. If you're really struggling then it might be faster to walk but personally I'd rather jog slower than walk faster.

I think it helps mentally to be in the mindset that you'll never stop running no matter what. Even if you end up jogging basically on the spot. If you really can't jog another step then turn around and jog back down until you've got enough breath back to go back up!

Ben

In reply to JamButty: Hill reps, find a big ole hill and run to the top as hard as you can, then turn around and puff and pant your way to the bottom. Once there turn around and up you go, harder and faster than the time before.

Repeat until you are a blithering,dribbling mess. Then have a shower

Hill reps really are the way to see gains quickly and also give you the edge over other numbers in races I've found.

On the hills is where I pick em off

Cx

In reply to JamButty:
Not many people run all the uphills. The majority probably don't run anything that's uphill. I'm usually one of the "also rans" in the final results, but the only overtaking I ever do is on the ups - I don't run, but maintain a constant fast walk, sop [pass all those who keep stopping, or walk very slowly. Of course, they all pass me again as soon as it levels out

In reply to JamButty:

I think most of these things have probably been said before but;

Walking isn't wrong (in fact it's often easier to overtake people in races on steep uphills by 'breaking into a walk') - stopping on a relatively short run shows something has gone wrong.

If you're having to stop you've clearly over-egged it at some point prior to that point. That could have been a short sharp slope that you tried to maintain your pace up, or it could have been that you were going oh so slightly too quick uphill for a significant period beforehand. Avoiding this comes with experience whereby you develop a ridiculously sensitive inbuilt clinometer that regulates your speed.

The way I developed a good sense for pacing was on a local 10km run that I do regularly. I simply picked a few relevant waypoints and noticed the time on my watch as i got to them each time. Obviously this is easier with a whizbang watch or gps - but if you're doing it regularly you'll just remember approximate times. The important part is you'll start noticing paterns. If you bust a gut up to point A you might well loose more time than you gained by point B, but if you're too cruisy through A and B you'll never have the gas on the second half to catch up with your best gut busting suicide efforts. If you're going on much longer mountain runs with long ascents you can also bastardise naismiths rule in some way to adjust distance for height gain - but on shorter more undulating runs this doesn't work as well. If you can learn this way on a course you know it will soon start to imprint in your subconscious.

with regards hill reps: They are depressingly painful. If you're not coughing up blood you're not trying.

In reply to JamButty: Did 16km over all the Berywyn peaks this morning, took 3hrs with a bit of faffing. Made sure I ran where I could and walked the steep bits and only really stopped for pictures and to fish out some food.
Difficult to run in shin deep peat bogs but it was a challenge.
Furthest I've done at that pace, so pretty chuffed.
Legs are aching already, so god help me for the morning!!

Thanks for all advice, I'll keep plugging away...

In reply to Sharp:
Now thats just plain sick!

just keep grinding them out and they'll soon feel easier....
Remember pain is just weakness leaving the body.

I'm 47 and still getting PB's

Short races really hurt but long races favour those with stamina