Over The Hill We Go

Tip From The DC Road Runners!

Hills 

The topic for this week is the Importance of Hills. Hill work or including hills on your training runs is one way you'll gain strength and essentially get faster for race day. Speed comes from the swing phase of your step (where the momentum is generated), not the "leg on the ground" phase. The muscles that assist in the swing phase are your hip flexor aka illiacus, psoas major and psoas minor. And, the best way to strengthen your hip flexor is..... hills!  

This article gives lots of great information on how to tackle hills during your training and then during race day and this article gives some helpful tips on the downhill part.