St. George Marathon - Downhill Running

Just ran my 23 miler yesterday and last long run before St. George on the 3^rd of October 2009.  Chasing PR’s still.  Theoretically, this should race be a no-brainer, but you still need the stars to align to have a great run.  St. George Utah is a point-to-point downhill race.  While there are several hundred feet of rise, the net is about 2,600 feet of decent in 26 miles and the highest elevation is about 5,000 feet. 

My last marathon with Houston 2009 in 3:15:04.  Good run, but probably could have pushed harder and it was fairly warm day on a nearly totally flat course.  So what can you do to get ready for the downhill pounding to come?

Two suggestions (I did mostly option 1 since I travel a lot and had no time to find the right hills):

1)      Run downhill on a treadmill.  Get a couple of 2x4 blocks cut about 4 in square.  Put these under a treadmill’s back feet.  Use a torpedo or other lever to check the slope by raising the elevation on the treadmill until the deck is level.  On the life-fitness machine I used at the Intercontinental last week, the blocks gave me a 2% slope.  This is about the right grade for St. George on average.  There are 5,280 feet in a mile.  So, a 2% grade would be about a 105 foot change in elevation (grade = rise / run, 2% = x / 5280 or x = 105.6).  You will find yourself running at Tempo Pace (about 15K or ½ marathon pace) without huffing and puffing.  While you may be a little sore in the calf, quad, or glutes, this was a great confidence boost for me and may be for you as well.   Started with 4 miles and worked up to 8 miles.

2)      Find a long hill (quarter to half a mile) at about the same grade as your race, but do hill repeats a bit in reverse.  Run fast, but easy down the hill.  You can check the slope using the formula above and an online mapping tool.  My favorite is the one on the USA Track & Field site (http://www.usatf.org/routes/map/ ), but the one on mapmyrun.com is a bit slicker showing you the grade along the way.

Good Luck with your next downhill run.