Supposed to be dry today so I removed the mudguards in preparation for buying some gravel tyres and some off roading. Of course, it pissed down all morning and afternoon so I got covered in road crap. No tyres in the size I need at shop. I peeked at a bridle way on the way but it had lakes of shit.
What was I thinking?
I did try out a Giant Revolt Advanced in store. Didn’t really inspire me to buy one.
with knee drive…and a weighted Oly bar…
absolutely…although learning to descend with good form will assist,
I’ve done a lot of long runs in the hills, up to 10-12 hours. Rather like training for OtillO, I’m not sure it’s easy to be prescriptive about any kind of ‘ideal’ training.
My thoughts tally with most of the above, just a couple of extra things:
All plyometics did was push me towards injury, something like stair climbing might be less intense but I suspect you could quickly overdo it.
I was always strong on rocky, exposed stuff from my climbing background and used to regularly take 10 of more minutes out of friends, especially descending something like Halls Fell Ridge, where technique and route planning can make up a lot of time.
If the aim is to do more events, then good technique and injury prevention will be as important as anything else.
Casquette Vert is a Parisian trail runner who does a LOT of stair sets in Paris. Given he comes top 10 in a lot of ultras (incl mountain ones), maybe there’s something there……
It comes back to most endurance sports: two key elements. A) increasing overall fitness and B) adding in specificity to target that at your duration/type required.
I really think a lot of incline treadmill, hill sprints/stairs coupled with heavy strength cycle would be a good base/grounding. Adding in specificity by way of any technical/trails you can find during the week locally and going to the Downs on the weekend is probably a decent ‘middle ground’ approach.
Run with additional weight, on any little incline & decline you can.
I used to do a lot of step aerobics in my climbing days.
Coupled with walking into crags and the climbing, the muscles around my knees eventually got very unbalanced and this led to pain.
It was actually what propelled me into triathlon, cycling and swimming helped to balance up the muscles and the knee problems went away.
What I’m really trying to say is that stair climbing and running with weights on an incline are a good idea but don’t overdo it.
It’s the downhills that are harder to manage in the mountains and where more time can be made.
It’s also where there’s the most jeopardy!
Defo agree that using the weekend Downs runs to target some repeat hill descents is necessary to help get the quads prepped for it. There’s no other real way to get that, though adding front squats which are more quad heavy can help.
Running in mountains is awsome, even the best runners walk sometimes on big climbs, I really enjoy being able to walk without feeling that I am somehow not good enough to run. What will get you is running downhill and destroying your quads. Once you have blown your quads, running form collapses into a pile of shit. As far as I know, there are only 2 ways to train yourself for running downhill: one is to to run downhill the other is to run down stairs. in London just find a tall building or Hotel, go to the top (run to the top???) then run down the stairs and repeat. Do this a couple of times a week for 3 weeks and it will transform your downhill running.
Caveat: if you fall or trip running downstairs, I am not to blame, you undertake this at your own risk
Here you go, I’ve heard she’s half decent😉
https://twitter.com/RUN247com/status/1778681203068961188?t=IeX_t9fxRgQZGQUMkJgyhw&s=19
I’ve started doing reverse lunges but with a kettle bell held on the side you lunge. When you lunge you use it to balance, touchiung the floor, but when coming out of the lunge the knee is used to lift it. It feels like a really good progression and I’m very much feeling it in my glutes.
I also did a stair master session today for the first time. Again a bit of an eye opener as I was surprised how much it worked the calves. Unfortunately the machine does have elevation in meters, just floors and steps which is a bit weird, but I stopped after 1k steps and then did a second set. I’m wondering whether its better to extend the length of the session, remove the reps or even carry a weight when doing it. This also feels very specific to mountain running which is great.
You’ll have to take a tape measure to the gym and measure the step height? 
I’ve size 12 feet and find the step depth a bit narrow on those stair masters, which puts a bit more strain on my calves. I prefer a nice quiet stairwell when I have a choice.