I'm Not Doing That - Am I? 

The other day I got an email from Active.com with training tips and what not. One of the articles in the email had to do with efficient downhill running:

Often when an athlete runs downhill, he or she will lean back, into the hill, and brake heavily on the heels. Over-striding and landing very far back on the heel and then rolling quickly onto the toe produces the familiar “slap, slap, slap” sound. This never looks comfortable. Plus, it sounds, and often is, painful, and it is inefficient and slow. Further, fighting gravity by leaning back puts a tremendous load on the joints and large muscles of your legs, increasing the risk of cramping and magnifying any biomechanical problems such as pronation or supination. Lastly, this is a good way to develop blisters or lose a few toenails as the foot slides within the shoe as you brake with each foot plant.

Instead, once the downhill section starts, you should lean slightly forward, shifting your center of gravity toward the bottom of the hill. This will change your momentum from fighting the slope of the hill to moving with gravity, allowing you to be pulled down the hill—like running with a tailwind on the flats.

I read the article and smiled to myself... feeling very proud. Yes... I'm doing it right! Then I went running after work that night with the information in the article fresh in my head. Suddenly I realized I was in fact doing it wrong... so very very wrong. It's amazing how we can delude ourselves into thinking one thing until we actually do it, and realize we had no idea what we were talking about. Well not any more. I'm now running correctly down hill, and my training split did improve.