Downhill training

I am scared of speed! You should see me skiing. And I'm scared of spraining a knee or an ankle on uneven terrain. So if you combine both, running speedily downhill on uneven terrain, you have several of my fears combined. It is not surprising I am absolutely rubbish at it. 

One night on the track I heard that the club training on the Monday night would organise a session on downhill running, led by our youth trainer Neal. That sounded amazing! I don't normally go to the Monday evening training, for a session like that I would make an exception.

When I saw the announcement I immediately registered. There is no good way of avoiding downhill running! You can, of course, do only flat races, but I like going up. And unless you are doing the Snowdon Twilight, or an uphill-only leg of the Welsh Castles Relay, what goes up must come down. And it does annoy me that I am so slow downhill. But I also have such a strong history of spraining knees and ankles it is only natural. 

The announcement came quicker than I expected, and I was glad I had bought my new shoes on time! They would come in handy. 

There was a good crew of us. And when Neal figured we were all there, we ran up to a field that is part of my standard off-road run, and also contains my hill rep incline which is also the finish of Ras Moel Wnion. And we did some general exercises that we could also do ourselves. Things like standing on one leg and then doing balance challenges like touching your knee with your nose. And at the same time, Neal talked us through a bit of theory. And then it was time to start properly. We were asked to pair up, and I did so with a lady called Tina I didn’t know before. 

Group pic by Nia

Neal orating; pic by Nia

Balance exercise 

We started with running some loops. One half of a pair first, while the other observed, and then we swapped. First just without instruction. Then when making a concerted effort to lean forward. Then with long strides. And short strides. And variations on that. 

It was quite useful to have an observer. We saw things the other person was not aware of. She mainly saw my fear! And that was exactly why I was there. But she said I was going faster with the passing of time. Maybe I was gaining some confidence! And then we moved to a deeper bit of terrain. Then we did some more running down. But it was scarily steep and I stayed within my comfort zone. I didn't want to sprain anything!

We then did some exercises with what looks like a rope ladder. This is for forcing you to take very short steps. And then Neal started to add little cones to restrict where we could put our feet. There was a lot of skipping going on! That was fun. The one thing that scared me was if I was behind someone with big feet, and they struggle to keep their feet between the rungs of the ladder, and kicked it. I don't want to be pulled over by a moving ladder!

It was getting late and we moved to do the final exercise of the night. We went to the incline. We all trundled up, and then we ran down. I normally walk down it! I did run, but with my familiar very short steps, and low speed. That thing is steep!

The only thing we needed to do was run back to the cars. An evening well spent! I think my spotter was right; I did build a tiny little bit of confidence. If I do this sort of thing a bit more often, I might increase it a bit further still. Who knows! I don't think I'll ever be really confident; I can't really forget decades of spraining my knees. But I think I can reasonably gain a bit of confidence without endangering myself!