How to Train for Mountain Running
When You Don’t Have Any Mountains
If you’re a perennial runner of the North American Obstacle Course Racing Championships at Stratton Mountain, or any of the several infamous Spartan Mountain Series — Big Bear, Palmerton, and all the rest — you already know that running up a mountainside is more daunting than any obstacle.
Those climbs can feel like a death-hike broken only by exhausted breaks in which you take in the gorgeous views while massaging the cramp out of your calf. But with some specialized training, you can reduce the journey up to merely a tiring trudge — perhaps even one you enjoy!
Most obstacle course racing athletes can benefit from some of this kind of training, as many non-mountain courses send runners up and down hills, gullies, and whatever elevation gains and drops are easy to hand.
Below, I outline training suggestions for building your tolerance for extended uphill climbs, developing the skills and confidence to manage downhill sections without losing too much speed, and increasing your overall physical strength and technical skills as a trail runner.
A note: Spending time on focused training like this is likely moot if you can’t maintain an aerobic (aka “easy”) running pace over relatively flat ground for at least an hour. If you’re looking for advice on building your baseline endurance, check out my article all about it here.
Uphill Running
Uphill running is the challenge that most people think about when confronting elevation heavy races, and for good reason. Those extended climbs can be utterly sapping, leaving you stumbling and exhausted with half the race or more still ahead of you.
While your first preference should be to train on some actual mountains or large hill slopes, when those aren’t handy you can head to your nearest local treadmill. I do this at Planet Fitness because they’re close and cheap — just search out gyms near your house if you don’t have your own treadmill.
As a beginning runner, I don’t suggest that you start out by trying to run on treadmill at steep elevations. Aside from being potentially dangerous, it’s also counter-productive.
Even if you avoid injuring yourself, you’ll tire too quickly to build up the endurance you need to conquer the mountains.
Hike Before You Run
Any danger aside, running up any slope greater than 25 degrees is actually less energy efficient than power hiking it ( source: https://www.scienceofultra.com/podcasts/74 starting at 12:30). In fact, the transition point actually starts around 16 degrees of uphill slope, and your energy efficiency degrades rapidly from there, even with a high degree of conditioning.
As a general rule, I try to train myself to recognize when a slope is approaching 20 degrees so I can switch to power hiking as needed.
Athletes of all levels should bear this in mind when trying to conserve energy.
Good power-hiking form involves leaning forward to match the slope, keeping your legs bent and loose, and pushing on your quads with your hands to help add power to your steps. You can read a lot more about this here.
So when you hit those treadmills, I suggest using a hills routine at a pace you can maintain — 3 or 4 miles per hour can be a good challenge with a steep slope — and building up over time while you develop your power hiking technique and endurance.
As with regular endurance running training, speed comes second— until you can power hike for 45 minutes to an hour without losing control of your breath or collapsing, pace isn’t all that important.
Running Uphill
As your conditioning improves, you can start adding in hill running intervals at 10–15 degrees slope on the treadmill to train for conquering small hills or elevation gain in shorter races where speed is more important than efficiency. I’d suggest standard speed training wind sprints here, but shortening your high intensity runs to account for the slope.
For obstacle course racing, it’s rarely worthwhile to train speed at the expense of endurance. Speed training should usually be IN ADDITION to your regular training.
As an example, you might do six to eight hard 20 second runs (shy of real sprinting) with rest periods of about two minutes in between, during which you can stretch, stand, or walk slowly while you recover your breath.
These sprints can wholly replace any standard speed training you’re doing; but remember that for an endurance sport like OCR, speed training probably shouldn’t be more than 20% of your total time spent running.
Mountain Running Skills
Running uphill on a nice level surface at a constant speed is all well and good, but ultimately very dissimilar from running up the side of a mountain.
Mountains have rough terrain — dirt, rocks, grass and scrub brush, not to mention generally uneven footing. Maintaining anything like a constant speed will be more tiring than on a treadmill, and also more difficult as you won’t be able to power hike in a perfectly straight line in most situations.
Fortunately, dealing with rough terrain is actually a technical skill that you can develop with practice!
The Sidewalk is Lava
Since we’re assuming you have no nearby mountains or hills to work with, you’re going to have to get creative. I live in a small suburban city myself, and I deal with this by playing a game during every single run: The Sidewalk is Lava.
The rules are simple:
- Don’t run on the sidewalk at all if possible.
- Don’t run on any paved area at all if possible, except when crossing the street.
- Do run on the grass, rocks, and landscaping stones along the sidewalk.
- Do cut through parks or green areas.
- Do jump or climb over gullies, drainage ditches, and picnic tables.
- Do remember to respect other peoples’ property though.
That’s all there is to it! But by doing this I’ve experienced significant gains in my technical running skill, including maintaining footing, choosing the path of least resistance, and even my downhill running skills to some degree.
Gravity is Your Friend (For Once)
Speaking of, we need to talk about downhill running.
If you’re reading this article, there’s a good chance that you’re bad at it. I know this because, to be honest, most people I see out on the course are bad at it.
People I see jogging while carrying sandbags and running up hills suddenly grow timid when they approach a downhill slope. They take their time, carefully choosing their footing and reducing their speed to practical crawl.
This blows my mind, because I’ve come into this sport quite the opposite. My hiking skills and uphill endurance were practically nonexistent before last year, but I’ve long been fearless about running downhill.
When gravity is giving me free acceleration, I’m not one to refuse.
Chalk it up to develop a quick and stable footing from decades of soccer perhaps, but the important thing is that, again, this is a skill you can develop.
Playing The Sidewalk is Lava will help — the more time you spend on rough terrain, the better. But you also need to try and find some small slopes to train on.
These don’t have to be full-fledged hills by any means. In fact, if you slow down while going downhill due to fear, it’s better if they’re small.
Remember, don’t fight gravity!
Practice running down it repeatedly, power-hiking back up. Go just a little bit faster than you’re comfortable with, and try to continue to build your speed through continuous practice. You don’t need to do this very often, but I would suggest spending one or two training sessions practicing this in the weeks leading up to a big race if you’re not confident.
Focused Strength Training
Especially during your offseason, it’s important to spend time on focused strength training to develop the leg muscles you need to climb mountains at speed.
Everyone should be doing walking lunges, stationary lunges, and box step-ups (or stair climbing) to build up the quads, calves, glutes, and hamstrings. Stronger legs will make you a stronger, faster, more enduring runner.
Beyond that, strength training done in moderation will also help you to become more resistant to injury!
Start slow, build as you go.
As with any new exercise routine, start small and see how you feel the next day before going too crazy — I leapt into doing lunges a bit too enthusiastically and could hardly walk for 3 days, much less run.
More advanced or experienced athletes can up the ante by moving on to single-leg squat variations, including Shrimp Squats, Bulgarian Split Squats, and even Pistol Squats.
You may also want to incorporate various dynamic Plyo Box exercises into your routines if you haven’t already. Check out my article on how to build and use your own plyo box here.
Cross Training
Running — especially running up a mountain — isn’t all about the legs though!
This is even more true if you’re competing at a mountain obstacle course race. A strong core is extremely important, and a strong, healthy back is also beneficial.
This is because you engage your abdominal muscles when you lift your legs, and if you’re going up a slope then you’ll have to lift them even higher. Your back muscles are also tied into your glutes and hamstrings (not to mention your abs), and a grueling run or climb can leave them very sore if you haven’t been conditioning for it.
Fortunately, basic calisthenics serve wonderfully as a training tool not only for overall fitness, but also when training for obstacle course racing and mountain running.
When you’re doing these common exercises, focus on fully engaging your core and back muscles as much as possible:
- Pushups
- Pullups
- Planks
Also, if you do any deadhanging to train your grip strength, make sure to occasionally add in knee raises (aka knees-to-chest) or bicycles (essentially alternating knee raises). Not only will this make hanging on harder, it’s also a great workout for your abs!
Additional Reading
Looking for more? Here are a couple of articles that I found helpful and inspiring in my own quest to get better at running mountains (without actually running any mountains).
Thanks for reading!
