 We are back at Mount Morrison. It's over my my left shoulder there. We're gonna go get some vertical today You better believe it, but before we get started I want to dive into some back-end stats on this YouTube channel because I am trying to Listen to you trying to figure out what you all are interested in watching on this channel All right, because I want to serve you and I want to continue to provide as much value as possible Alright, so here are the top three videos in the last month on this channel with respect to views All right, here you go number one the hoka carbon rocket versus the Nike vapor fly 4% flying it That's number one number two How to run faster? Threshold training is key and number three how to run faster build the aerobic engine First so what do those stats tell me it tells me that listen we always we love talking about running shoes here I know you do I listen to I read your comments I listen to your thoughts on Instagram and Basically running shoes are a big part of this sport However, number two and number three videos on the channel in the last month are all about how to run Faster that is amazing and that tell that tells me that listen whether you're in high school or whether you're in a master's division It doesn't matter We're all continuing to push ourselves to chase down PRs and to try and to yes try and run Faster, I know that's what I'm definitely trying to do as I get ready for the marathon So therefore today. I I don't think I've ever I know we've talked about uphill running mountain running Hill training, but I've never really done a video that's really focused on a little bit of the science behind it What it does to your body what it does to your stride And so that's what we're going to talk about today How to run faster and how hill training mountain running can help you run faster No matter where you live whether you live in the Rocky Mountains or whether you live in pancake flat Florida wherever you're at in the world. All right, so all right, here we go. Let's do this uphill running Mount Morrison light it up All right, we picked up Alex John and Jason what's up? Oh, man So last night on Strava just put it out there the last minute I was like, you know what enough of this running alone business, right? I feel like runners We we run alone a lot. So we're here at Mount Morrison Gonna go see if we can get muddy and Yeah, maybe maybe if you brought some a second pair of socks Yeah, that's right misery loves company So we're talking real steep so you just It's gonna it'll burn So this is partially how I film the runs this guy right here Yeah All right, Jason Whoa, how did you do you remember how you found the channel? Yeah, I found the channel like most gear nerds Looking at shoe reviews. Nice Which which shoe do you remember? You know, I Don't recall. I feel like I found one and they just start shuffling through all of the different videos. Yeah And I'm pretty sure I bought a pair of beacons because of you. Yeah, which and how many but how many miles have you put in them? You know, I'm approaching 400 miles now. Yeah, and they're holding up. Yeah, they look great In the put in the parking lot. I'm actually even considering racing. Oh Man Right, holy smokes, there we go Yeah, yeah, boom Alex for the win that we should we should have we should have packed ropes At the end. Yeah, a little ice Yeah I think so We ran uphill and now we're running downhill Earned it today. Holy smokes snow mud ice rock Even a little bit of a creek here on Mount Morrison Exactly aspect ratio. Yeah, okay moguls awesome So tomorrow's blog is all about uphill running and mountain running And I almost find this grade Harder than that. I know it's weird, but like steeper stuff I don't know if it's my biomechanics or what but it's like it wants you to go if you want to go fast But it's a to me. It almost seems harder. It's crazy Yeah, it's runnable exactly Yeah, right That's another agree disagree on that one. I don't know like my legs. It's weird it's almost like I Jumping over the rocks almost helps. Oh Yeah, the English place You know, I think I've been there once and yeah, I thought it was good You know, we're getting to the end of the run when we're starting to talk about food Nice work Work John Oh Vert and miles We will take it We will take it. Oh What a special day on this YouTube channel meeting up with some of the demore global running crew Thank you again fellas for coming out. It was fun. We will do it again. And yes, we ran up mud Snow even a little miniature creek. It felt like down the middle of the trail But we got it done look at the look of the Articlaw 300s there That was a it was a good day to be out in the hills. That is for sure Okay, and it's a perfect connection to the focus of today's vlog how to run faster Run uphill run up mountains and I'm gonna explain the whole benefit package you do Isn't that for don't they say that in insurance benefit package, I don't know maybe health insurance I don't know I'm gonna explain to you the whole benefit package to Running up hills and how it will help make you faster. All right quick story last fall Here in Denver solo in a time trial nobody else around except for people walking their dogs I did a I did a half marathon time trial. I ran one hour and 11 minutes off of Zero zilch no speed training no interval training no track training nada nothing It was all off of the it was coming off of the tailcoat of the of training for the 100 mile race in Steamboat Springs the run rabbit run 100 we're leading up to that race Yeah, I did a decent amount of elevation gain Going into that race and so after the race didn't go so well the 100 mile race I said, huh, let's let's throw our hat in the ring and try a half marathon And so that's what I did I did a one hour and 11 minutes and I don't tell you that to brag I'm just telling you that to say if you can combine speed training and And and hill work what could be the combination and that is frankly what I'm hoping to get out of this training block right now Leading to the Cleveland Marathon That is why I continue to do hill work and hill work and hill work and elevation gain and watch out once I start mixing in that speed work. I'm excited to see what that combination will bring. Okay, so first benefit of uphill running Knee drive. That's right When you're going up a hill not in a mountain or you know, whatever case it might be or or a treadmill We'll talk about that in a minute. You're you have to push yourself forward and up Forward and up so in order so that you don't fall on your face because you're tripping on rocks You have to lift up your knee just a little higher And if you look at the elite marathon runners men and women their knee drive is a pretty special thing to watch They're their their gate cycle so their entire stride is so usually it's very fluid But they also have a very solid knee drive Especially the shorter distances But even the best of the best watch them in the marathon if you can get some YouTube clips of them in slow motion Their knee drive is amazing So running up a hill or a mountain you have to lift up your knee a little higher to get over the rocks over the roots Over the logs whatever you're going up And it you don't even know you're doing it But you're you're just you have to have a little extra spring in your step in order to get over those rocks and again It will it'll force you to lift your knee a little higher because you don't want to fall on your face And that leads to benefit number two Explosiveness all right So in order to get over those rocks and up the hill you it's a little explosive movements in your ankles Working on that suppleness. We're gonna talk more about that in a second But it's that explosiveness that little explosiveness that you frankly mentally you don't even know you're doing it because again If you don't do it, you're gonna fall on your face So it's that little explosive just boom boom just to get from one step to the next one step to the next To fight the mud fight the snow fight the rocks and and I realized some trails are more Are more gnarly than others So you're not always gonna be needing to be as explosive to get up and over the trail But anyway, so that's number two explosiveness number three suppleness So the ankle area is a runner's best friend if it is healthy and if it is strong All right, so your ankle has your Achilles tendon your soleus your well Let's just throw in the calf muscle just for fun. Even though that's not your ankle I realize that but then moving down into your fascia and all of those little ligaments and tendons that go all the way down to your Toes for the toe off and you hear me talk quite a bit these days about the toe off. I'm kind of obsessed with it in 2019 I want to make sure I have a great Toe off in the marathon in Cleveland and running the hills and the mountains is Forcing me to focus on having a solid Toe off because you're usually not landing on your heel when you're running up a mountain In fact, you don't want to do that You want to be landing at the very least on your midfoot and preferably up on your toes just a little bit So you can just use the use the the torque in your Achilles tendon being careful You don't want to pull it but using the torque that is naturally built into our our ankles It's an incredible design and you're torquing yourself up the mountain with just a nice spring boom boom boom boom boom Right up the mountain just like a little jackrabbit and of course the fourth benefit is the aerobic engine It goes without saying that going up a mountain you're gonna breathe harder like I'm not gonna go into the whole aerobic benefits But we were breathing pretty solid today. So weren't we fellas weren't we fellas? So that was good You're getting a nice solid aerobic stimulus without having to go out and run like a hard 20 miles or is or not even a hard But just like a a steady state 20 mile run like it can take it out of you today We got a really solid Stimulus by going up that mountain and very briefly just want to mention a few different types of hill running I prefer number one long sustained mountain runs preferably an hour of Non-stop uphill and I won't eat like and I literally mean like not stopping to like I'll drink water along the way I just like to get into that mode and I'm telling you that strength that you're gonna gain If you can sustain an hour of hill climbing where you're just literally running up a mountain for an hour And I know there's not always mountains in all parts of the world like that But if you do have them I'm telling you the strength you're gonna gain from that the aerobic strength and Just the muscular strength is gonna be unmatched unmatched. Okay number two hill repeats Not I'm I don't do them as much as I probably should I do think that you can get a huge benefit from hill repeats I will add them to my training regimen for the pike's peak ascent I think high school cross-country teams can dabble in them, but at the same time 5k's in high school cross-country are getting very very fast So I think you need to be strong for high school cross-country But honestly more importantly like to perform really really well speed you got to be fast And so it's a balance there, so I'm not I'm not a huge fan of hill repeats I think they can play their purpose like for a marathon training I think it's more beneficial to keep it keep it flatter Not completely flat, but keep it more flat rather than let's say doing like a half-mile hill Repeat anyway, that's just my opinion and the third and last type of hill that I I wish I could train more on I I have to go seek out these these types of hills a little bit, but it's the rolling hills, right? Everyone in the Midwest. I hope you you can have a little bit of access to rolling hills, but just like that nice Solid dirt farm road that has rolling hills There's nothing like it for training honestly because marathons are the combination of speed and strength So on a rolling hill you're gonna you got to push it a little bit, but you're gonna get some speed and Strength right speed and strength whereas today the run-up Mount Morrison It was really it was strength like there wasn't much You know it's just hard to go fast of that thing so anyway rolling hills number three Okay, two more very creative things for everyone in Florida and if you live in a very very flat part of the world Let us know down in the comments Parking garages yes with permission with permission. I know cross-country teams that will that have access I don't know how but they get the gain access and this was in Florida specifically They gain access to a parking garage and they will do hill repeats in the parking garage How crazy is that so that's that's one idea and then of course number two the treadmill You got to get on the treadmill put it on an incline and just start chugging just start chugging I know it's not the most fun thing to do but try and do the treadmill or number three if you live by the ocean Find those short you know those dunes by the ocean like 40 50 feet Running up those sand dunes on the ocean and now it is a repeat You know you're not gonna have a two-mile long sand dune But just hop on those dunes do like you know maybe go up ten times the first time and then go up twenty times The second time and just keep building your strength that way running up sand on the dunes I know it's not a perfect situation, but it could help you gain some of that hill strength All right I hope that made some sense and we could dive more into this topic and guess what we probably will at some point But at the very least I hope I got the wheels turning for you on this topic of how to run faster and How hill work I believe can help you run faster and achieve your next PR So anyway hill is the key word and the question of the day Do you include hill work and like I really mean like specific hill work into your training Philosophy your training blocks. What does it look like maybe give an example of a hill Workout or a hill run that you love to do in your neck of the woods You know, maybe you live by some epic mountains. Let us know and that would be amazing. All right That is it for today. Thanks for being here seek beauty work hard What a day they should coming out guys, they should come