Perhaps you are a jogger and you jog quite a bit maybe you run up to 6 to 10 miles per day and you are very serious about it. In that case you probably are use to running down and up hills. There are many good ways to run uphill without pulling muscles and without slowing down too much. But more importantly running down hills in the correct way can prevent you from injury.

It is not good to pound the ground as you run down hills or allow your feet to slap on the ground. It is better to let your foot roll; landing gently on the heel and rolling your foot forward. If you really want to go downhill fast you can simply lean forward and let yourself go, but if you get going too fast and want to slow down you should not try to slow down by allowing your feet to slap onto the ground. You should slow down by leaning back and letting your feet roll.

Injuries can occur going downhill, as much as pulling muscles on the way up hill. Therefore, you need to learn how to run hills if you intend to do any road racing running if you want to win. If you can run down hills very quickly without injury you can increase your time in a long race by quite a bit. But if you get tired and lean back and let your feet slap you will lose time and potentially injure yourself. Please consider all this in 2006.

Lance Winslow, a retired entrepreneur, adventurer, modern day philosopher and perpetual tourist.