Okay, so this varies a little depending on the surface.

One thing I tend to do regardless of the surface is lift my arms out to the sides a bit. Keep the arm swing in the same sync with your stride, but elbows out a little, as if for balance. Try this: stand on one foot. If it’s easy, close your eyes. Notice how your arms naturally wobble to the place in space they need to be to help you keep your balance? So when you’re running, keep the upper body, especially shoulders, relaxed, and the arms will find their place to promote balance.

If you’re running on roads, I tend to prefer a shorter and lighter stride at the top of the hill, and an opening of the stride (longer steps) toward the bottom when the hill is almost over and the terrain will ultimately control your speed. Those shorter, lighter steps save the knees and back from the worst of the pounding. The idea there is not to truncate the stride, but to spend a bit less time on each foot, and bring the weight more forward onto the ball of the foot, (less heel striking, which is common on downhills especially). Let the body lean into the hill a bit. Don’t resist the hill by leaning backward, that will promote heel striking which ruins your light, speedy stride. This same stride can be useful on gradual uphills as well, where tempo still wants to be high, but there’s a tendency to become bogged down by the grade. I tell my athletes to think of “scampering.”

If you are running on technical trails, then I advise the scamper as the basis of your stride for the entire hill. The trick with trail downhills is that your stride will be variable, not regular as on a road. Keep your eyes on the trail a few feet in front of you (this varies depending on the surface and steepness, but you shouldn’t be staring at your feet; that hunches your shoulders and chest, restricting breathing and putting your hips and center of gravity behind your feet.) Be ready to hop around a bit. The lighter your step, the more ready you will be to adjust as a moment’s notice.

Downhills, like uphills, can be trained. To help athletes get the hang of the speedy scamper feel, I often advise downhill strides. Not on a super steep hill, but a gradual one where you can practice in short bursts (15-20 sec) that feeling of weighting your forefoot and keeping the turnover light and quick. Drills in the agility ladder can also help with the feeling of spending less time on each foot, and of landing lightly, as you’ll want to do particularly on technical trails.

Then there’s the shoe. I doubt shoes are your problem, but it’s worth noting that shoes (especially road shoes) with a high stack height (common in shoes with lots of cushion, looking at you, Hoka’s) may feel unstable when in an already compromising situation (i.e; out of control on a downhill). If you can tolerate less padding, a lower shoe may help. For those who love the wide toe box of a shoe like Altra, you may also find your foot sliding around a bit on the downs. I have plenty of trail running friends who only run Altras on gentle roads for this reason. Again, probably not a huge factor, but worth mentioning.

Whether or not your intention is to run downhill fast or slow, the key is to relax your body, enjoy the ride and let gravity do its thing. I remember running in the USATF Mountain Series National Championships at Mt. Cranmore a few years ago. It was a three-loop course and as I descended on my second lap, the leaders lapped me and absolutely flew past me. Finishing in the top three earned them a spot on the USA Team and a trip to Poland for the Mountain Running World Championships. One guy howled like a wolf at the full moon as he bounded from rock to rock, over streams and down the single track trail. He was like a superhero – fearless, invincible, agile and YOUNG (20 years old tops)! Needless to say, I was impressed and amazed. “Spiderman” was running four minutes a mile faster than me but our methods were similar just the same. We both stood pretty much straight up, relaxed our arms and shoulders and absorbed the impact of our foot strikes with our quads. The big difference was that “Spiderman” was much stronger than me and was able to spring forward taking long, bounding strides while I took short, quick steps, kind of tap-tapping my way down. I was erring on the side of caution, even coming to a complete stop at times before easing my way down through technical spots. In sections where the trail was soft, grassy and relatively smooth, I would allow myself to pick up the pace a bit. But still, I would try not to get carried away. I concentrated on staying relaxed and tried to enjoy the downhills while recovering for the next uphill pitch.

This strategy applies to road running as well. Use the downhills to relax and recover. Again, don’t lean forward, stand up straight and just go with the flow. If it’s a steep downhill, shorten your strides and quicken your cadence. You will probably have just finished an uphill climb, so run as efficiently (effortlessly) as possible. Drop your arms and shoulders and exhale. If you are wearing a heart rate monitor, see if you can get your beats per minute (bpms) down into the “easy effort” range. As you approach the bottom of the hill, ease back into your average pace and maybe even pick it up a bit to take advantage of your downhill recovery. In road races, I get passed on downhills all the time, but I don’t get passed on up-hills very often. Use the speedy downhill rabbits as targets on the up-hills. I find nothing more satisfying than burying a panting rabbit on the next uphill…Grrrrrrrrr…