Is it cheating to run downhill?

[ndgould]

Week 4 done! Run 1 was hard but such a good feeling to complete. Run 2 was harder (I always find this every week) particularly the final 5 min run where I was more dragging my legs than running. So today I decided to run up a (slight but steady) incline for the first half and then come back down for the second half. Boy was the last 5 min run easier! I ended up running my furthest distance and my fastest km split since starting C25K. I am really pleased to have made it to the end of the week but sort of feel like I cheated the second half even though I put in all the effort to go uphill in the first half. Is it cheating to make the second half easier?

[gary_bart]

Yes, I do it often. It's an excellent way of cheating. Well done!

[Sandraj39 Graduate]

I frequently plan my assault on the local roads in a similar way! I never see it as cheating as you have to go up first in order to run down.....!? All evens out in the end! Good luck.

[Hidden in reply to Sandraj39]

An, but what if you carefully plan it so that the uphill is covered by the warm up walk. Not that I would ever do that of course!!!

[Joh2020 Graduate]

No, it's your reward! The parkrun I go to is about 1/3 uphill, 1/3 flat and 1/3 downhill, the downhill section is my treat to myself for running uphill!

[runswithdogs Graduate]

Not cheating at all, hills have ups and downs. And if you're ever having a bad run day, skip the uphill

[Bazza1234 Graduate]

The First Law of the Universe says " For every hill that thou runs down - thou must run up another!!!

I think that Law was discovered by the same dude who discovered the 2nd Law of the Universe which says - "Energy can neither be created nor destroyed"

It may have been Albert Einstein when he was young and still living in Tasmania - this was before he fell in love with Marie Curie and was the first to discover how to put bubbles into beer!!

He wrote some good music too!!

youtube.com/watch?v=prqQKES...(Not working as expected?)

[Purple_faced_woman Graduate in reply to Bazza1234]

One of my favourite films - I particularly loved his mum knitting a jumper direct from the back of a sheep!

[AncientMum Graduate]

Is it cheating? No! What goes up must come down. If we could only run up hills, some of us would have reached the top of Everest by now Happy running -both up hill and down

[ndgould Graduate]

Thanks all! I feel better for all the encouragement. I will now think about a mix of uphill and downhill sections, especially when I get to the dreaded W5R3!