· Training
How to run the Avenida
Two kilometres of steady climbing decide most people's Seven Hills 10K. Our head coach on getting up it without wrecking the rest of the race.
The Avenida da Liberdade doesn’t look steep. That’s the trap: it climbs steadily from Restauradores to Marquês de Pombal, and runners who attack it pay for it at Estrela.
Run it by effort, not by pace. Let your pace drop by fifteen or twenty seconds a kilometre, keep your breathing steady, and look up the road rather than at your feet. At the top, give yourself two hundred metres to settle before you speed up again.
On the Saturday club runs we do the climb twice, easily. Come and learn it before race day.