Run up stairs with high frequency or walk two steps at a time?

Question

I'm training for a 6km run with 450m ascent. At the end there are irregular trail-stairs that make up the last 100m ascent, afterwards it's just a 100m flat before the finish.

As I was very tired when I arrived at this point (35min after the start) I walked up the stairs two steps at a time in a strange manner by leaning forward and heavily putting a hand on my forward knee during each step. Somehow this felt easier both in my muscles and mentally because I didn't have to decide where to safely place my feet at such a high rate as when running.

Have experienced runners tried this out a bit more systematically? Is there research or an established opinion among running coaches on this? Both regarding posture and regarding running one step at a time or walking to steps at a time.

Of course ideally I'll run it up two steps at a time with good/normal posture but I'm not sure I'll manage.

Answer 1

This one is really individual, because it depends on your legs length, and legs muscles strength relative to speed.

Shorter runners would obviously more often go for single step. If you have longer legs, and more strength, but not as much speed, you'd prefer double stair, so you can compensate speed with strength. Having less strength and more speed would make the one stair strategy more efficient.

I'd probably go (on most stairs) for one-two stair (3 stairs with each 2 steps), but it's because my leg strength is somewhere in the middle, and I'm not moving them very fast. But on most ascends, there are no steps anyway, so I made as long steps as I currently feel best.

If you want to try out what is working for you best, you need to do many attempts with a particular stairs, and compare the results. But it would be something working for you, another runner might get opposite results.