Downhill running can be a bit of a scam. Elisabeth Scott, coach and host of the Running Explained podcast, laid that out in a recent Instagram post about downhill training. Scott explains that downhill running “doesn’t destroy your quads.” Instead, what gets runners is rushing the adaptation. The recovery timelineScott lays out a rough recovery window after hard downhill running that helps explain why people get caught out. Downhill work often gets missed because most runners spend months thinking about the climbs.