Trail Running Shock Absorbers

I was running down the steep side of the red trail when I experienced another joy of running on he trails: hopping down from rocks. There are boulders 3, 4 feet high that you can run around down a ramp but I chose to hop down them instead. When my foot made contact with the ground my leg instinctively absorbed the weight in a smooth almost hydraulic compression. I picture the force applied as a logarithmic curve: steep at the outset, tapering off as I finish the step. What was also cool about the step was that it was at the end of my run when my legs were all flush with lactic acid and I could barely keep them pumping up the hill. But it seems like a steep downhill is enough to convince them to find a fast twitch muscle or two to keep me from eating it.