The other day, when going for my early morning gym workout, I bumped into Esmerelda. Esmerelda is a member of the local runners club, serious about her running. I asked her about her running progress. She pulled a face, saying, “so-so,” using the common Spanish expression to indicate that she was not happy with her results.
She wanted to go faster but felt stuck. I suggested that perhaps she should incorporate trail running into her training. She looked at me with a shocked expression, as if to say, “Are you crazy?” She was kind. She simply said, “No thanks. I want to go faster, not slower.” Which begs the question: Can trail running make you faster? Or is it slowing you down? Read on to find the answer.
Can trail running make you faster? Trail running can make you faster by building power, strength, and speed. Elite athlete camps at Kaptagat, Kenya do almost 80% of running on trails. Running up and down steep slopes takes more effort than running on the flats. Running trails also challenges your coordination, agility, and balance.
Now that I knew that running on trails was the cornerstone of what made the athletes at the Global Sports Communication training camp in Kaptagat, Kenya world-class; the question became why? I researched every study I could lay my hands on and looked in every corner of the internet to get all the answers to that complex question. I have taken all that information and crammed it together for you here.
Why your slower pace on the trails translates to getting faster
Trails can be ideal training grounds for many of the workouts you normally do on the track or roads. Adding trail running as part of your training can be a great way of your building your leg strength, core, and ankle stability, all of which will help you to run faster over time.
How exactly does it work? Running uneven terrain uphill, and then having to face an often treacherous downhill descent takes much more effort mentally and physically than running on flat ground.
In effect, trail running can be thought of as resistance training since the quads, calves, hamstrings, and glutes are working more than if you were on a flat. Building power and speed is the secret to running faster times.
Build muscle power for increased speed with trail running
Trail running makes you stronger. Unlike roads, trails are hardly ever flat. Even so-called flat trails have undulations. It doesn’t take much of a slope to take away all your precious momentum.
Obviously, the steeper the hill the more it will build your power. I can still remember the trail running hill repeats I used to do as part of my XTERRA training. In as little as 25 minutes I’d do a full workout including warm-up and warm-down. That short workout would push me to the edge of hypoxia and exhaust my legs to the point where I would grovel back home afterward.
There is a psychological aspect to the power you gain when running hills on the trails. The next time you run on the flat, everything will feel so much easier.
Running hills will also promote better form.
If you run a hill all bunched over, you will be gasping for breath a whole lot sooner. Your body will tend to straighten out simply as a way to get more oxygen into your lungs with each ragged breath.
It is near impossible to run hills with a severe heel strike. The reason is that in order to get up a hill you need to land with your foot under your center of mass/balance. If you overstride on a hill you will push yourself backward and you will feel that immediately.
Will running uphill trails make you run faster?
Running uphill trails will make you a faster runner because you will be a stronger runner.
The other way of becoming a faster runner is doing speed workouts or intervals on the track. For me, having done both, heading up a hill in nature is so much better than mind-numbing lap upon lap around a tartan track.
If, like me, you are carrying a few extra pounds, running up hills on the trail has a massively higher calorie burn rate. The good news with that is that you will get faster as you become lighter.
The benefits of running uphill trails
Running hills on the trails will work the glute/hamstring connection. I know that there is not really a connection between the two muscles, but that is where I feel it. Obviously, your quads will be working heavily too.
Combined, you have your three biggest muscle groups all working against gravity for the entire time you are going uphill. You are sure to be burning the pounds like that.
How often should you run uphill trails?
Marathon and half marathon runners are normally prescribed hill workouts once or twice a week by their coaches. However, as trail runners, you already know that trails are rarely flat. If we had to limit our hill running to only once or twice each week we would hardly ever get out onto the trails. That’s hardly fun.
So from a practical perspective running hills on the trails, every time you go out is completely normal.
I run every day of the week, and, because I live in a mountain village every single run includes hills. The difference is that most of my runs are at a light and relaxed pace. If I had to absolutely bury myself every time I was out on the hills I would definitely break down injured before very long.
What muscles do running uphill trails work?
When you run uphill you are taxing the same muscles as when you run on the flat. By that, I mean your glutes, quads, hamstrings and calf muscles. However, running uphill taxes these muscles even more than running on the flat as you will be working against gravity in a form of resistance training.
In addition to the “normal” running muscles, you will be adding a disproportionate training load on your hip flexors as well as the Achilles/Solius chain.
Does running uphill trails make your build bigger muscles?
In a way running uphill will build bigger muscles compared to running on the flat. However, this will be nowhere near the type of muscle bulk you will get from lifting massive weights in the gym. It is all relative.
For instance, Killian Jornet probably runs uphill more than anyone else on the planet. While it is true that he has built bigger and way more powerful muscles in his legs than he had before, I would hardly say that he has built the size of legs that you see in any gym anywhere in the world.
The benefits of downhill trail running
When you run downhill you use gravity as a way of getting some free speed. If you run downhill for long enough you will start to feel the burn in your quads. Going downhill is far more intense on your quads than going uphill.
A normal hill repeat workout involves sprinting up a hill and jogging back down slowly to recover. The problem with this is that it teaches you to slow down over the top of a hill and take it easy on the downhills.
The Kenyans train hills differently. They will spring up the hill in the same way, but they will also sprint over the top of the hill and down the other side. They will then rest at the bottom of the hill before starting the next sprint up and over.
The benefit of this is that when they are in a race they are used to maintaining a hard effort over the crest of a hill and well into the downhill beyond. You will often see in a race how the Kenyan athletes put in a surge at the crest of hills and open gaps on their opposition. It makes sense to accelerate at the exact moment your opponent slows down.
What muscles do you use for downhill trail running?
Downhill trail running uses the same muscles as trail running on the flat and also uphill. The difference is that the way these muscles are loaded on each stride.
If you lean back while running downhill on trails you will not only put a strain on your lower back and hip flexors, you also risk losing traction and landing flat on your butt.
Running downhill on trails with the ideal slight forward lean will engage your lower abdominal muscles to maintain good posture.
The eccentric nature of downhill trail running means that your quads and soleus will take a disproportionately large amount of workload compared to your glutes and hamstrings that drive you forward in flat and uphill trail running.
Does running downhill trails make you faster?
At first glance, you may assume that the way to become a faster runner is by running uphill because of the extra power you gain not to mention the massive spike in your calorie burn rate.
However, there are two aspects of downhill trail running that directly correlate to becoming a faster runner.
The first of these is the slight forward lean that allows gravity to pull you down the hill. If you don’t use a slight forward lean the chances are far more likely that your feet will slip out from under you resulting in a fall. It takes just a couple of falls or almost falls to get the hang of a slight forward lean. When you use that same slight forward lean on the flat you can use gravity to pull you along a flat path.
The second aspect of downhill running that will make you a faster runner is helping you develop a faster leg turnover speed. Most novice runners run at 100 foot-strikes per minute or even less. Conversely, 90% of elite runners run at between 177 and 183 foot-strikes per minute.
When you run downhill on the trail with a slight forward lean and gravity is pulling you along the trail you have to increase the speed of your leg turnover rate. The reason for this is that your normal slower foot-strike rate will not be to enough keep your weight from shifting too far forward. This will result in a painful and embarrassing face-first fall.
Again, it seldom takes more than one painful face-plant on the trail to teach you to use a far quicker leg turnover rate to keep your feet under you as you run.
Will trail running help you run a fast time in a road marathon?
Trail running will most definitely help you to run a fast time in a marathon. I have no doubt about that whatsoever. I must add that trail running alone won’t help you run a fast time in a road marathon.
The aspect of your training that has a direct bearing on how fast you run a marathon will be your speedwork sessions. Trying to do speedwork on the trails is a bad idea, I know. I had the rib fracture layoff to ponder the folly of the idea.
However, too many speedwork sessions will make you slower rather than faster because you will be too tired to get the maximum benefit from the sessions. For elite athletes, the magic number for speedwork sessions is around 20% of total training time. For you, it might be a fraction more or a fraction less but not much.
It is in the other 80% of your marathon training time where trail running is especially useful. These are your recovery/endurance runs. This is precisely the point where most marathon training plans go off the rails. Runners who train exclusively on asphalt have the tendency to do their recovery/endurance runs at close to their marathon race pace. This is a mistake.
Your marathon race pace is too fast for recovery or endurance runs. If your easy days are not easy enough you will be too fatigued to be able to make your hard days hard enough for maximum benefit. Running on trails forces you to run slower than your marathon race pace. That allows you to have full recovery by the time you get to your next speed session.
That is why trails are used at the Kenyan elite athlete training camps. It causes the runners to go slow enough to make a full recovery. Trails also have a lighter impact on your body which speeds your recovery as well.
Because trail running is so much more fun it is tempting to do all of your marathon training on the trails. The problem with this is that although you will have built your endurance levels to the point where you can cope with the marathon distance, you won’t have done any of the speed work sessions that will make you faster.
The difference between Power, Speed, and endurance
Let’s look at these aspects of your running on their own and how they impact on your performance in a marathon or any other distance for that matter. The three aspects are power, speed, and endurance.
The amount of power in your muscles will determine how quickly you can accelerate up to your race speed from the start line, out of tight corners as well as over the crests of hills. Your level of power will also be what drives you up hills.
Your speed is quite simply the maximum pace you can maintain for a given distance. The limiting factor for your speed in distance events will be how quickly you reach your lactate threshold.
Your endurance is the length of time that you can maintain your speed during a run before your muscles drown in the self-induced lake of lactate. The key factor here is how well and how quickly you are able to flush the lactate from your muscles. This is commonly known as lactate buffering.
To run at your absolute best you need to be able to blend power, speed, and endurance into your own, unique, perfect mix. The tricky part is that each of these aspects is best trained in specialized and very different ways.
To run faster you need to slow down – The Zen Paradox
When you are running, there are two different thresholds that you need to be aware of.
I have already mentioned the lactate threshold. That is the level of exertion that puts a cap on how much faster you can go.
The second threshold is called your aerobic threshold. This is the level of effort where you buffer all of your lactate at the moment it is produced. In other words, at your aerobic threshold, you will accumulate no lactic acid in your muscles at all. Logically you will reach your aerobic threshold at a slower pace than your lactate threshold pace.
The correlation between your aerobic threshold pace and your lactate threshold pace stays more or less constant. When you train at your aerobic threshold you will gradually increase your aerobic threshold pace. This, in turn, will increase your lactate threshold pace.
Let me try and explain this paradox in a different way.
Imagine a cork floating in a bowl of water. The top of the cork represents your lactate threshold pace while the bottom of the cork represents your aerobic threshold pace.
The most effective way to raise the level of the top of your cork in a sustained way is by adding water to the bowl under the cork. The added water will lift the level of the bottom of the cork. And, as a consequence, the top of the cork will get raised.
The importance of recovery time
Recovery from your workouts is a vital ingredient for improving as a trail runner. If you are not fully recovered by the time you do your next workout, the accumulated metabolic fatigue will accumulate causing not only a drop off in performance but ultimately need even more recovery time later.
I remember something that Lance Armstrong said during one of his podcasts. If you keep pushing the outer limits of your physical ability with no regard to sufficient recovery, sooner or later the “man with the hammer” will come for you. When he does you will likely be knocked flat with no energy for days.
One of the massive advantages of doing your training on the trails is the reduced impact through your feet. Reduced impact means a faster recovery time from any workout compared to the same workout done on asphalt or concrete.
Shorter recovery leads to being able to do your next workout while your opposition is still recovering. Over time that will mean that you will be able to fit in more workouts while still being able to fully recover from each of them.
Years ago I saw a video clip of the entire Kenyan elite marathon team doing one of their training runs during the final week before the London marathon. The entire team, women and men, were in Green Park, London doing their entire workout on the soft grass of Green Park.
This was only done by their coach to maximize their recovery so that they would all be fresh and strong on marathon-morning. All the non-Kenyan runners were still pounding the pavement up to as little as one or two days before race day.
How often should you run trails?
As simple as the question of how often you should run on trails may sound, the answer is loaded with many nuances, some more subtle than others.
The first consideration is to take into account what you are training for. If your goal race is the 100m dash on the track then doing a hundred miles a week along gnarly rock and root covered trails will not be your ideal preparation.
If you are training for cross country or for a trail race then there is no reason why almost all of your training can’t be done on trails so that you can get good at covering technical ground quickly without falling.
When your goal race is a road marathon, half marathon or 10k then you can still incorporate a fair amount of your training on trails and dirt roads. I would say that 70% to 80% of your training volume can be done off-road. Of that offroad training time, I would do progressively more on dirt roads, relative to technical trails, the shorter my goal race is.
If you are like me and have no goal races on your calendar and are looking for maximum enjoyment and perhaps have a run streak going then do every mile that you can on the most enjoyable trails that you can find. Then when the opportunity for pinning a race number comes along you simply adapt one or two training blocks to what that event needs and you will be good to go.
Beginners on trails – A word of caution
Trail running is a brilliant way for beginner runners to get into running.
Many beginners have a tendency to try and run too fast too soon. This leads to getting injured when you have barely started running. That is because it takes quite a bit of time for your ligaments and tendons to adapt to the loads that running places on them.
Your muscles adapt to running relatively quickly. However, it is cardio fitness that ramps up almost immediately when you start running.
This is what creates problems for many beginners when they start running. The increase their pace to keep up with their fast-improving cardio fitness. Pretty soon the workout load exceeds what their ligaments and tendons can cope with as these have not yet adapted.
The predictable outcome is an injury that completely sidelines the beginner. This happens even before running can evolve into a new habit that becomes a healthy lifestyle.
The solution is for new runners to start out on trails where the surface causes way less impact and hence reduced chances of injury. The second advantage of using trails is that the uneven and slightly technical nature of the trail surface will cause the beginner to slow down. That will protect against the risk of the beginner running too fast too soon.