I remember watching a documentary about the top marathon runners and their training. I noticed how every one of them did the majority of their training on trails. So I set about finding out whether a normal runner like me could also improve my running by using trails instead of just staying on paved roads like my friends were doing.
Trail running improves our running by teaching us to maintain focus at all times on our run and to maintain a consistent effort level over difficult terrain even if it means speeding up or slowing down from our target pace.
Let’s take a closer look at all of the ways that we can improve as runners by including trail running as often as possible.
How To Improve Your Running By Using Trails
As you all know by now, I really love doing most of my running out on the trails. I love being in nature. I love being surrounded by the greenery of the nature park where I live. It really helps to inspire me to head out the door in the morning for a trail run – especially during the warmer months of spring summer and autumn.
You don’t have to be fearful about trail running because most trail running is nothing more than being off-road. This means that you could be running on a gravel forest road or you could be running on grass. In other words, anything that doesn’t involve actual tarmac, concrete, or some sort of paved surface. If you go out of your way to avoid paved services, what you’re doing will effectively fall under the broad umbrella of trail running.
All of the top International runners do the vast majority of the training away from paved surfaces. They do this because the reduced impact allows them to recover more quickly from each workout and therefore are able to head out for the next workout just a little bit sooner. Over time this allows them to do a little bit more training than their opposition.
Running Trails Is Not That Much Different
The good news about trail running is that you very seldom need super-specialized gear to be able to head out and do a trail run. That is unless you plan on running very technical trails along potentially dangerous mountain ridges, you can easily get away with the same type of running yet that you use for running on paved roads.
The only potential difference in gear will be looking at some sort of a hydration system as you’ll be needing to carry all of your hydration with you when heading out on longer runs – especially out in nature and away from amenities.
Beyond that, for the vast majority of us, we can get away with our normal running gear without needing to spend any additional money on trail gear until we are really sure that we want to do a whole lot more trail running.
Trail Running Is Just Off-Road Surfaces
As I mentioned earlier trail running is just running off-road, in other words, no paved surfaces. Therefore any running that you do on grass or gravel, or maybe even on a cinder path around the park can be classified as trail running because you are not on a hard paved surface.
The great part about this is that you’re able to keep yourself away from inflicting any hard impacts on your joints and muscles. This gives you the opportunity to recover quicker after each run.
The Best Elites Do Their Run Training Off-Road
If you look at any of the videos or photographs of the Iten high altitude training camp in Kenya you will notice that all of the top Kenyan, Ugandan, and Ethiopian runners that train at Iten do nearly all of their training on dirt and gravel.
So, if running on softer surfaces is good enough for the absolute best elite runners of the world it will definitely be good enough to help you to improve your overall running.
Take the plunge and try doing your slow recovery runs and your long runs on the trails rather than paved surfaces and see how you enjoy the change of scenery. It will be a change of pace in more ways than one.
My Top Tips For Runners Trying Out The Trails
Even though I mentioned earlier that you don’t need any specific equipment to start out running on unpaved surfaces, there are a couple of top tips that I can give you based on my personal experience that will help make the transition from paved roads to dirt and gravel paths that much easier to cope with.
Run By Time Not Distance
The first thing to remember is that when you’re running trails you’re running on a softer surface. This means that each stride will be slightly shorter than what it would be when you’re running on a paved surface that allows your shoe to spring forward with each step. By extension, this means that running on trails will be automatically slower than running on a paved road will be.
Therefore, if you normally structure your workouts by running a certain distance you will need to rethink the way you plan each session. The reason why I’m saying this is if you are normal running pace on a paved road is 8 minutes per mile, running on a soft trail you can easily be running at a pace of between 10 and 12 minutes per mile for the same effort. This means that a 10-mile run will be taking you up to 50% longer to complete than it would when running a paved road.
This means that you’ll be spending 50% more time on your feet by running the same distance on the trails. The way I get around this is when I’m running on the trails, I base my workout on time and don’t worry about the distance at all.
What I do when heading out for a run is pick the length of time that I want to be running. Most of the time my sweet spot for a normal weekday training run will be 90 minutes on the trail. What often happens as the season progresses is my fitness improves and that same 90-minute run can easily start becoming a slightly further distance. Keeping the same run time means that increasing my mileage is dependent on my increasing fitness and prevents me from increasing my run volume too quickly and getting injured.
Focus On Effort Rather Than Pace
Here again, when it comes to running on trails, don’t get caught up in trying to keep a consistent pace all the way through your run. When I’m out on the trails, some sections of the trail will be relatively smooth while other sections will be covered with rocks or tree roots. There will be steep uphills and downhills. All of these things will break up the rhythm of my run.
What I find far easier to do is to make sure that I maintain an even effort over the course of my run. Doing this also helps me to learn the differences in rates of perceived exertion which is actually helpful when doing events on paved roads.
This is because I’ve been able to adapt my pace around sharp corners or steep hills by being able to maintain the same effort. What I mean by this is knowing my rate of perceived exertion allows me to keep from over-extending myself while the other runners around me will be desperately trying to keep their pace the same irrespective of the terrain. This tactic has allowed me to pass many people in the closing miles of a race because the other runners had over-extended themselves on certain sections of the course.
Be More Mindful On The Trails
Lastly, and most importantly, when you are out on the trails it is vital that you be more mindful than you would normally be when running on a paved road. Pave the roads are uniformly and consistently smooth unless they are any serious potholes. By contrast, the trails are covered by all sorts of obstacles that seem to be constantly trying to trip me. At least that’s how it often feels when I’m out on the trails.
The moment I let my mind wander and let my focus drift from what I’m doing, I get brought back to Earth with a thud that results from tripping over something. So, if you learn anything from my mistakes, be way more mindful on the trail and it will help to avoid tripping over things and arriving back home after your run with blood trickling from your knees.