When we think of running trails we don’t often think of it as a training tool to get faster, but as an escape to avoid training. There’s a void, or a gap, between going to the track to do a “workout” and going for a run out on the trail. Getting out for a run on a trail has become an escape from the grind of training on the track or the road. Now, I would like to challenge you to blur the lines between how we, as runners, have traditionally thought of high-performance training.
It’s important for trail racers to mimic the conditions that they will be racing in and therefore, running trails becomes a necessity of proper training to improve footwork, efficiency, and coordination, but why do it if you’re not planning to race on the trail? For one, it’s inherent in the way we talk about track or road workouts as monotonous and tedious that switching it up and hitting the trails for a hard VO2 workout can be a great way to reinvigorate your perception of a hard effort and make training fun again.
Whether you’re a trail racer or not, utilizing the trail as a “workout” location or surface can have several advantages that the track or road just cannot yield. The soft undulating surface reduces pounding stress on tired legs and helps recruit stabilizing muscles, says Mario Mendoza, the 2010 USATF Trail Runner of the Year and regular track, road and trail racer.
“Doing hard workouts on trails and soft surfaces allows you to build strength in your legs that you don't get from running on the track or roads, says Mendoza, 25, who trains in Cambria, Callif. “Workouts are usually a little slower because the soft surface requires more power output from your stride to push-off.”
Andy Henshaw, the 2011 USATF 100K road champion and avid trail ultrarunner, concurs. “It’s rare to find a trail that is 100 percent flat, so it forces you to pay attention to your body and run within your means,” says Henshaw, 25, who trains out of Steilacoom, Wash. “It's also going to strengthen your stability and agility.”
The question remains, without a measured course that is predictable, how does one convert the tangible benefits of a workout on the track to a workout on the trail. To answer that, it’s important to consider the purpose of the workout first. If the main goal of the workout doesn’t force you onto a particular surface then consider the benefits of a soft surface workout, i.e. if the purpose of an upcoming workout is to work on track specific speed for the track season you may not want to jump on the trail for the workout. However, running mile repeats on the track might be better executed using a heart rate monitor and a soft, non-technical trail.
Here is how a few workouts usually done on a track or measured road can be easily converted to a trail.
1) Mile repeats: Use your average mile repeat time and a HR monitor and do intervals on a hill incline jogging back down to the start as rest. If you can find a sustained hill of several miles you can jog a 2-minute rest downhill then start another repeat, ending further up the hill than the first rep. Use your VO2 heart rate zone (90-95 percent of max heart rate) as a target. This is great for strength and taking a lot of stress off tired legs but still getting a good VO2max workout in.
2) Henshaw’s favorite workout to convert is 8 x 1,000m on the track. He has a fairly straight and runable 1,000m section of trail he marks with a rock or stick and repeats are done back and forth going by feel more than by pace.
3) One of my favorites is a trail fartlek that simulates short (30 seconds) to medium (3-minute) track intervals. I have a course laid out with lots of turns, undulating hills and markers that I use to dictate the length of intervals. For example, if I have a hill coming up, I’ll rest about a minute until the hill, run the hill hard, then rest at the top. Then I use the next marker (a tree, another hill, turn, etc.) roughly a minute later to start the next interval. The rest intervals are an easy jog and also dictated by the landscape and my fatigue.
4) A favorite track workout of Mendoza’s is 30 x 200m repeats with 100m jog recovery. He likes this workout because it helps him get the speed back that you can lose from running so much long, slow distance on trails, and helps out his efficiency when he’s getting ready for a faster race. It also makes trail races feel nice and slow. The best way to run this workout on trails would be to do a Fartlek run that alternates 30 x 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off, or find a nice 150m hill you can power up on 30 times and jog back down for recovery. Again, go by feel and make the intervals pretty difficult.
5) First Boston Marathon? Heres What to Know utilizing squats, core work, balance and agility. Converting it to the trail can be tricky and almost requires a super-technical, gnarly, steeper-than-I-can-even-run trail. With that kind of route, you get a full-body workout requiring massive leg strength on very steep hill, upper body and core strength for balance over rocky terrain, and agility to get over and through obstacles as efficiently as possible. I hadn’t thought about this until a recent run through some very technical terrain but the next day I was pretty sore all the way around.
Now that you have an idea of why and how you might want to switch it up a bit you can probably come up with some of your own workouts to convert. From both Mendoza’s and Henshaw’s point of view, doing a workout on trails really lets you go by feel, which requires listening to your body to get the most out of your training.
The point is not to make running trails into work but to use it as another training tool to help you train smarter. “Listening to your body is key to successful training, and the nature of trail running really encourages it,” Mendoza says. Continue to use it as an escape, as a place to enjoy running, but blur those lines a bit between easy trail running and a performance based running workout.
Max King, a multiple U.S. trail running champion, won the individual title at the World Mountain Running Championships on Sept. 11 in Albania. He’s a 2:15 marathoner training for the 2012 U.S. Olympic trials marathon in Houston in between trail races, coaching and working as the shoe buyer at Footzone in Bend, Ore.
