Super Trail
Clinics

Some hills are so steep and/or long that you cannot run up them.  Often walking up the steep sections will be just as fast as running, but with less energy expenditure.  The cross-over point between running and walking will vary among different people, so something you need to work out for yourself during training.  I use my heart rate to determine when I revert to walking and don’t start running again until my heart rate drops to a certain level.  Another thing you can experiment with during training and obviously heart rate limits will be race dependent (higher for short races, lower for longer races).

The ideal pace for climbing up a hill is the effort that allows you to return to your ‘flat’ race pace once you get to the top.  Very common to see people race up a hill only to stop for recovery at the top.  In your mind, don’t think about climbing UP the hill, instead think about climbing OVER the hill.  And if you’ve been smart and done lots of hills in your training, have the self-belief that everybody else is struggling worse than you.  Hills should become your friend, look forward to the hills, this is where you can get an advantage over others.

What goes up, usually comes back down.  So we now need to talk about descending.  This is where the ‘trail’ runner can get a big advantage over the ‘road’ runner.  And as a ‘trail’ runner, I am assuming you own a pair of trail running shoes.

Earlier we discussed forefoot running when climbing.  Descending will be heel striking (to prevent falling flat on our faces).  Most trail running shoes will have reverse tread on the heel for this reason.  Learning to use and feel the grip in this heel tread will add confidence to your descending.  A lack of confidence results in heavy strides with lots of braking force that sends shocks up through your legs. Your quadriceps (large front thigh muscles) usually take the brunt of this braking force.  They are big strong muscles, but there’s a limit to how much abuse they can absorb.

The confident descender is lighter on their feet.  Less braking force, less abuse to the quads and a lighter foot stride means less chance of slipping, rolling an ankle or falling over.  They will also be faster.  This is a skill that is gained through practice.  So include descending in your hill training, it’s actually more fun than climbing.  But like everything else, ease into it by starting with gentle, non-technical descents.  Once you learn how to feel the grip in your shoes, then you can progress to more technical descents.

Keep up the training, work on the hills and soon people will be calling you a mountain goat (that’s a compliment).

Trails are usually uneven and undulating, continually activating (and strengthening) those stabilising tendons (like how free weights give you a better workout than the weight machine).  Your brain learns to not trust the surface and you become lighter on your feet. This means it is easier to recover from a slip or slide because you haven’t committed as much weight to each stride.  And the stronger stabilising tendons can better handle unexpected lateral movements.

I think the best way to prevent injuries such as rolled ankles is to do more trail running, become lighter on your feet and gain more stabilising strength.  If you are new to the trails, start easy.  Begin with non-technical trails and slowly increase your distance and let the strength build in your legs before progressing to more technical sections.

Depending on how technical the trail is, you will typically be slower than on pavement.  So I measure my trail runs by time rather than distance and measure speed by perceived effort (breathing patterns) or heart rate and ignore whatever pace my watch might say.  Developing your perceived effort by breathing patterns can be very handy during a race.

As a guide to determining effort by breathing pattern, comfortably breathing once every three strides will mean you are running at an aerobic level.  Breathing once every two strides will be a threshold effort, once you start puffing or breathing more frequently, you will only be able to sustain that pace for less than an hour.  Learning to monitor your breathing can help you maintain a sustainable race pace.