5 Reasons to Love Trail Running
O Stand Tall
Folding over at the hips and dropping your head to look at your feet compress-
es the airflow from your diaphragm and lungs to your nose and mouth. Try to
maintain as flat a back as possible by staying in an upright position.O Quick Feet
Shortening your stride and taking quick steps help maintain efficiency on climbs.
Short strides also help keep you in a more upright position.O Drive Those Arms
Power and momentum come from a strong arm swing, so pump away to
help propel your lower body.O Walk with Purpose
There is no shame in walking up a steep trail. Walking, in fact, is sometimes the faster and
more efficient way to get up a hill. If you change your stride from a run to a walk, make each
step powerful and purposeful, and continue to try to maintain an upright body position.1
You’ll find your flow. For long
training runs, nothing beats a
stretch of trail. No traffic lights.
No intersections. Just long sections of trail
creating a continuous aerobic session.
Without the distractions that come with
road running, you can easily get into a
groove, paying attention to your body,
breathing, and running efficiency.2
You’ll reduce your injury risk. “When you’re on the road and you’re
hitting that ground in the same place and doing the same motion
step after step, that’s when you get overuse injuries,” says Lesley
Paterson, coach and author of The Brave Athlete. On the trail, meanwhile,
you’re recruiting slightly different muscle
patterns with each step, which reduces your risk
of common overuse pains and injuries, such as
stress fractures and patellofemoral pain syn-
drome, also known as “runner’s knee.”5
You’ll just
feel better.
Spending
all that time out in
nature can have a
serious impact on
emotional well-be-
ing. According to
research published
in the Proceedings of
the National Academy
of Sciences, spending
quality time with
Mother Nature can
make us less prone
to rumination, and
reduces activity in a
part of the brain that’s
linked to depression.3
You’ll sharpen your agility and focus. Running on trails requires focus and concentra-
tion, especially on single-track or uneven terrain. Paying attention to the way your body
moves and works makes you a stronger, more confident runner.4
You’ll recover better. Trails offer a softer surface than pavement, reducing the impact
on your body and helping you recover faster for your next workout. The other recov-
ery-booster? Trails slow you down. It’s pretty standard running advice to “take your
easy days easy, and your hard days hard,” but ask any coach and they’ll tell you one of the biggest
mistakes runners make is not keeping their easy days easy enough. On roads or treadmills it’s all
too easy to be hyperconscious of your pace. The hills and turns and obstacles on the trail force you
to slow down and focus more on how your body feels, not how fast it’s moving. Making it a grade-A
option for active recovery runs.Holy Hills! What’s up with
people putting
their hands on
their knees?
While we just gave you cer-
tain ideal cues for conquering
inclines, you might also catch
fellow trail runners taking a
different approach: bending
over and pushing their hands
into their knees with every step.
While yes, you ideally want
to keep yourself in an upright
position as much as possible,
switching it up—especially on
crazy-steep or long sections—
can help bring your heart rate
down if it’s spiking, and also give
tired legs a little assist to power
up to the top. Think of it as a tool
in your tool box.When trails are steep, breathing becomes harder, legs fatigue more quickly, and you
tend to feel every painstaking step. A few mental and physical cues can help the hills
feel less mighty and more manageable:TRAINING22 WOMEN’S RUNNING SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019