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Trail miles OK for road marathon training? (Read 771 times)

    Hey everyone! I am training for the Country Music Marathon on April 26. This will be my 2nd marathon (Memphis on Dec 1, 2007 was my first). I have recently taken up trail running and love it! I am curious to know if it will hurt my training progress to run some of my training runs on the trails. I would probably guess 1 or 2 of my 5 weekly runs would be on trails. The trails that I run around here do not have a lot of big hills, FYI. Thanks for any advice! andy in MS
    2008 Goals: Log 1000 miles Sub 4 hour Country Music Marathon on 4/26 Complete a trail 50k sometime in the fall
      I wouldn't think it would do any damage. It's not like you are exclusively going to be training on trails. BTW, how did you like the St.Jude marathon? I just ran the half and I ran it injured, but I thought it was a well organized race.


      Feeling the growl again

        If half your miles are still on the road, I think it will do you more good than harm. It's only bad if you cut out a ton of road miles and your legs "soften".

        "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

         

        I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

         

          Hi Andy, I just started training for my second marathon and used a lot of trail running to recover from my first. I'm planning on using trails for a lot of my recovery workouts moving forward. Personally, I see two negatives about trails for marathon training: 1.) If you're running a road marathon, it's good - to a point - to get your legs used to pounding of the road. I'd actually done some of my 20milers on trails and felt that - because of this - I wasn't as tough as I could be. So my plan is to not do my LONG runs (over 15mi) on trails. 2.) If you're really looking to do intervals w/ pace training, the trails make it tough... I know that my local trails tend to slow me down about 70 seconds per mile due to terrain and elevation. Also, moving fast on trails means there's a greater likelihood of tripping. My fix for this is not doing intervals on the trails. But - like you - I love running on trails and think incorporating some trail running into my plan will be a good thing. M

          Go to http://certainintelligence.blogspot.com for my blog.


          Young Gun

            Bah! Just skip St Judes and train to run a trail marathon. Its soooooo much more fun! Wink

            www.HumanPotentialRunning.com

              Thanks for the input guys, keep it coming! Get gone, I thought St. Jude was great. It was everything I expected. I came down with some sort of bug on the Thursday before and was sick as a dog throughout, so if you saw someone throwing up in the bushes (7 times!!) along the course, that was me. I probably shouldnt have run, but I wasnt going to let all that training go to waste! Sherpa, I would do just that if I could. My wife has started training for the 1/2 in Nashville, so I need to be there, and if I'm going to be there, I may as well run. On top of that, I've got a score to settle with the clock! andy in MS
              2008 Goals: Log 1000 miles Sub 4 hour Country Music Marathon on 4/26 Complete a trail 50k sometime in the fall
                Hey, we've got a CMM 08 group we'd love for you to join. Wink


                Feeling the growl again

                  Hi Andy, I just started training for my second marathon and used a lot of trail running to recover from my first. I'm planning on using trails for a lot of my recovery workouts moving forward. Personally, I see two negatives about trails for marathon training: 1.) If you're running a road marathon, it's good - to a point - to get your legs used to pounding of the road. I'd actually done some of my 20milers on trails and felt that - because of this - I wasn't as tough as I could be. So my plan is to not do my LONG runs (over 15mi) on trails. 2.) If you're really looking to do intervals w/ pace training, the trails make it tough... I know that my local trails tend to slow me down about 70 seconds per mile due to terrain and elevation. Also, moving fast on trails means there's a greater likelihood of tripping. My fix for this is not doing intervals on the trails. But - like you - I love running on trails and think incorporating some trail running into my plan will be a good thing. M
                  Marcus brings up an excellent point-- try to keep most of your long runs on the roads. Alan Culpepper (Olympian, trained primarily on trails in Colorado) was interviewed after his marathon debut in Chicago and asked what he'd have done differently in his training if he could go back. His reply was that he would have done more of his miles on the roads to get his legs ready for the pounding.

                  "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

                   

                  I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

                   

                    There is nothing wrong with trail running, in fact it should help your overall performance. I have trained mostly on trails for the last few years and each year I have set new PR's for road marathons. But what you have to include with any of your workouts if you want to improve would be speed workouts and hill training. These are most important if you want good results for any race, whether on the trails or on the road. And yes. trail running is way more fun than road running but look at road races as training for the trail races.
                    kcam


                      Trail running is good for your legs. I run at least 70% of my miles on dirt with the remainder on asphalt (not concrete) and it's never been a problem for me. Of course I don't run as fast as someone like Alan Culpepper but I do have more than 20 road marathons under my belt.