Forums >Running 101>First time on a trail; quick advice please?
Right on Hereford...
#2867
Run to Win25 Marathons, 17 Ultras, 16 States (Full List)
First or last...it's the same finish line
HF #4362
Don't bother running the hills if they are too steep. Just walk them. The hills on trails aren't limited by what a car can traverse. I tend to go minimalist for my trail shoes. I spent the first 3 months or so of my serious trail running in road shoes and was fine, but if you start doing it regularly then you'll want to get some trail runners. I'm a big fan of Inov-8, although I have a pair of North Face shoes and I wear vibrams a couple times a week. Here are some articles that I wrote about running on trails that you'll find helpful: http://news.runtowin.com/2007/08/22/trail-running-101-at-peak-performance.html http://news.runtowin.com/2007/10/01/trail-running-deserves-more-attention-from-road-runners.html They have some good, practical advice for running on trails for people used to roads.
i spent 28 minutes going up before starting down. I won't say I ran it down. It was more like a barely controlled 9 minute fall. OMG! downhill was ten times worse than up and I didn't stop on the way down. VERY hard, my knees will hate me in the morning. I did notice my stride was more open and I was faster as the trail ended on the flat street. I think I will keep this as a weekly run and see how long it takes me to be able to run the whole thing. That said, I almost slipped three times going up and I lost count coming down. A couple times I landed so hard coming down I thought my leg would bust in two and i seriously considered rolling down. I need to get the hang of this down hill running thing.
I would take whatever pace you ran up the hill and come down the hill at an even slower pace. You might even consider jogging/walking down the hill backwards in places if the footing is good.
Naw, I'd say that's way too much overkill.
Naw, I'd say that's way too much overkill. Just make sure you are controlled on your way down. One thing that really helps is to be light and fast on your feet. It's a little hard to describe, but here's what I mean. Running downhill on a rocky trail is really like jumping off of a series of ledges. If you were to jump off of a 3-foot ledge, would you land on one foot, or both? Both feet, of course! You need to distribute the impact force between each leg. That way, neither one takes the full brunt of the landing. Downhill trail running is the same thing, but since you're moving forward, you don't want to land on both feet at the same time. Otherwise, you'd be slow and awkward. Instead, the first foot should land "softly," like a little dance step, with the second foot landing very quickly after the first. Your cadence will have a very different rhythm than it does on flat ground. On flat ground, it's very regular: L...R...L...R...L...R (note that each '.' represents some fraction of a second) Running downhill on a trail, your cadence is completely dependent on the terrain, and thus will be irregular. It might be like this: L.R...L.R....L.R.L...R.L Notice that there are no "lonely" footfalls in the downhill trail sequence above (lonely being defined as a footfall that has more than one '.' space between it and another footfall). Each footfall has one or more "partners" to help distribute the impact force. What does this look like? It looks like fancy footwork. It also happens to be really fun once you're comfortable with it, too! I have no idea if I've done a good job describing this. It would be much easier just to show you on a real trail, but unfortunately I'm not in your neighborhood. Anyway, I hope this helps! Running steep trails will make your legs very strong.