So you want to get faster on the trails. Maybe you are already a proven road runner who is moving across or perhaps you are just starting out and are drawn to the scenery and variety of trail running, either way in this post you will find some helpful tips to improve your performance on the 'rough stuff'. As you would imagine, the general advice for improving speed on track or road holds true for trails too. But then, as with training for any particular event, you need to become more specific to the demands of the event you wish to perform best at.
Interval Training
This mainstay of road and track running should be in pretty much every runners playbook (no matter what their chosen terrain), but is often their worst nightmare. Trail runners may believe that these kind of sessions are not relevant to them as very often it’s a case of shuffling along the trail in a very efficient way, and rarely running anything close to a 4-minute kilometer. The truth is, however, that interval and speed training should never be neglected, and it does not have to be quite as barbaric as the perception. Although you should bear in mind that when travelling at speed (as in for instance threshold repeats), you stand the greatest chance of injury. Therefore there is a balance to be found between improving performance and not actually making it to the start line at all.
A typical interval session will consist of efforts and rests. The efforts can and should change in order to force the body to adapt. The rest periods can be altered too, in order to intensify or regress the session a little. A typical track session might be something like:
5K pace: 8 x 600m, jog 200m recovery
The key to running effective intervals is to gear them to the individual. By which I mean "5k pace" not 6 min miles. They are only as fast or slow as the individual concerned. The above example breaks the session down into 8 repetitions of 600 metre efforts, with our rest being actively recovering by taking a slow jog back to the start line for the next effort. The effort itself is defined by the runners own 5km pace, not a standard time limit set by the coach.
The idea behind this pacing is that the efforts should be challenging, but not 100%. The latter efforts will be more challenging than the first, but the emphasis is on completing all designated repetitions at a consistent pace. In theory, running only 600 metres at your 5km pace should be relatively comfortable. The first one or two are, but with every repetition the goal pace gets that little harder to achieve.
Fartlek Sessions
A variation on the ‘Interval Training’ theme, we instead use natural features (or something like lamp posts, road crossings, depending on where you are running) to switch between efforts and more relaxed periods. Fartlek is a Swedish word which translates as ‘speed play’ and will entail ‘efforts’ in a similar way as interval training but we may choose these efforts on the fly like “run hard to the next lamp post/bridge/tree”. We may instead still decide to do something far more structured and try and run hard for 1km and then easier for 500 metres. As the speed of the efforts may be dictated by natural obstacles (hills, gates, busy roads, etc) we may not be quite as hung up on hitting every effort in a given time, but they will be essentially mimic the same format of effort/recovery/repeat that we see in traditional interval training.
Hill Running (Ascents)
Trail running isn’t all about hill running but it inevitably plays a large part of things. With beautiful, idyllic, wondrous trails, we tend to also find mountains.
Running up hill is never easy, it is always a challenge. With every attempt up a given hill, the job will become easier and easier, and your ascent speed will become faster. A great way to test your hill strength/power development is to choose a hill close to you and set a time for running up it. Strava is a great tool for this as most hills will already have a course record (CR) attached to them. You can go ahead and run the hill as best you can and Strava will do the rest by recording your personal best time. That first time you manage to run the whole way up a particular hill may be a defining moment. The moment that you beat that hill, and demystify it, you’ll grow in confidence that the hill is not to be feared and each run (however slow your foot cadence might be at times), will get stronger and stronger.
However, improving at hill assents is not just a case of doing it more often (although that is important), the second part of the equation is improving your hill technique. Think about changing your body position to be leaning slightly forward (rather than our normal upright stance). Shorten your stride and favour a forefoot / toe landing (going up a hill is the time to be on your toes). But the real secret is to learn to drive with your arms and elbows. This "elbow drive" will transform your hill performance, even though it may seem counter intuitive to worry about your arms rather than feet!
Hill Running (Descents)
One might intuitively believe that ascents are more important than descents in terms of overall trail running performance. However going up a hill quickly can be wasted effort if we have no ability to descend confidently. A number of factors come into play; it is likely that you will be fatigued (having just done some climbing) and when fatigued typically form fails fast. Poor form on a decent will lead to poor balance and potential falls (which are not pretty or good for overall speed).
Everything is different when we are descending and arguably it is one of the most technical forms of running. Firstly, our ability to descend at pace is unlikely to be limited by our cardio fitness (unlike on any other terrain). In the descent our ability is likely to be limited by our form.
As such training in an unfatigued state and repeating correct form is going to be most helpful. Consider walking up the hill and running down.
In terms of downhill running form: we are looking for a heal strike and this will give us a natural braking effect with stability. Move your centre of gravity further back (think about a slight lean back stance). And thirdly use your arms for the all important and act of balancing. (Arms out form the body acting as counterweights).
Depending on where you are running, avoiding hazards such as exposed roots, rabbit holes and rocks might be a big consideration. Again practice this skill; learn to be able to run whilst paying attention to the terrain, be very conscious of foot placement and develop the ability to change direction, weight distribution and basic agility whilst descending. There are specific drills that can help with this.
Weighted Sessions
Finally consider using weighted sessions in order to increase speed and strength. These sessions should be used sparingly as they may take longer to recover from fully, but they can add a great deal of strength and power to your running performance.
The benefits of incorporating weighted sessions come two fold. Running with added weight will add lean muscle mass to all your working running muscles as they adapt to the greater load/burden. The added weight will also force your body to become a more efficient as it looks for more and more ways to reduce the strain we artificially impose.
The physiological response is obvious, but we can also gain from a psychological boost when we remove the weighted vest, or laden backpack. We all at once feel light, bouncy, and ready to fly! The miles suddenly feel much less effrot and so running faster comes naturally as we stride along faster than before, while all the time our perceived effort remains lower.
Summary
To run faster on trails requires the same basic coaching practices as improving sport performance in any discipline. Use appropriate training stress in a phased way to stimulate adaption. Consistent incremental changes will yield incremental improvements over time (there is no shortcut). Using the idea of progressive loading and training variety to stimulate the body to adapt over time in a controlled, patient, and injury free way. Having developed a strong base fitness and solid training habit, as the goal event (the focus of your training) starts getting closer, then become more specific with your training programme. This simply means dissecting every aspect of your goal event and then replicating that in controlled training sessions
picture credit: Photo by Emrah Yazıcıoğlu