Trail running for something different

Haha - as you may be able to tell, it has been a while since I've posted. I'm expecting several new posts in the next couple weeks, so I figured I better go on and get this one out of the way to try to maintain some semblance of chronological order.

This particular post has to do with something I tried about three weeks ago - trail running. I normally run on streets, so hitting a trail was definitely something different for me. Since I was out of town and in the mountains for a day, figured I would give that a try rather than hitting the streets of Cullowhee and Western Carolina University. Luckily, I found a running/biking trail had been developed right next to where my girls were participating in a soccer camp, so off I went while they worked on their game.


What did I learn? Train running is hard. Part of that was likely due to the fact that I was running on a mountain side. This definitely slowed me down on the uphill portions as they were quite steep in some places. On the street, a lot (but not all) of that time can be made up on the downhill portions. I found that on the trail though, I still had to keep my pace in check even on the downhill stretches. Overall between the up and down along with the uncertain footing, I was about two minutes per mile off my normal pace even though I felt like I was working as hard as normal.

Another thing I learned was that falls are much more likely when trail running. I counted a total of six stumbles, one of which resulted in a fall. For the fall, I was fortunate in that I was heading uphill so I was going slow and with the angle of my body to the ground, the fall was not very far. In addition, I happened to be at a spot with some grass and soft ground bordering the trail, so it was an easy landing. Earlier I had stumbled in an area where I would have gone down on lots of rocks had I not saved myself.

When I am shopping for running shoes, I always kind of wondered why they had trail-oriented shoes. Now I know. The Sauconys did ok, but I can definitely see where it would be a benefit to having something designed to provide better traction on a loose, uneven surface.

The trail run ended up being slow and no longer than a typical run for me. But it did kick my butt from a workout standpoint. I'm not really sure how I would fit more trail running into my schedule and I'm not sure I would want to, but I definitely have a lot more respect for it and those who excel at it (or even just do it).