How to Train for a Trail Marathon

Thinking of doing some off-roading?

Listen in as Coach Tony explains how to train for a trail marathon!


Audio Transcript

Coach Tony: Hi everyone. Welcome to the Runners Connect Run to the Top Extra Kick Podcast. I hope your day is going well and thanks for tuning into the show.

I’m here to answer your running and training question so you can train smarter, stay healthy, and achieve your goals.

Today we have a great question from Blaine.

Blaine: As a recreational runner, I do about 30 miles per week and I’ve only done two races the past year. A 5K and a Half but I absolutely love them.

What I want to do is I want to train for trail marathon. The race is six months away and half of my training is on trails. I’m looking to ramp up my mileage and my long runs.

The question is what should I do to prepare?

Tony: Blaine, congratulations on your running and on your desire to go even further. I think you’re going to love it.

First, I commend you on the fact that half of your training is on trails and I think that’s good.

I would imagine you probably live near some trail. That’s phenomenal because if you don’t live near trails, it makes it a little bit harder to get those runs in.

The reason I talk so much about trails is because trails and roads are two different things.

There’s more to the simplicity of obviousness that trails and roads are two different things.

If you’ve never spent time on trails and you want to do a trail run, you need to get on the trails. The trails are so different than the roads. Not only are they slower, but they will also adjust your time.

If you can maybe run 10-minute pace for five miles on the roads, you’re probably going to be 11- 11.30 pace depending on the trails for that same distance, and there’s a lot of reasons for that.

One of them is the nature of trails. You can’t get that normal gait. You just can’t run on your toes and bounding along. There’s rocks, roots, and a lot of things that you should look out for.

I would say trail running is like playing chess.

You are not just focused on that very next step, and even if you’re running on the roads, who’s even looking at that next step?

If you’re on a sidewalk and you know you don’t have to cross the street for a mile, there’s a good chance you’re not even thinking about the steps.

If you’re on the trail, you’re staring down at each individual step. Not only are you thinking through one step, you’re thinking through two or three steps.

Maybe there is mud coming up before you, 10 or 15 feet ahead of you. You should decide at that point. Do I want to go to the left of it, right, or middle?

If I should go to the middle of it, is there a rock or rocks that I can use to get through because I really don’t want to step in the mud because I might lose my shoe.

There’s a lot of things to think through.

The other thing too is it will beat your legs out like you could never imagine. You should get that conditioning in on the trails.

You will realize that there’s muscles and tendons you never thought you had and only the trails will highlight that stuff.

You land on a rock and your ankle is going to twist left and right all over the place.

Not the type of twisting… it can happen but I’m not talking a type of twisting that’s going to cause an ankle injury; I’m talking just enough. It’s playing added stress on muscles and tendons.

You should get out on the trails, condition those legs, and absent that and I’ve tried to do this with races. Absent time on trails.

Forget about trying to do a trail race. You should get that time on there.

That’s why I say, if you’re fortunate to live near trails, like very close not even having to drive, that’s fantastic. You can get on trails a lot.

If you’re further from trails, it makes a little bit more challenging or difficult.

I still would advise that if you’re training for a trail race or something, get on the trails, at least once a week and try to do the long runs on the trails, if you can.

If it’s a weekend that you should do trail run, then you can afford the time to be driven to the trail. Do that.

Couple of other questions or points I want to bring out is, if the race is six months at out, now is more about building a base.

Don’t worry about the long runs. If you can handle you 10 miles a week comfortably, then I think that’s what you want to focus on.

In the coming three months, build a base. Maybe it’s 25 or 30. It’s hard to know what type of mileage you’re running.

Maybe you build a base to 25 or 30 miles and that includes a 10-mile run once a week.

Maybe you’re running five days a week. I wouldn’t go pushing it.

I wouldn’t do seven runs a week. You can only do that for so long. Maybe run five days a week, do a 10-mile run but that’s it. Don’t go any longer than that and build up to that.

There’s no reason to jump into 10. Build a base that will get your muscles and tendons stronger. Enjoy your running and build some overall strength.

When you get three months out, then you can start to focus on the long run schedule.

That’s where mileage is going to start to increase because long runs are going to increase.

You probably can still stay at five to six runs a week and maybe one of those runs, you have a long run or maybe another run builds up a little bit. Maybe you normally do five every day.

Maybe one day, five is going to be an eight or nine-mile run plus the long runs that you’re doing. Wait for three months and then once you get in those three months, start building that long run schedule.

A lot of times what you want to do is back into your long run schedule by saying that my race is on such and such day. Maybe I’m going to do my last long one, three weeks before that.

Then you go on the calendar, find your race day, go back three weeks, and put that date as your last long run. Choose whether you’re going to do long runs every other week, or whether you’re going to do two long runs, a down week and then another two long runs.

You can start to back into that.

If your target is to do a 20 mile for your last long run, you start at 10 and then slowly build to 12, to 14, 16-18, like that. That’s what I would advise with a long run schedule.

I want to circle back and the reason that I say some of the stuff I say, is that when it comes to training for a marathon or for any distance or race, it’s important to find balance.

When you get into the meat of your training, it’s going to start to become burdensome from a timestamp point.

You’re going to put more time into training than you may necessarily have. Maybe you have a busy work schedule or family scheduling.

All the same, you should get creative when you get those long runs in.

It’s going to become a challenge, towards the end of training, especially when you’re doing a 20-mile run.

You’re taking four or five hours for the run and it takes a toll and it can be stressful. The worst thing that you can do is that you can go into your race saying you don’t even care about the race.

“I’m so sick and tired of trying to find time to train. I haven’t even enjoyed it. I just want to get this race over with.”

That’s the worst thing you can say because you want to enjoy the experience. Find balance.

I know that you’re eager to get going, and it sounds like you love the sport, and I think that’s phenomenal.

Harness those emotions and stay reserved. Enjoy the downtime if you will over the next three months.

If you’re building a base and doing that 10-mile run of eco, just enjoy it. Have fun with and know that as you get into closer and closer to that race, you may not enjoy it as much.

It gets a little more stressful in terms of time. Little injuries might pop up.

Be patient and don’t jump into stuff too quickly and you should be good to go.

I wish you well. I thank you for the question, and I’m glad to hear that you’re getting some time on the trails. As I said that is important and nice work.

That’s it for today’s show. If you haven’t already done so, please consider heading to iTunes or your favorite podcast directory and subscribing or leaving a review.

It will help us to reach more runners like you. Thank you for tuning in and I hope you have a great day. I will see you on the roads.

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