How to Run Trails

Trail running takes place on terrain that can be more challenging than road running. Learn how to run trails in this video.

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Focus on foot placement
Respect fellow trail users
Surfaces are usually slippery & narrow

About this Author

Yishail Horowitz has been adventure racing for about five years. He produced the Central Coast Adventure Challenge in San Louis Obispo, California, as well as, the Pine Mountain Pull-Down, a bouldering competition in Ventura, California. Yishail is also the course designer for many adventure series races in California.

YISHAI HOROWITZ: Hello. My name is Yishai and today we're going to learn how to run trails. So trail running, difference from road running in a sense that you're on a narrower surface and the surface is also a little bit more slippery, sometimes there's rocks, water rets. You need to watch for those kinds of things. So, important issues are foot placements. When you're running, you need to watch where your feet land and you need to anticipate how the ground is going to react and how your foot is going to react to the ground. So trail running also differs from road running, in a sense that, on road you can really see what's going to happen. You can see the next tail, you can see the next dip, you can see the flat ground. Trail running might be on really tight little single track and could go uphill, downhill, uphill, downhill, very, very sporadically. There's an anaerobic component to it versus just the aerobic just pounding way on the miles. So really you got to work up to that, so you can anticipate the next tail and you can carry momentum through the uphill and gain it on the downhill. In trail running, there are other trail users. It might be equestrian. It might be mountain bikers and hikers. So my rule is I disrespect the other users. Pedestrian always have right of way over mountain bikers, but the same situation, if it's easy for you to get out of the way, get out of the way. Let them go and they should do the same.

How to Run Trails Video

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