As a road racer, however, I am often concerned with running my workouts at a particular pace, so I often eschew the trails in favor of the faster, even surface of the roads. When I heard this month’s theme was off-road racing, it got me thinking: Could incorporating trail running into a training plan actually make us road runners faster on the pavement?

I asked my friend Lloyd Thomas, certified running coach, race director (Fools 50K and 25K) and avid trail and road racer, for his opinion. On the physical side, Thomas suggests that trail running has wonderful benefits for road racers.

“In a physical sense, trail running offers a break from the repetitive motion of road running,” he says. “Running on uneven surfaces, such as trails, produces an irregular running gait that counters the repeated motions often related with excessive road-running.”

 PREVENTING INJURY

I think back to my own training. When I trained for fall marathons, I did about half my training runs on trails and half on roads, and I experienced no injuries.

When I trained through the winter for a spring marathon, however, I avoided the snowy trails in favor of training almost exclusively on the roads. I experienced a lot more aches and pains. I always wondered if these injuries were due to so much road running. Thomas suggests it probably was.

“In my experience, high-mileage marathon training comes with risk of overuse injuries,” Thomas says. “When I am not careful and run on the roads too frequently or exclusively, I find myself on the verge of such injuries. To counter the tendency for road running overuse, I aim to include one to two trail runs each week.”

Related to injury prevention, trail running strengthens muscles seldom taxed on roads. After my last trail run, the trails were particularly muddy. I noticed that my hips definitely felt like they worked harder than normal. This makes sense.

Running on uneven terrain of trails engages the balancing muscles much more than running on roads. Trail running strengthens your hips, glutes and lower legs more than running on roads alone.

Not only does the added strength prevent injury, but also added strength will help you race faster on roads. You’ll use the same muscles strengthened by trail running when you’re powering up hills or when you need all the strength you can get those last few hundred meters of a race.

TRAILS OFFER CHANGE

Thomas also suggests that trail running has its benefits on the psychological side. Just like me, a lot of road runners fixate on the pace of their training runs. In the past, this has led me to become mentally burned out and zapped the joy out of my running.

Thomas reports that this is a common problem that he also experiences from time to time. Trail running, however, can be just what is needed to put the spring back in our steps.

“Trail running offers a break from the grind that seems to occur when training exclusively on the roads,” he says. “On the roads, I tend to worry more about my pace, while on trails I could care less. It takes only a few minutes before I forget about the labor of running and allow my mind to enjoy the surroundings – usually wondering about the trees, animals and birds I encounter along the way.”

I also have found that trail running replenishes the running-induced bliss that hard training on the road sometimes depletes. Like Thomas, I enjoy the wildlife sightings, but also the sound of my breath and my feet cracking twigs and swishing through the leaves in the fall, the comfort of the shade on those hot summer afternoons, and embracing the peace and tranquility the forest provides.

TRAILS ENTICE RELAXATION

Running on trails is like a recovery run for the mind. Besides injecting some much-needed joy into a road runner’s training, running on trails can teach us road runners how to run relaxed.

As many experts will tell you, running relaxed is critical to racing at our best. Running relaxed, however, is a learned art, and it takes as much mental training to run fast and relaxed as it takes physical training to improve aerobic power.

Running on trails allows one to get lost in thought, not having to worry about oncoming traffic, stop lights or pedestrians. A road runner normally transfixed with data spewing forth from his or her watch can completely ignore it and focus on running for the sake of running.

Trails are the perfect venue to practice running relaxed. This might be the biggest gift trails have to offer road racers.

Laura Pizmoht began her running career in 2004 and has since made a name for herself in the Cleveland area racing circuit, most recently winning the Towpath Marathon.

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