by Casey McGuire

Though there are those who simply just run on trails, and enjoy every second, there are so many looking to become better, or see results from their trail running. Training is the art of improving one’s fitness, and often times, that art can be an intense task, and improvements do not always follow. Many though they try to “train” are idling instead, because they lack knowledge, time, and the resources to progress.

I was a personal trainer for a few years, and one of the most curious statements I had heard so frequently was, “I have been doing the same thing for 6 months, and I haven’t seen any results.” I don’t know what it was about the 6 month period that finally let people know they weren’t getting anywhere, but that was almost always the very time period they’d give me.

I understand why many people wouldn’t go to a trainer. It’s expensive, often intimidating, and the main reason is that people just don’t want to admit they don’t know what they’re doing. I just find it mildly amusing, and sad, for the most part, that people will invest so much in their vehicles every year, which they’ll most likely have several of in a lifetime, and invest so little in their own bodies, which I’m almost certain they’ll have one of in a lifetime.

So, after 6 months, people figure out that their workouts have been on a plateau for a while. If I try to start my car and it doesn’t work, I don’t continue to try starting it for 6 months before I seek out a mechanic (lot of car references here). I would just think that after a month, someone might realize their efforts are to no avail.

Does this have anything to do with trail running? It might.

As I am no running coach, and certainly no trail running coach, I can only transfer my experiences as a trainer over into the trail running world. Timmy T. Trail comes to me and says, “Hey Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,” which of course, I take to mean, “I started running 6 months back, and now I’m up to 7 or 8 miles daily. I run on the same flat trail each day, and for the first few months, I saw great results, but for the last month or so, I haven’t seen any changes. What can I do to see more results?”

First, it is always important to know what those “results” you want are. Second, it is important to me, and almost always the case with passionate trail runners (as there are no other kind), that results are referred to with healthy or fitness inferences, and not cosmetic. For example, wanting to drop a few pounds because it’s better on your heart, or because you want to add some speed to your runs, are, in my opinion, far better goals than wanting to drop a few pounds because you care how other people see you.

So, Timmy T. and I talk for a bit, and I find that he wouldn’t mind becoming a bit faster, and maybe adding a mile or two to his trail runs, but he doesn’t have any more time available to do so. Well, because father time and I had a falling out a few years back, I can’t offer Timmy T. any more time to work with. However, I can offer a few suggestions on how to use that time, and will almost guarantee that if Timmy T. heeds them, and acts upon them, he will see improvements for his specific goals.

Timmy T., we also find, is eating approximately the same amount of calories daily, which is also a clear sign that a plateau has taken effect. This is perfect for those not wishing to improve in any fashion, or just to maintain one’s fitness level, but progress comes with fuel. Remember, 60 - 80 percent of results come from diet. Also, no matter what Timmy T. does during his workout, or trail runs, results are only seen while at rest. Trail running breaks down muscles. It does not build them up. It is in the resting and recovery periods where the body rebuilds stronger tissues.

So, what suggestions do I have for Timmy T.? Well, as a personal trainer, I know it is key to shock the body in to either avoid a plateau, or to move on from one. By “shocking” I mean to change up work outs, keep the body guessing, in a sense, and to be unpredictable for efficient muscles. Plateaus only come because the human body has such incredible adaptive capabilities, that it becomes extremely efficient under the same continuous conditions. As trees pummeled with wind strengthen their trunks and branches to contend with the conditions, the human body also reacts with adaptable developments.

Here are a few ideas I would give to Timmy T.:

Fartlek and Interval training

Most are somewhat familiar with both forms and there is a lot of information out there on both, so I will not explain them in depth.

Speed play is great, and keeps consistent with trail running as well. There are many exercises that can contribute to running, such as yoga, plyometrics, cycling, even walking, among others, but for my purposes here, I mostly wish to attend to running to help with running.

Varying the intensity or the speed of a continuous run “shocks” the body. This can be done by adding speed in distances, or in times. I personally find it best to go according to RPE, which is your own Rating of Perceived Exertion. RPE is a scale that lets you judge yourself how intense you feel you are working. There are two scales that I am familiar with, but it is easiest to just consider a difficulty level between 1 and 10 (10 being all out effort, and intensity).

So, what I mean, is hauling ass for 400 meters and then slowing to a walk is great as a guideline, but as bodies are different, I think one should do the ass hauling until they’re ready to ease back off according to their own RPE.

Doing this a few times throughout a couple of trail runs during the week is all that Timmy T. needs to do in order to benefit from this approach. Too often, people hear of an idea to help with results and then overdo it, rather than ease into things. Baby steps move you forward. Giant leaps get you injured.

As far as the issue of time goes with this, speeding up and slowing down should equate to approximately the same time and distance that Timmy T. was running before. If not, is will still be beneficial to have even less mileage in with these routines, and may in fact have more, all depending on Timmy T., the individual.

Pyramiding

This is a strategy I took directly from resistance training instruction I used to give people. Through all the reading I have done about trail running, and running training, I have never come across anything about this, so maybe I’m the only idiot who thinks it might work.

It is very similar to fartlek training and interval training, but I do this, and I’m telling Timmy T. to try this in a pyramidal fashion.

How does this work? If speed A is your average speed, then you would move into speed B, which would be slightly faster, and after some time at that, bump up to speed C, which would be the fastest (or even have a speed D if you wish). The difference here is that I don’t maintain speed C until I’m fatigued, but go back down to speed B for a bit, and then drop down to speed A for my recovery. I never go below my typical running speed, and that is my recovery speed.

I am not much of a clock watcher when I trail run, but one can time the duration for each stage of this exercise, or if you aren’t clock watchers either, you can count the amount of steps you take through each stage up and back down. Or, just randomly increase and decrease as you’re comfortable.

Shorten distance, increase speed

This one is probably the most obvious suggestion for Timmy T. to gain results from. It may however seem counteractive to decrease your distance in order to somehow increase your distance, but given a bit of time and effort, it works well.

Since Timmy T. has hit a plateau, it may be hard to actually increase speed for the first day or two of this strategy, and it may again, seem counterproductive. After a couple of days though, it will become much easier to increase the speed a bit. Again, this is something that should be tried only a couple of days a week, and not every day.

It is very plain to understand how this will save some time, if Timmy T. is only running 6 miles instead of 8, and at a faster pace than before. While this is just more speed work training, eventually Timmy T. will notice that the 8 mile trail runs are starting to move along quicker than before.

Hills

Uphills are always great for strength, and a terrific way to “shock” the body if you aren’t already hill climbing. As uphills are great for gaining good quality running leg strength, and raising the metabolism to incorporate hill training into the usual flat runs, it is in the downhill portions here that will benefit the goals Timmy T. was looking for. Downhills are simply more speed work. I will probably repeat myself sooner or later as I say this, but, “Anything that makes you go faster, makes you go faster.”

And again, taking hills just a couple of days per week, and probably starting with mild ascents and descents, is recommended. Timmy T. may need to shorten the distance of his runs for this, as hill climbing takes more time. However, the downhills may make up for this, so he may wish to play around in the hills for a bit, and get a good understanding of how to utilize time in them.

Cross training

Cross training is just another option to help with running, and as I will do other things at times, to help improve upon my trail running, I prefer to trail run. As I stated, there is yoga, plyometrics, cycling, and walking, as well as resistance training (weights), stretching, swimming, among others, that may contribute.

With a couple of the other strategies I mentioned, there may be a couple of days a week that Timmy T. will have saved himself 10 to 20 minutes of time. This might be an opportune time to include a couple of cross training ideas. There is plenty of information out there on cross training for runners.

Regardless of the approaches Timmy T. Trail takes toward tacking on some mileage, while having some increased speed, shocking the body will reap rewards in the form of results. Whether your goal is to run a faster race, or to just save yourself some time to help with your busy schedule, these ideas are useful. Depending on how long we want to continue to see results, these strategies can be alternated to keep the body shocked. This “periodizing,” which is the term we used in the gym, should see the alternating on a monthly basis or so. While it is nice to get away from a plateau, it is even better to avoid it to begin with.

It’s your body. Play with it and train it as you wish to, using suggestions. Don’t go by rigorous guidelines, but listen to what your body is willing to endure, and enjoy your training. Unless your getting paid for this, don’t make it work. And, if you’re getting paid for this, that is great for you, but still don’t make it seem like work.

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