I grew up running cross country and track, which means that most of my long runs were on the roads or a flat-ish path. Since the terrain wasn’t too hilly or technical, running 13-17 miles would take me one and a half to two hours. This became my standard idea of a long run, which was plenty considering that my races took between 4 and 30 minutes. At the beginning of this year, I decided to add trail running to my resume. I started doing more hiking and running on technical and mountainous terrain, and I realized that my time on feet went up dramatically while my mileage did not.
Most of the trail races that I have done this year have been two and a half to three hours long, which is about how long it takes to run a full road marathon. By that comparison, I would have thought that my mileage would need to go up significantly to train for these races. However, my mileage has remained consistent around the 35-50 miles per week mark, and I feel prepared for these long races. The main reason for this is that I can do a 13 mile long run and, if the terrain is technical and hilly enough, it takes three hours. Additionally, the effort and the heart rate remain similar to the level of a 2 hour road run, yet I’m covering much less distance. So, my time on feet and aerobic stimulus go up while the total impact and mileage remain the same or decrease. It’s like magic!
Watch the video below to hear about my trail running and come along on my long run.
