Trail Running can have significant positive benefits for your marathon training and here’s why:
Benefit 1: Soft Surface = Less Impact
Running on the roads day after day can eventually leave you feeling pretty beat up. Maybe your shins, or your knees start to ache? Thankfully there are trails!
Trails are typically a much softer surface than roads and sidewalks. Thus, one of the many beauties of trail running is that there is less impact on your body. The surface itself will absorb more of the impact when running so that your body doesn’t have to.
Even if you are training for a road race, consider incorporating some trail running into your training routine. Taking a little extra stress off of your body can ultimately help keep you healthy and running longer! After all, you can’t accomplish any of your running goals if you can’t train consistently!
Benefit 2: No Traffic On The Trails
Is there anything worse than getting in a rhythm on a run, just to get stopped at a red light? How about that crazy driver that speeds around the turn and nearly hits you as you are crossing the street? If you have been running long enough, chances are you have found yourself dealing with one of these situations.
Guess what, there isn’t any traffic on the trails!
One thing that makes trail running incredible is the lack of traffic, barring mountain bikes and wildlife. This allows you to truly get into a flow and rhythm during your run. Even better, you won’t have to worry about cars speeding around corners or getting stopped at a red light, although you’ll still want to keep an eye out for bikes. 😉
Benefit 3: Exploring New Places
Trail running can take you to some of the most extraordinary places. You will find yourself traveling to towns and places that you normally wouldn’t go to, just to find new trails.
On top of that, trails often allow you to explore places that you could never get to via the roads. You can summit mountains, and traverse through desolate wilderness with no roads in sight! This sense of adventure and exploration is a big part of why I, personally, switched from roads to trails.
Benefit 4: Builds Strength
The surface and terrain of trail running is often quite different than road running. With trail running, you seem to find yourself running uphill or downhill all the time. In fact, you can really consider trail running as a form of hill training in disguise!
While the softer surface helps reduce the impact forces on your body, the undulating terrain is a great way to build up leg strength. Trail running can also really help build a stronger core, on top of helping build leg strength. Aside from the ups and downs, trails can also be very rocky, rooty, and uneven.
This may sound like a negative thing, but in all reality it is actually quite positive.
Ultimately, trail running forces you to engage your core muscles in order to stabilize your body on the uneven surfaces. Between building leg strength, and improving your core, trail running is sure to help make you a stronger runner.
Benefit 5: Peace & Quiet
For many runners, their running time is their only real “me” time. What better way to enjoy your time to yourself than in peaceful bliss. Trail running provides you with a level of tranquillity that road running by nature could never provide you with. You are able to get lost in your own thoughts, which is how peaceful trail running can be.
Benefit 6: Less Monotonous
Running the same route day after day can really wear on your mind. Plus, flat roads and out and back runs can seem like they are never going to end! One of the great aspects of trail running is that every run, seems like a new adventure. You never know if you are going to stumble across beautiful wildlife, or if the trees will have new colors.
Trail running also keeps you mentally engaged on the run at nearly all times. You will find yourself focused in order to not step on any rocks or roots. The undulating terrain can also play a major role in breaking up the monotony of training.
Finally, trail running makes it fun to find new places to run. This forces you outside of your comfort zone a little bit. However, exploring new places with friends is a great way to make training less monotonous.
Benefit 7: The Incredible Community
It really can be quite hard to put into words how incredible the trail running community is. Trail running has a community of people that is second to none. The trail running community is always very welcoming, and supportive in every way imaginable.
One of the things that really attracted me to trail running from the very beginning was this welcoming spirit! It makes it very easy to find people to run with because everyone is very approachable. Whether you are super fast, or a mid/back of the pack runner, the community welcomes you all the same.
In fact, at many trail races you will see race winners sticking around the finish line to congratulate other finishers!
How cool is that.
