Our fab partners over at Adidas TERREX, have kindly given us some inside info from one of their athletes, Tom Evans. Have a read of the below for some Top Trail Tips from a pro runner.
TRAINING
Toms first tip for the trails is focused all around the training. He believes that the best way to track training is in hours and minutes, rather than by mileage. His reasons behind this are based on the different types of terrains you may train in. If you live in a mountainous area, running 100 miles or kilometres a week is going to be a very different time to if you were in a less mountainous area.
KEY TAKEAWAY: Instead of setting a distance goal for your training sessions, set yourself a time goal which can be used for all sessions, whether interval, hard or recovery.
AVOID: chasing endless mileage, to ensure you are focusing on key training.
MENTAL STRENGTH AND MINDSET
The mental strength side of running is just as important as the physical side, and Tom worries that sometimes people maybe don’t think about it enough. To help with this, Tom has broken down his top tips for mental strength and mindset in three key components:
- When you are standing on the start line and may be starting to feel slightly anxious, narrow your thoughts to focus on the training that you have done, rather than the training that you haven’t done.
- Visualise the course before the race. Tom likes to run the course before race day so that he has a good understanding of the areas he can push a bit harder, and the areas he may need to take it slightly easier. In terms of our trails, it would be great to have a good understanding of the route in a similar way, whether that means studying the route map or getting out to walk/ run parts of the course in sections.
- Break the course down to more manageable chunks so that you don’t see it as a 100km race, but instead 5, 20 kms or similar. This helps you to focus your mind on the present and avoid worrying about further on in the race.
FUELLING
When Tom is asked how much he eats and drinks during a race he always struggles to give an exact answer as, for him, it changes every race. Tom bases his fuelling on the time you are running, the terrain you are running on and how fast and hard you are going to be working.
Typically, Tom likes to fuel between 1 – 1.5 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of bodyweight. So, if you were 70 kilograms, Tom would recommend consuming somewhere between 70 – 100 grams of carbohydrates every hour.
KEY TAKEAWAY: All fuelling techniques should be properly tried and tested during your training so that you feel 100% comfortable it works for you.
DON’T FORGET: As it gets colder, you will need to fuel little bit more because your body is having to work harder to try and stay warm. This is also very important if you are running through the night as your body will be again, working harder to keep you going.
RECOVERY
Ever wondered what you can do when you are not out training but wanting to ensure you are well recovered for the next session? Tom has all the answers to your questions with the super helpful steps below:
- Make your easy runs easy and your hard runs hard. If you follow this step your body will have plenty of time to recover in between those hard sessions, so you can keep performing at your best.
- Before you run, make sure everything is properly activated and ready to go. You can do this by completing some dynamic stretching, mobility and activation exercises.
- Make sure you are stretching, foam rolling and self-helping. In an ideal world this would be as soon as you finish a run, but if you don’t have the time, aim for a 15-minute stretching session at least once a day.
