Out of curiosity, mile for mile, how much slower are your splits on an elevated trail compared to flat/road running if at all? I don't have anything to compare to mileage wise since I never ran much more than 4-5 miles on paved surfaces since high school. I did a 7.14 mile trail run with about ~950ft of climb throughout the loop. I only averaged an 8:54 min/mile pace, granted some of that I was at a dead stop due to issues with my phone. I would normally be happy with that, but a buddy of mine texted me (he's doing the tough mudder with me as well) that he just finished a 11 mile run in 1hr 34min. That's a 20sec/mile faster pace than I'm running, not to mention 4 more miles, :D. Granted, I don't think it was a trail run, but he also couldn't run much more than 2 miles a few weeks ago. Super pumped for him, but I'm either really behind the ball and need to step it up, or I'm not comparing apples to apples. So Hooker, Rybo, others, I'm curious to see what you've seen/experienced.
My times may be way off from what you are looking for because of our terrain here. The trail race I did in March has a time of 101 minutes to receive a medal in 7 miles. But, that's ~3000' elevation gain. Are you changing elevation throughout or all up then back down? Edit: just saw the throughout part.
Obviously it depends on the trail, but I usually don't see too much of a significant drop off mile to mile, maybe 15 seconds per mile if it's really technical. The more vertical, the slower my times will be. But a typical well groomed, single track? Not much of a drop off at all.
Ok, pretty much what I expected. I need to do more hill workouts then...that's ridiculous. It wasn't a trail as much as it was predetermined loops picking lanes through the woods, but still. It has to be the verticals that killed me.
train on hills, its easy to slack on flat trails, but when youre forced to run up hills theres no slacking just breathing.
Yep. I already am, but obviously not enough. My parents land and neighbors land is steep. It's a great loop since I hit about 4 good size hills, and two of them are completely in the woods with no defined trail, so you're just running uphill on loose leaves jumping logs, rocks, etc,. It's impossible to not have it break your rhythm. I just need to do way more of it (currently Saturdays are my only trail days).
Yup best way to improve, that and sprints. Ive found that I can zone out and go fast on flat tracks, but nothing like hills, cant zone out in that. Only numb the pain. Maybe instead of using the GPS watch, just get the total distance and divide it by the time you run. Those GPS especially out in the woods can be pretty inaccurate. You also never know with people, so many have said I run XX times, only to race against them and kick their ***. Ive also had ones who i've grossly underestimated.
The trails I run typically cause a 30-60 sec drop in pace, depending on the route. They are single track mtn bike trails. Lots of hills, very technical and windy. If I do a solid month on the trails, then go back to pavement, it's like I've been shot out of a cannon. If you are just running in the woods anf no trail, I would imagine that's going to cause a HUGE slow down.
I also never really pay attention to my speed that much on trails. If I want to run fast, I run on roads, if I want to run for the enjoyment of running, I run on trails.
The trails I run on can be extremely technical at times, and changes in elevation a little daunting, upwards of 5000ft for a 10mile. I'm happy cruising around 9:30 min miles and taking my time on some of the difficult uphills (literally grabbing onto trees to pull myself up) and the more technical downhills. I also don't really care about times as much, I'm doing it to finish w/o a broken ankle and for the enjoyment of running.
Thanks for the input. I only really am concerned with my mileage and hitting difficult terrain as this is mostly focusing around breaking up rhythm while building endurance for the Tough Mudder in June. Our team is rather large, and while I don't really think I'll be the weak link, I want to make sure I'm as ready as possible.
