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Step 1
Introduce speed into your running routine only after you have established a consistent mileage basis, assuring that your body is conditioned to running before you hit it with this advanced form of training. Beginning trail runners should start by becoming comfortable with running on trails before they endeavor to run those trails quickly. It may be wise to do faster workouts on more tame trails with dependable footing, dirt roads, or even a track or road. Only very advanced trail runners should attempt to do speed training on technical trails, where the potential for injury caused by a sprained or rolled ankle, tripping over an obstacle, or other casualty is much greater.
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Step 2
Embrace the idea that more is not better when it comes to speed. Quality over quantity should rule the day, even though it is sometimes difficult for enthusiastic trail runners to come to grips with the reality that longer runs can be detrimental. Failure to respect the quality standard may lead to overuse injury or chronic sub-optimal performance. The best trail runners know that some rest, even if only active rest through cross training, enhances performance. It often takes more discipline to take a day off than to go hard or long.
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Step 3
Take the necessary recovery and rest to enable you to attack hard days and make them worthwhile. If you are the type who is likely to overdo it, keep a running log or journal that tracks your daily runs, noting time, effort, mileage, and other pertinent factors such as weather, cross training activities, sleep, diet, work load, emotional state, stress level, terrain, and if you know them, altitude, and heart rate.
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Step 4
Consult more experienced runners, get involved in a local running club, get a coach, or read books, magazines, or on-line resources to determine the best speed workout for your desired distance and pace.
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Step 5
Mix it up, doing different distance efforts, working out with friends, playing games that will serve to run at a variety of different paces, and efforts. Try running fartleks, where the person leading a pack on a single-track trail section picks up the pace and tries to lose the group. Lock in a 5k pace effort and try to hold the temp regardless of climbs, descents, or technical sections. Or run with a group of runners who are a little faster so that you have to push to avoid being dropped.
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Step 6
Monitor your weight. Running at a faster pace may increase your resting metabolism and so you may see a loss in weight, which you may need to counter by eating more in order to maintain your weight. This increased metabolism is the result of improved blood flow to your muscles, an increase in the number of capillaries in your muscle fiber, the stimulation of your muscles with increased myoglobin and mitochondria content, and raised aerobic enzyme activity to allow your muscles to produce more energy aerobically.
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Step 7
Go into your speed training with the dual goal of gaining an equally-important mental edge. If you are already familiar with the stress and burning sensation known to many as “pain and suffering” that accompany running at a faster-than-normal pace during training, you will be able to draw from that experience psychologically and dig deeper into your reserves when needed during a race. Speed training on trails also forces you to push your comfort level with respect to the risk of falling or otherwise losing control on difficult terrain. Pushing the envelope helps establish a sense of confidence that is crucial to running difficult trail sections, especially descents, at speed.
