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Running: Training on the road or trails?
6 minutes
Right now, it's a great time for running. If you're planning to participate in popular road or trail races this fall, you likely already have your training schedule. However, if you're wondering how to optimize your workouts, here are some key principles that should help you prepare.
Differences between the two practices
Whether your training takes place on the road or on the trails, your biomechanics and your cardiopulmonary system do relatively the same work. However, there are some differences between the two practices; differences that are worth knowing.
The cadence
Winning Terrain: The Road
Road running is ideal for evaluating your cruising speed and calibrating your high-intensity workouts. Because it's easier to maintain a consistent cruising speed on the road than on trails, road workouts allow for a precise assessment of the pace needed to achieve your performance goals.
Diversity
Winning Terrain: The Trails
Unless you're running on scenic roads or in a historic city, trail running offers a greater diversity of landscapes than road running. For visual enjoyment and to maintain the fun aspect of training, include one to two trail running sessions in your weekly training schedule. This will make it easier to combat the monotony of regular training.
Musculoskeletal preparation
Winning Terrain: Roads and Trails (tie)
Road runs condition your musculoskeletal system to perform during long road outings. Therefore, long trail runs won't give you an accurate assessment of the surface you need to learn to run on if you're preparing for a half-marathon or marathon in the city. However, the changes in topography, surfaces, and direction inherent in trail running put more demands on proprioception, power, and eccentric muscle contractions (the force applied to the leg muscles during downhill running). Moreover, the soft surfaces of trail running give your joints a break.
In short, the combination of road and trails makes for an excellent match!
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