How to not fall down in the trails
And other sad stories of endurance…
My friends, I was out in the trails this morning and I didn’t bring my phone, but I did bring my dog, and I was thinking about trail running in this season of my life and I was trying not to fall down.
That is a very Hemmingway sentence. You might disagree, because you have been told the power of Hemmingway’s writing was in the parsimonious sentence structure. This is true. He could do a lot of work with very short sentences. But he also like to string together longer sentences with disparate ideas that suggest a train of thought and a broader narrative.
Sentences like that one above that tell a story.
Wow – it didn’t take my ADDHD addled brain long to go sideways on this article about trail running did it?
Let’s get back on theme – “How not to fall down on the trails”… Microsoft word does not want me to use the phrase ‘fall down’. It tells me that is redundant. It wants me to simply say ‘fall’, because the ‘down’ part is implied. I disagree. I can just as easily fall up as down.
I’m leaving it.
You know over the years we have talked about trail running many times. We’ve interviewed many trail runners. That is part of my ongoing challenge with the RunRunLive podcast is that it’s hard to find new ground (see what I did there?)
A quick search of the RunRunLive website reveals the following articles:
https://runrunlive.com/trails-101
https://runrunlive.com/trail-running-for-beginners
https://runrunlive.com/trail-running-refresher
https://runrunlive.com/trails-101-how-to-fall-down
https://runrunlive.com/12-great-reasons-to-take-to-the-trails
https://runrunlive.com/5-great-reasons-not-to-run-trails-2
https://runrunlive.com/how-to-make-a-fly-hat-for-trail-running-2
So, feel free to go find those and read them.
But, everything old is new, and I am in a new season of life, so let’s search the couch cushions for some loose change together.
My goal is to run a 100K trail race on my birthday. That is what I am training for.
I am coming back from a long injury over the last 3 years and a specific calf pull from the Napa Valley marathon in March. My training for that race was quite light in terms of intensity and load. I did most of it on a paved rail trail with no variability and no elevation.
In pursuit of this new goal, I’m basically starting from scratch. I’m 3 weeks into my training and am just now starting to get up to some decent base mileage. I’m taking the build very slowly, on purpose, to stay healthy and get to the starting line.
My build has been mostly on trails. This means I need to become reacquainted with elevation and technical trail running technique.
Now you’re all caught up. That’s where our story starts.
I went out Sunday morning for my trail run with Ollie. 20 seconds into the run I caught a toe and slammed myself into the ground. I jammed my little finger and bruised the fascia around my ribs.
Later, I fell again on a particularly technical section, but was more aware, was able to chose how I landed and escaped injury.
My running life flashed before my eyes. I’m in a season of life where hitting the ground hard causes damage. There is no rolling and popping up with a smile on my face like a cocaine addled squirrel. There is only the wet thump of a large bag of overripe potatoes hitting the floor.
I need to not fall down if I want to make it to the starting line.
So my big brain went to work on the problem. How to not fall down?
First thing we need to tease out is why did I fall down? What were the circumstances? What are the causes? What’s new in this training cycle? What’s new in this season that makes gravity more pervasive in my life?
Here’s the first answer – when training for this type of event you are training tired. That’s part of the training.
These ultra distances require you to run tired, so you need to practice that in your training. You need to become accustomed to it.
I was physically tired. It was the end of a week where I got 4 good runs in and a long bike ride on the previous day.
My legs were tired.
By design – my legs were tired.
Check – need to be able to run on tired legs and not fall down.
I’m getting out early in the morning to beat the heat. This means I’m also just tired from not being awake. But, again, this is the norm for ultra distances. You are going to need to run at odd hours. Early in the morning and late into the night. It’s part of the race profile and you need to work that into your training.
Check – need to be able to run at odd hours, while tired, and not fall down.
Next question: Why does being tired cause you to fall down?
Great question.
And the answer is, because when you are tired your form gets bad. You tend to slouch and lean forward. When this happens it changes the way your feet hit the ground and you tend to drag your toes.
For both these falls I caught a toe. If your form is right, you won’t be dragging your toes and they won’t catch.
Form also helps with your leg lift. If your form is good then your leg lift and foot plant will be clean.
But, what else? What else caused this fall?
Two more things. Distraction and occlusion.
Yes – distraction. Cause and effect. I am at risk of falling when I try to dual task. If I raise my hand to swat a bug, or look at my watch or wipe sweat from my brow or take a drink from my bottle – all these movements create a perturbation in the force! They throw your balance and distract your attention for aa half-second and that’s enough to step wrong on a technical trail.
I would argue the same is true if you’re carrying a phone that is buzzing at you or even listening to something on headphones. Those distractions can cause a slight loss of focus that leads to the wet thump of a large bag of overripe potatoes ungracefully hitting the forest floor.
Occlusion is not being able to see the trail in front of you. This happens when the weeds close in too much or, for me, when the dog is being a jerk, which is also distracting.
(That was act two, of the ‘how to not fall down’ screenplay, by the way. The challenge part.)
(Next is act three – the resolution.)
Having big-brained my way through the cause and effect I put my learnings into practice this morning.
My legs were still tired. This time from doing a workout that included 100 squats and lunges. My Quads were rubbery. I was still tired, due to having stayed up late to watch the Boston Celtics vanquish the Dallas Mavericks in the finals and become the winningest franchise in NBA history.
I focused on not being distracted. I left the phone at home. I focused on keeping my form clean – hips forward, shoulders high.
I held a higher cadence with a shorter stride length. The shorter stride length gives you more balance and a better, more stable, foot plant.
I recognized the highly technical sections and made sure to pay attention and even, god help me, slow down a bit – especially where it was hard to see the trail.
And I yelled at the dog to get him out of my line of sight.
Which didn’t help much.
But, bottom line, I ran tired, I ran early, I’m increasing my load, and I didn’t fall down.
Or up.
Or sideways.
In conclusion, for those of you who are afraid of trail running because you end up rolling in the dirt like an oversexed wombat, there is hope.
Just go back to the basics.
Do the right things right.
Remove the distractions.
Yell at the dog and you too can learn to not fall down.