Rachel Tomajczyk
“Trail racing is way more fun when a runner has stamina and endurance on the trails. Over the two years I’ve been racing in trails I’ve been able to build more endurance which has translated to faster times and a smaller chance of bonking in a race. Here are two workouts I do that help build stamina in the trails:
Run easy for 15 minutes to warm up, 30-45 minutes at threshold, 15 minutes easy to cool down. “Threshold” is a pace I could keep up for about an hour so this is a challenging pace but I finish feeling like I could have kept this pace up a little longer if I needed to.
2-3 hour long run with 30 minutes easy, 90 minutes at steady state, easy for the rest of the run. “Steady State” is a pace about 30-45 seconds faster than my normal easy pace. It’s a medium effort run so I should feel like I could keep that pace up a lot longer if I needed to.
Try out these workouts and watch how your stamina improves in the trails.”
Reid Burrows
“The best workout in my opinion for building stamina on the trails is to run steady for an extended period of time. This isn’t something you need to do every week but often in trail running we spend a lot of time exploring and enjoying the views on our long runs.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with this approach and it’s why most of us love trail running. I will stop on my easier runs to take pictures of the trails or landscapes. As you get closer to your goal race or FKT attempt, it’s important to limit your overall stop time on your run (time you’re not running) and run at a
sustainable effort for the entirety of the run. It’s not an all-out race effort by any means. I would describe it as running with intention and purpose. You can string together a sentence but it’s not easy to carry a conversation if you were will someone. On a scale of 1-10, I would describe the effort as a 5 or 6. I try to do this sort of effort for anywhere between 30 mins and 90 minutes. I do these sorts of runs without company and with my race specific nutrition so I can be ready on race day.”
Remi Leroux
20 minutes all-uphill tempo: “Tempo effort during 20 minutes on an all uphill course. This is a great workout to learn how to pace yourself going uphill and will greatly increase your aerobic capacity. The key is to not start too fast which can be tempting for an uphill effort.”
30-30 intervals: “I like to do this workout on non-technical steep terrain such as ski slopes. The workout consists of 30 second almost all-out intervals running up the hill followed by 30 seconds very easy hiking up. This is a great workout to introduce high intensity on your training as the low duration of the recovery obliges you to keep a high heart rate for the entirety of the training. It is also great to learn how to continue moving uphill during the recoveries even when you are tired following the 30 second efforts.”
