On a high: Steve’s enjoying the natural joy of trail running
Earlier this year, we invited you to enter a competition to win an all-expenses-paid trip to the BUFF® Epic Trail, a hot and hilly marathon in the mountains of northern Spain. It’s certainly not a challenge for the faint-hearted, but many of you threw your trail shoes into the ring hoping to be selected. Picking a winner was almost as difficult as the race itself, but we finally decided on Steve Pennington, a 47-year-old road runner looking to migrate across to the off-road world.
Here are six things he’s learned about the rugged joys of trail running, with just a couple of weeks to go until the race itself:
1. timing is everything
The training plan that Robbie Britton has constructed for me is based on time rather than mileage. He never gives me a certain distance to run, rather instructions such as ‘30 minutes easy’. I’m probably only doing 50-60 miles a week, which is low for me, but the change in terrain means it’s really demanding. Overall, it’s a totally new way of training and I’m loving it.
2. strava stress
I’ve been instructed to head for the roughest, toughest terrain around, which for me means heading to Saddleworth in the Pennines. It’s playing havoc with my reputation on Strava, though, as I’m doing something daft like 17min/miles on the most extreme sections. My friends will be looking at these splits and going, “Steve, what’s going on – you used to be faster than this?”
3. look who’s walking
As a dyed-in-the-wool road runner, the idea of walking mid-run was previously unthinkable. But I’m having to change my perspective. Robbie’s told me it’s OK to walk some of the steepest stuff, so I’m having to swallow my pride. This week, I told my wife, “You’re not going to believe it, but I walked up a hill today.” I was a bit ashamed but, because she’s from an ultrarunning background, she was like, “Yeah, so what?”
4. Hurts like hills
I was warned that Robbie loves his hill sessions, but nothing could have truly prepared me for it. This week, I’ve been doing two days of hill intervals. These are things like tempo 5 x 3mins on an off-road section, working hard on the ups and recovering on the downs. As someone who’s spent year’s running on the flat, my body’s just not used to it. It’s a challenge.
5. Give it a rest
I’ve always trained seven days a week, often with a few double days thrown in. Robbie disapproves of this, and encourages me to take Friday off. We’ve reached a compromise. On the schedule it now says ‘Easy run or rest’. At the minute I’m taking the former option, but it’s good to have the rest as a backup if I need it!
6. Running epiphany
About two weeks ago, I climbed up this bloody big hill, and there were fantastic views all around. I felt great. It was nice to be off the road and away from everything. I just thought, “Life doesn’t get better than this.” It reminded me why I started running – to be in the great outdoors – and I wondered why I’d forgotten that. I’ve been able to rediscover the things I loved when I first started running.
