Preparing for a trail race is much more than a sporting challenge! Wondering how to balance a busy daily life with training? How to adapt your program to your level, your goals, your environment, or even your menstrual cycle? In this guide, I offer you my best tips to fully experience your trail adventure!
Defining realistic and motivating objectives
It is essential to set clear objectives, whether short, medium, or long term, to motivate yourself and structure your training. For example, you could decide to participate in a 20 km race, improve your endurance on your usual routes, or beat your personal record over a certain distance. Each objective, even modest, allows you to see your progress.
By setting achievable steps, you can measure your improvements over time and celebrate each success. This reminds you that your efforts are paying off and encourages you to continue.
Finding time to train for the trail
In a busy life, it is not always easy to find time to train, especially when your schedule is already full between work, an active social life, and, for some, family life. However, there are several solutions to adapt your sessions to your reality. For example, it is not necessary to train five times a week from the start. A few well-planned sessions (3 or 4) may be enough to maintain a regular routine and allow you to progress at your own pace.
Another option is to take advantage of the lunch break. Running at lunchtime can be a practical solution, as is the case for me: this organization allows me to come back in the evening and enjoy a moment of relaxation, have time to cook or take care of myself. Getting up earlier for a morning session is also an alternative to consider. It’s not always easy at first, but by adopting this habit, you can go to bed earlier in the evening and organize your day more effectively.
If you are a mom, try to organize yourself to free up some time for yourself. This may involve scheduling your sessions based on family availability. Also, weekends are an excellent opportunity to extend your sessions. While weekday workouts typically last about an hour, you can take advantage of a Sunday morning for a longer outing, such as a trail walk-run, which can even become a family activity where everyone progresses at their own pace.
Even a 40 to 50-minute session is beneficial and represents time saved. These short time slots can easily fit into your day, whether it’s going to get bread, coming back from school after dropping off the kids, or even going to work by running.
Additionally, it is entirely possible to add endurance sessions or strengthening exercises at home. These easy and quick-to-implement sessions allow you to vary your training without having to travel. Our PPG module available on the app, for example, allows you to strengthen yourself to avoid injuries, directly from your home for shorter or longer durations depending on your availability.
Personalized training plan adapted to your schedule
Training for the trail means building a customized plan adapted to your level and goals, taking into account your schedule and personal constraints.
With RunMotion Coach, you choose when to do your sessions: during the week, prioritize short and effective sessions, and on weekends, opt for a longer outing. You can even adapt your workouts to the accessible terrains around you. This evolving plan allows you to progress at your own pace, stay motivated, and avoid overtraining.
Vary your training according to your environment
The choice of terrain is a key element to diversify and optimize your trail training. Depending on the environment in which you evolve, you can exploit different surfaces and elevations to specifically work on your endurance, speed, balance, and resistance. For example, urban courses allow you to enjoy green spaces, bike paths, and variations in surfaces, while natural terrains in the mountains offer rugged trails and elevation changes, ideal for strengthening your stability and getting used to the unexpected challenges of trail running.
On RunMotion, you can specify the terrains to which you have access. Whether you have long climbs, short slopes, access to the mountains, or only an urban environment, the training plan adapts to your situation. The app offers you sessions designed to make the most of your training conditions!
Adapting your training to your menstrual cycle
The menstrual cycle influences your energy level and recovery capacity. By taking into account your different phases, you can adjust the intensity of your training to maintain your progress and motivation. Some moments lend themselves to more intense efforts, while others require gentler sessions, or even abstaining from running if you are in too much pain, not in the mood, or feeling weak. By integrating these adjustments, you remain attentive to your body and avoid overdoing it. If you are interested in the subject, check out our comprehensive article right here!
Muscle strengthening to prevent injuries
Trail running involves many muscles and increases the risk of injury, which is why it is important to include strength training sessions. By working on your core strength, stability, and leg strength with exercises like squats and lunges, you effectively prepare yourself to face technical sections and unexpected challenges on the trails. The advantage is that you can do these sessions at home, making them less cumbersome to integrate into your daily life.
Women more enduring than men in ultra-trail
While men seem to prevail on certain distances, ultra-endurance offers women a unique opportunity to demonstrate their perseverance and their effort management. In ultra-trail, nothing is impossible: this is where our potential is fully revealed.
On standard distances (marathon or lower), men run on average 10 to 12% faster than women. In ultra-trails (100 km and more), this gap narrows, and in some races, the top women finish ahead of men.
This can be explained by several reasons:
Women tend to manage their pace better over time, avoiding too fast starts and optimizing their energy consumption. At UTMB® Mont-Blanc, it’s very noticeable when analyzing the top 200 in the overall standings. It often happens that women finish in the same time as men who are 1 hour ahead at mid-race.
From a physiological point of view, women have a higher proportion of slow-twitch muscle fibers (type I) than men. They are generally less explosive but have more endurance. Furthermore, they have a better ability to use fats as an energy source, delaying the depletion of glycogen reserves.
Finally, find your balance and progress at your own pace
Training for the trail as a woman is not so different from when you are a man, but taking into account certain specificities can be very useful. It’s about finding the right balance between a customized training plan, realistic goals, and sessions that take into account your environment and constraints. By regularly combining complete sessions — including endurance, strength, and recovery — you prepare yourself to meet the challenges of the trail while preserving your health and motivation. One never regrets a trail run. So put on your sneakers, organize your workouts, and head out to the trails: every stride brings you closer to your goals.