A beginner’s guide to trail running on Colorado moutain trails – The Denver Post

Verney Green prefers running on trails to pounding pavement because running isn’t that enjoyable for him in the first place. He does it for the health benefits, and he finds the wide array of trails in the foothills near his home in Golden less monotonous because of the scenery and wildlife they offer. He said he likes being “immersed in the nature of the experience.”

Tracey Hulick comes to the trails from the opposite perspective. She’s not looking for distractions when she runs. She likes the way trail running demands her full attention.

“When I’m running a road or a path that’s paved, I think about everything and nothing,” said Hulick, who finished second in the Bear Chase 50-mile trail race at Bear Creek Lake Park last fall. “I’ll think about work tomorrow, and this book I want to read, and this post I want to do — my mind’s all over the place.

“When I’m on a trail, I can’t think about anything else, other than looking at the trail, knowing where I am. Even on my worst trail runs, it always feels like a running meditation, because as soon as you start thinking about other stuff, you’re going to get lost, or you’re going to trip and fall, or both. It keeps me so present, so in the moment. I just love it.”

Front Range runners have all sorts of inviting trails in parks and open spaces to explore, especially at the western edge of the metropolitan sprawl where the plains end and the mountains rise. Trails in the foothills offer gorgeous views, solitude, serenity, challenging workouts and wildlife sightings.

“Trails are always magical,” said Hulick, a Wisconsin native who moved here largely for the trail running last year, “but they are magical on steroids in Colorado.”

A road runner interested in trying trail running should be aware that the differences between the two go beyond the obvious. Knowing what to expect can ease the transition and help to avoid bad experiences.

Boulder’s Kara Goucher is a former elite marathoner, a two-time Olympian and world championships medalist in track and field. She took up trail running this year at age 40 and learned that navigating steep terrain required a major adjustment. Obviously running uphill is harder, but running downhill on trails riddled with roots and loose rock can be difficult, too.

“I had so much fear of falling and looking stupid,” Goucher said. “Don’t get me wrong, there are times I’m coming down and I’m still scared, but I’m getting out there and doing it. I would say, just go for it. It’s so much fun, and it’s going to put a totally different lens on your experience of running.”

Experienced trail runners accept the fact that they won’t run as fast on trails as they can on roads because of the elevation changes, the softer surface and the rocks, roots and other obstacles that may be hard to spot.

“Forget about any concept of pace,” said Green, 57, a retired geophysicist. “Every run is different. In road running you can say, ‘I’m an 8-minute mile guy.’ In trail running, you can’t have a pre-conceived thought of what kind of pace you should be running.”

Keep in mind the faster pace you can run on descents almost never offsets the slower pace of ascents because of the extra care required while running downhill. Even relatively flat trails are slower.

“Allow yourself to run slower on the trails than you do on the road, because there’s no way you’re going to run as fast,” Hulick said. “Don’t be surprised if you’re a good minute (per mile) slower on trails than you are on a road route. It’s more work. Also, your stride has to be different. I had to completely redo my stride to pick my feet up more and use my arms more because I was tripping all the time.

“Just that subtle practice of using your legs to pick up your feet more, it’s a lot of work and it’s taxing,” she says. “That was a frustrating part of my experience, but I had to do that in order to be more proficient and glide over the rocks rather than tripping on every other rock that’s out there.”

Road runners measure their runs by distance and pace per mile. Trail runners tend to measure their runs by duration.

“It’s all about time on your feet and running on tired legs,” Hulick said. “It’s nice because then you don’t get so in your head about performance, and to me it feels like less pressure. It’s like, ‘I’m just going to go out and run for three and a half hours.’ It doesn’t feel like as much pressure as saying, ‘Now I’ve got to run around on this mountain for 15 miles, how long is that going to take?’ It’s a different approach that I think is a lot less mentally taxing than calculating splits and exact mileage.”

Wildlife encounters are almost always benign, although you could see a rattlesnake occasionally. And we shouldn’t forget the trail runner who killed a mountain lion that attacked him in the mountains west of Fort Collins this year. A trail runner was killed by a mountain lion near Idaho Springs in 1991.

Some other tips:

• Shoes designed for trail running are built sturdier with more traction than road shoes, making them well worth the investment.
• Know where you’re going, because it’s a lot easier to get lost on trails than it is on roads in the city.
• Familiarize yourself about what to do if you see a rattlesnake or a mountain lion.
• Consider running with some sort of hydration system, and consider carrying basic first aid items.

Green started doing just that after falling on his face 5 miles into a trail run at Centennial Cone Park in the hills west of Golden.

“I’ve always said running is safer than biking — I mountain bike as well — but I’ve had my worst two crashes in the last 10 years while running, not on the bike,” Green said.

Even though trail running is harder and potentially more dangerous than road running, trail runners say the trade-offs are worth it. Hulick did the Bear Chase 50-miler last October in 9 hours, 31 minutes to prove a kidney donor could succeed at that distance. This year, she plans to do the Bear Chase 100-kilometer race (62.1 miles).

“I feel like I grow as a person in that sport,” Hulick said. “It’s hard and it’s a lot of work, but it pushes you so much more in terms of being strong and adaptable. Like, ‘I still can’t believe I can run up a mountain.’ It gives me a lot of confidence that I can do stuff like that.”

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