8 articles
Trail running, orienteering and adventure racing: getting started, improving and preparing for races.
Running on a trail is not quite the same as running on the road: the ground changes with every stride, climbs break your rhythm, descents demand attention, and the stopwatch loses some of its authority. This section helps you make that switch, from your first runs off the tarmac to preparing for a race with real climbing, by way of orienteering, where the map matters as much as your legs.
Improving starts with understanding what you are doing. We explain how to build up sensibly, work climbs and descents into your training, manage your pace when the profile gets complicated, and estimate how long a route will take once the ascent is factored in. The figures are always explained, with their unit and what they actually measure, rather than handed out as recipes. For orienteering, the guides cover reading a specialist map, using a compass and choosing a line between two controls.
On the kit side, we help you read the spec sheets for trail shoes, race vests, head torches and waterproof jackets, make sense of the jargon that keeps cropping up and work out what matters on the paths you run. Before a race, we explain how to read the rules and the mandatory kit list, which is not there simply to weigh your pack down. Comparisons are based on what manufacturers publish, with sources cited, and a first-hand opinion, where there is one, carries the name of the person who actually ran in the kit.
Running outdoors also means sharing paths and respecting the places you cross: courtesy towards walkers on narrow sections, not widening the path, and the rules of protected areas, which we quote from the official texts. These guides follow the runner lacing up a first pair of trail shoes just as closely as the one with a drawer full of race numbers who wants to sharpen their preparation. And when the days draw in, running by head torch has its place too, from lighting the path properly to staying visible.
Trail runningChecklist
Seven guides from brands, retailers and coaches broadly agree: 2 to 5 litres for up to two hours of running, 5 to 8 for up to about ten hours, 10 to 15 for ultras. Those ranges hide what really matters: the mandatory kit, the distance between aid stations and the loaded weight decide, and packing is what separates a vest you forget about from one that slops around.
Nolwenn Bastide··9 min
Maximum, Karvonen reserve or threshold: three ways to calculate your heart rate zones for trail running, with a worked example and the limits of each.
Julien de Jurquet··11 min
A 15 km trail race run entirely at night: a head torch that would not stay put, a beam aimed too low, misjudged roots, and the fixes to make before the start.
Damien Poirier-Boucard··11 min
Waterproof jacket and hydrostatic head, head torch, survival blanket, water, cup: what eight European trail races demand, and why they check it.
Nolwenn Bastide··16 min
Terrain, climbs, descents, the kit race rules actually ask for, how to build up according to research, common mistakes and your first race number.
Nolwenn Bastide··15 min
Drop, stack height, lugs, membrane, width: what the numbers on a trail shoe measure, what research says about them and what to choose for each kind of terrain.
Nolwenn Bastide··11 min
Training for your first trail race: a four-phase plan, climbs and descents, recovery, the taper, and the FFA health pass for racing in France.
Nolwenn Bastide··8 min
100 m of ascent counts as 1 km: how to work out a trail race’s km-effort, read its ITRA points, and what the rule misses: descents and technical ground.
Nolwenn Bastide··8 min
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