7 articles
Trail running, orienteering and adventure racing: getting started, improving and preparing for races.
Running on trails isn’t quite the same as running on pavement: the ground changes with every stride, climbs break your rhythm, descents demand focus, and your watch loses some of its authority. This section helps you make the switch, from your first runs off the road to getting ready for a race with serious elevation gain, with a stop at orienteering, where the map matters as much as your legs.
Getting better starts with understanding what you’re doing. We explain how to build up gradually, work climbs and downhills into your training, manage your effort when the profile gets complicated, and estimate how long a route will take once elevation gain is factored in. Numbers always come explained, with their units and what they actually measure, rather than handed out as recipes. For orienteering, the guides cover reading a specialized map, using a compass and picking a route between two controls.
On the gear side, we help you read spec sheets for trail shoes, hydration vests, headlamps and rain jackets, make sense of the jargon that keeps popping up and figure out what matters on the trails you run. Before a race, we explain how to read the rules and the mandatory gear list, which isn’t there just to weigh you down. Comparisons are based on what manufacturers publish, with sources cited, and a first-hand take, when there is one, carries the name of the person who actually ran in that gear.
Running outdoors also means sharing trails and respecting the places you pass through: trail etiquette with hikers and horseback riders, staying on the tread instead of widening it, and the rules of parks and protected areas, which we quote from official sources. 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 bibs who wants to fine-tune their training. And when the days get shorter, running by headlamp has its place too, from lighting up the trail to staying visible.
Trail runningChecklist
Seven guides from brands, retailers and coaches mostly agree: 2 to 5 liters 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 counts: required gear, the distance between aid stations and loaded weight decide, and smart packing is what separates a vest you forget about from one that bounces all over.
Nolwenn Bastide··9 min
Max heart rate, Karvonen reserve or threshold: three ways to calculate your heart rate zones for trail running, with a worked example and each method’s limits.
Julien de Jurquet··10 min
A 15K trail race run entirely at night: a headlamp that wouldn’t stay put, a beam aimed too low, misjudged roots, and the fixes to make before the start.
Damien Poirier-Boucard··11 min
Terrain, climbs, downhills, the gear race rules actually require, how to build up based on research, common mistakes, and your first race bib.
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 your terrain.
Nolwenn Bastide··11 min
Training for your first trail race: a four-phase plan, climbs and descents, recovery, the taper, plus France’s health pass if you’re racing there.
Nolwenn Bastide··8 min
100 m of climbing counts as 1 km: how to figure a trail race’s km-effort, read its ITRA points, and what the rule misses: downhills and rough terrain.
Nolwenn Bastide··8 min
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