Fast questions

23 April 2009 // Tag :

FAST QUESTION: I am a Trail beginner

The distance is revealing the difficulty of the event? How to compare with a “road” distance?

It is obvious that the more the distance will be long, the more the race will be difficult during kilometres. But in Trail, there is an important parameter to look besides the distance: the difference in level (sum of all the ascents and the descents). The race duration can evolve from the simple to the double for an equivalent distance according to difference in level.

Is Trail more difficult, less difficult than the road? We think that Trail is just as much accessible. There is no this “obligation” to run all the distance, nor the “pressure” of the chronometer. Coast will be made anyway by walking, and the descents will allow to recover. The variety of grounds and landscapes allows not to grow tired during kilometres, and you can think about other things for your spirit than a simple ribbon of asphalt.

FAST QUESTION: Is it necessary to make only some stamina to prepare a Trail?

NO! It is the most wide-spread error. To get ready, many people transform their programs exclusively into outings with a two hours duration or more. Nevertheless, do you not do long outings to prepare a marathon? To prepare a trail, it is also necessary to work the various usual speeds of the running: VMA, THRESHOLD, and STAMINA.
If we look for less a regular rhythm than on the road, it is important with trail that the mechanics and the engine are prepared to work on high regime in order to not stall in coast and to have boost. When we are on a quality session (VMA or THRESHOLD), it is necessary to approach it with freshness, and not to make one hour before and one hour after. A too important weekly mileage will bring you nothing more for the trail. A stamina session once a week is sufficient, and twice is a maximum.

FAST QUESTION: sticks are useful for trail?

By climb, to grow on sticks participate in the effort by associating top muscles in the body. It allows to relieve thighs in an effective way. It is very advised, provided that coast is rather long and rather stiff to pull a profit compensating for the supplementary weight of sticks.

By descent, a good level runner who has got a good position will feel more at ease without sticks and will weaken better with a good balance. The great majority of the good downhillers tidy up sticks in their bag during the descent.

But sticks can show themselves useful for the weaker downhillers. They are going to find two supplementary support points. But even with sticks, it will always be necessary to watch to loosen well and to make work thighs as shock absorbers.

FAST QUESTION: what is the difference in level?

For every coast we climb, we measure the difference of height in metres between the summit and the low point. The difference in level is the accumulation of all these ascents. So, to climb 100m of difference in level in a 25% coast does not correspond to 100m of distance, but more than 400m of distance.

We consider generally that 100m of difference in level amounts to 1km on the flat.

We distinguish:

 The positive difference in level (D+), which is the different level to be climbed (sum of the ascents);

 The negative difference in level (D-), which is the different level to be gone down (sum of the descents);

 The accumulated difference in level, which is the sum of D + and of D-.

It is important to know if the organizer talks about accumulated difference in level or positive difference in level. For example, “D 6,000” is a total difference in level, (D+ = 3,000m, D- = 3,000m), while in the “Grand Raid de la Réunion”, the 8,000m difference in level is only the positive difference in level. Therefore, the accumulated difference in level is 16,000 m!