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Keep learning when trail running

December 24, 2023 — Nico Cartron

I love running in general, and trail running specifically, for many reasons, but also because you keep learning and getting experience.

Past learnings

When I ran my 2 first "long-ish" trails (> 50k) - the X-trail Corrèze and the SainteLyon, I "discovered" that I had muscles called "hamstrings" that were heavily used when going downhill, and if not trained properly, you would struggle a lot.

So I trained a lot to improve this, and this paid off as I didn't have any pain during the Trail du St Jacques (even though that was a DNF for me, but not because of training).

Latest learnings

I recently ran the 50k Nice by UTMB (blog post coming soon), and even though it went well, there are still things to learn from it, so buckle up!

What I need to work on/improve:

  • Quadriceps muscles: this race had pretty steep uphill sessions, so while I didn't suffer during the race, I could feel my quadriceps a lot during the next few days - and even on one of the steepest ascensions.
  • Alimentation: usually not an issue for me, but this time I could barely eat what I had brought (energy bars), and the food at the aid stations felt not better. Fortunately, I managed to eat soups with pasta, which helped a lot.
  • Backpack organization: I recently bought a new Salomon hydration backpack, which I tested while training, but on the race day, I had 2 additional flasks in the back, as well as plenty of things I didn't train with (headlamp, ...) so the last 2 hours of my race were a bit rough on my shoulders. I also found the mesh pockets of that bag to be a lot less convenient than my other Salomon S-LAB Ultra 8L. Definitely something I'll have to work on.

What went well

Of course there are also things that were OK, and that I improved based on my past experience:

  • Drink: I used a combination of Overstims nnergy drink (Hydrixir) and electrolyte drink, and unlike other races were the taste was sickening after a few hours, I had no such issue this time.
  • Alimentation: as mentioned above, soups saved me - so worth mentioning.
  • No pain in hamstrings
  • Descents went well
  • Uphill went well - close to cramps at some point but avoided them

Tags: Trail, Running


I don't have any commenting system, but email me (nicolas at ncartron dot org) your comments!
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I don't have any commenting system, but email me (nicolas at ncartron dot org) your comments!
If you like my work, you can buy me a coffee!


I don't have any commenting system, but email me (nicolas at ncartron dot org) your comments!
If you like my work, you can buy me a coffee!