9 Benefits of Trail Running

Every week, I look forward to my long run on trails. Rain or shine, hot or cold, solo or in a group, the trails are a place of joy and adventure. There are so many reasons to love the trails — more reasons than I can possibly list! — but here are nine benefits of trail running to get you started!

Daisy Wilson rocking the Brooks Calderas on a particularly fun rock at Occoneechee Mountain!

1) It can help with strength, balance, flexibility, and agility

Because the terrain is variable, it forces you to use different muscles, and move your body differently. Unlike road running where you have a fairly predictable and repetitive movement and impact — efficient, sure, but repetitive and prone to overuse — technical trails introduce more lateral movements, different stride lengths, paths that aren’t straight, and more elevation gain and loss. As you twist and turn down the winding trail, leap and bound over obstacles, power up and down hills, and push off uneven surfaces, you are working your muscles, tendons, and joints in dynamic ways, and therefore building strength, flexibility, balance, and agility, and protecting yourself from repetitive impacts and injuries.

2) It can help you tune into your body and be aware of pacing

When the trail twists and turns and goes up and down hill at different grades, your energy exertion can vary. So instead of maintaining pace, trail running can help you tune into maintaining rate perceived effort (RPE) and how your body feels while running. This awareness can also be translated back to running roads by checking in on your RPE on any run. And for those who race on trails, the differences and challenges of each course can help you focus more on the experience and less on the pace and time, since a certain pace for one course could be a very different effort on another course (which is why, for trail runners who race, you’ll often hear them talk about course PRs).

The Fleet Feet Trails group from summer 2022 explores Occoneechee Mountain singletrack trails!

3) It can help you ditch the watch

Do you find yourself addicted to screens — including your GPS watch screen? Are you the type of runner whose head flicks down to check your wrist throughout your run? Do you get distracted by data and immediate performance feedback? Trails can help you break that screen addiction! By focusing on RPE (rate perceived effort) instead of pace, you can run more freely, and by enjoying the scenery or keeping an eye on your footing, you’ll keep your eyes busy and away from those screens.

4) It can help you improve your running form

Technical terrain can trip you up if you don’t pick up your feet, so running trails can naturally improve your running form by having you pick up your feet and drive with your knees forward. It can also help you engage your posterior chain, core, and arms as you adapt to the course.

5) It can help you build resilience and problem-solving skills

Run on trails long enough, and eventually you’ll run into problems you need to solve — whether it’s GI issues or blisters or sudden bad weather or route-finding or a twisted ankle or fall, or any sort of mishaps. All of these are challenges, but they can help you build resilience, self-reliance, and help you improvise and problem-solve on the spot.

A rare pic of me in action on the trails! Thanks for the photo Ashley Schoenfisch!

6) It can help with wellness and well-being — including improving mental health

There are so many incredible benefits of running and nature — and trail running combines them! Whether it’s shinrin-yoku (forest bathing), or a nature prescription, spending time in nature has so many physiological and mental benefits including: reducing stress and cortisol level; lowering blood pressure and cholesterol; lowering rates of heart disease, diabetes, asthma, and stroke; lowering rates of vision issues and myopia; improving sleep; improving immunity; increasing attention and focus; and lowering rates of depression and anxiety.

Need more proof of all these benefits? Check out all these benefits of being in nature from Park Rx America, American Psychological Association, and Positive Psychology.

Fleet Feet Trails runners at the Mountains-to-Sea marker at Blue Jay Point County Park. Pic courtesy of Martin Wileman!

7) It can connect you with community

Run clubs are nearly ubiquitous, but the trail running community is its own subset of the running community, and can be a great way to connect with other local runners.

8) You can go on adventures!

Whether you’re exploring your backyard, road-tripping across your state, racing, exploring trails halfway around the world, adventuring with friends, or setting an FKT, there are so many options for adventures out there on the trails — or “run-ventures” as I like to call them!

9) It’s fun!

Let’s be honest, when it really comes down to it, running trails is just a ton of fun! Splash through puddles, feel awe at nature’s beauty, go exploring, bond with friends, feel self-reliant and confident, be grateful for your own strong capable body, and find something new in the world and in yourself with every run. No matter what benefit or motivation you have for running trails, just get out there and have fun, and I’ll see you out there!