Why do we run trails?
Trail running has become a key part of our health and wellbeing program in 2024, offering awesome experiences in nature for 17 of our young athletes. Following the success of our recent trail running adventures to Marysville (April 2024) and Lake Mountain (July 2024), we have witnessed firsthand the profound impact these adventures have on our young athletes. Whilst the trails might seem a long way from the flat beachside racing that many will experience over the summer triathlon season, our coaches have been very deliberate in introducing trail adventures and trail races into our Momentum Triathlon Academy Program. Here’s 4 reasons why…
Building Camaraderie: We found that the two trail adventures in winter 2024, to Lake Mountain and Marysville were a great way to bring our young athletes together in a non competitive environment, doing something different, somewhere different. In particular, our Trail Adventures, which were supported and funded by CoMade, took our athletes just outside of their comfort zones, challenging them in nature and exploring places they had never been before, whilst in a supportive, safe environment. The response from parents and athletes was fantastic and definitely brought the group together, forming friendships that have then continued to grow through inter-school competitions and our own training environments. It was particularly impressive to see our younger members chatting freely with their older, more experienced team mates, something they would be unlikely to do in a school environment.
Racing with Less Pressure. If you’ve ever been to a trail running race, one of the key things you will notice is the more relaxed and supportive nature of the event. These are events where it is expected that you walk up the hills, where the times are not really comparable to other events and the emphasis is on accessibility for all different ages and abilities. As coaches, we think that regular racing can be an important part of a young athletes development, but picking the right times and places to race is key to building confidence, skills and abilities. Trail running events add a low pressure and importantly non-comparable option over the triathlon off season for our young athletes to express themselves and enjoy some different racing.
Building Strength, confidence and resilience: For many of our young athletes living in Melbourne, they are not regularly exposed to hills, mountains and bush land in their training, simply because of where they live. Adding in trail running adventures or events has built strength in their running confidence in their abilities and resilience to challenge themselves. Prior to our trail adventures, none of these young athletes had previously tried trail running and they are now regularly challenging themselves and finishing on podiums in their age groups at local trail running events around Victoria! It has been very evident that these types of challenges, when done in a supportive environment, also give our young athletes perspective on the rest of their training and racing. If they can run up a muddy 500m hill whilst climbing over fallen trees, in the cold, with their friends, what else might they be able to do?
Alignment with school sport: Schools around Melbourne tend to have their cross country season over winter, so fitting some trail running in with mud, hills, inclement weather gives them some specific training for cross country whilst adding in the variety, challenge, camaraderie and strength mentioned above. As coaches, we are big fans of cross country training and racing for triathletes in the off season. Trail running races are often longer and more technically challenging than school cross country races, so can provide a good training stimulus and a useful shift in mental perspective on their school races.
A special thank you goes to CoMade for their generous funding of our two trail running adventures over winter. We are very grateful for their support in making these adventures possible. We are also delighted with the enthusiasm and support from parents and our young athletes. Everyone is already curious what we might tackle for our next adventures!