Trail running

Trail running is a fun activity on its own and my main mean of “transportation” while exploring Hong Kong’s nature. A brief introduction here.

In this post you can find information about: Gear – technique & training basics – Group Running – Routes – Races

Gear

Summarized: get yourself some comfortable running shoes as light or protective as you would prefer (I like the former); fast dry non-cotton clothing. Once you start going longer invest in a decent running vest so that you can carry comfortably enough water, nutrition, and others. Decide if you need a GPS watch or just use a mobile app for navigation and tracking. I have written several posts explaining in detail: everything about shoes, the type of clothes I wear, how to avoid chafing, backpacks & hydration options, GPS watch/apps, and other tech including headlamps & PLBs.

Technique & training

You have your clothes and shoes, so ready to go, right? Ehhh… most surely not.

If you have not run regularly since you were a child and barefoot, your initial running technique might be far from efficient and safe. Not a big deal while you are running short, but something that can create injuries in the long run.

Ideally, you could hire a coach that can teach you the basics or do a full analysis of your biomechanics like this.

There are several options in Hong Kong: sportperformance, jointdynamics, sportsclinic, gonerunners among others, and tons of online options. If you don’t have the $$$ or you want to start on your own try to understand the basics. Approx 50% of the runners injure themselves yearly. Most of the times for very correctable issues.

Posture. Stay tall. Don’t hunch. Don’t bend on your belly, don’t look down to your feet even uphill. The upper body should be relaxed. The arms should move naturally in the opposite direction to the legs. Left leg moves to the front, right arm to the front. Your body trying to keep you balanced. Don’t fist your hands. As mentioned, you don’t want tension on your upper body. A good explanation that I got long ago is to keep your hand as if you were holding an egg. You don’t want it too open, or the egg would fall, nor too tight, or you would crush it.

Running is a “controlled falling”. When I’m teaching beginners, I like to ask them to stand tall in front of me. I put my palm on their forehead and I ask them to lean their weight on it, without bending “keep tall”, while I move slightly backward. Just a second later I remove my hand so that they have that falling feeling and how automatically one of the legs comes to the front. That is the position to keep while running. Ankle, hips, and head in line, slightly bend on the ankles forward.

Gait & cadence. Most people by default overstride. I have heard quite some times, above all from female friends: “If I want to run fast I need long legs and big steps”. Not really. It could work for a sprint, but for longer distances, most people need to focus instead on increasing their cadence (steps per minute) and most surely with shorter steps. When you overstride and land your foot too far in front of you, you are generating a huge force up against your leg. Physics, Newton’s Third Law: for every force in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction.

You hit the floor (green arrow) and it hits you back up (red arrow in the opposite direction that you are running) hurting whatever is the weakest joint in your lower body. Not only that but you are less efficient running as with each step you are braking yourself and then accelerating again. If the foot touches the ground closer to your body that force distributes better and can help you run more efficiently and with less risk of injury. Remember, you are falling, you are not trying to throw your leg in front as far as possible. See the second pic with Kipchoge with the correct positioning. Old video (360p 😅) but that explains what I mean, starting from 2m56sec.

You don’t want unnecessary lateral movement. Ask a friend to record you running on a treadmill. See if you bend sideways, or one of your feet misaligns & points outwards, or your knees bend inward, or your hip is not leveled, etc. Most surely, signs of muscle imbalance either because of lack of strength or not enough flexibility. Initially, it will just make you less efficient running. In the long run can generate discomfort, pain, or injuries in the joints (knee, hip, ankle) above or below the imbalance. The cross-training post has tons of exercises to prepare all the associated muscles. Strength, flexibility, mobility. If you are not able to solve the issue go to a physio specialized in running. They should be able to find the source of the problem and teach you how to train correctly to avoid/minimize it.

You could also be recorded while running outdoors. But the analysis will be more complicated.

If you watch slowly you can see that Summer, black tights, & Alexa, blue, run quite differently. Playback Speed 0.5, or pausing and using the “.” key to go frame by frame if watching it on a computer. Summer is more compact, both sides falling similarly, midfoot striking. Alexa has a clear misalignment in her right foot. You can watch that the front is pointing outwards when her foot is in the air and just before landing. Just to give you a reference of what you should be looking at. In this case, my non professional advise (still I think it is better for her to go to the physio) was to check her ankle and big toe flexibility.

I guessed that her right was significantly tighter and may be also some of her glut small muscles. The piriformis for example that externally rotates the hip. Mobility and stretching the remedy. A few exercises in the cross training post are related with it and you can find tons more in YouTube.

Breathing. Do it through your nose, as much as possible, not your mouth. Counterintuitive for a lot of people, above all swimmers. Your nose is able to control the temperature, moisture level & partly clean the air you put in. Old school running teachers used the water glass technique. A glass with water up to a mark, good enough to keep your mouth pretty full. Run several laps, return, put the water back in the glass, and check that the amount is approximately the same. If so you have been definitely nose breathing 😉 At least, try to breathe IN through your nose.

Heart rate. You can use it to assess your effort level. Quite some watches these days have decent heart rate monitoring sensors. Nevertheless, they are not the most accurate. If you want the best precision (for those with extreme readings) you will still need to use a dedicated chest strap. In any case, first, you would need to understand what that effort level means and how you can use it for your training/improvements. Read a bit about the training zones.

Most people train in a grey zone (too fast, but not hard enough) that is far from efficient. Here a proponent of lower-intensity training.

The rule of thumb is to train 80% of the time on lower effort levels and 20% really hard. For the latter think Hill repeats, hard speed intervals, tempo at race pace, etc. In my case, these days my lower intensity training is not run specific, mainly hiking, trail jogging between spots to check, swimming, coasteering, etc and the hard run stuff on the treadmill.

If you are just looking for the scientifically most efficient way of training and longevity you would need to go to approx 80% of zone 2 (slow jogging, initially you might even need to fast walk sometimes to keep the heart rate so low) + 20% of zone 5 (extremely hard, I want to die after 3 minutes, I have 3 minutes to rest and start again the cycle hard running). If you want to know much more about that check various videos on YouTube and writings of these two gentlemen: Iñigo San-Millán & Peter Attia.

What about trail running? The main concepts are the same. It tends to be more gentle for the body. Running on dirt paths is better for your body than concrete. Each step tends to be slightly different which helps avoid overuse of certain muscles/joints.

You won’t be looking towards the horizon as you could be doing on the road, but you need to look several steps ahead, a couple of meters in front, at least. So that you avoid holes, roots, etc while you find the safest/fastest way within the path. Never focus on where NOT to land. Our brain is wired in a way that will make you land on or close to that thing you are thinking about.

Uphill. If the slope is not too steep try to shorten your steps and keep the cadence and posture. No matter how fit you are if it gets too steep you will need to power hike. Find whichever is the position most comfortable for you. Do not bend down, try to keep a good posture so that you don’t affect your breathing. In my case, racing / hard training I pushed my quads. Test and find whatever works best for you.

Downhill. Gaining confidence and being able to run fast downhill in steep or technical terrain can be super fun. But don’t be a kamikaze. Not only because of potential accidents. Most of your soreness (or worse) the days after the run will come from the downhills. Even if you are only hiking. Most people think that the uphills are the most taxing for your body, but they are not. If you have a decent base, the steep uphills are mainly demanding for your cardiovascular system. Let’s call it your engine and gas tank. The downhills are more demanding on your brakes = lower body musculature. Eccentric movement, stopping yourself, creates more muscle micro tears. The faster you go, the harder you are using that musculature. In any case, try to increase the cadence even more. Try to move faster in a controlled way. Use gravity to your advantage. Use your arms for balance (here is OK to have them flying all around). Try not to lean back too much, even if you are scared the first times as your head sees all the fall below. Don’t stiffen up. Try to fall on your midfoot if running down on wet steps. Hard heel striking is not only bad for your joints, as explained before + added downhill speed force, but that + leaning backward is really the easiest way to slip & fall, as your center of gravity is far from the ground contact point. You will fall more on your heels and lean back more than when flat running, above all with very steep or technical terrain, but try to think about it to focus and minimize it.

Running poles. Same concept as the hiking poles but with the lightest materials. I seldom use them but you might want to understand how they can help you in hiking

or real trail running mode.

Group Running

Quite some people love the social aspect of running. There are concrete running groups like the Midnight Runners. The trail runners tend to create even further bonding as they tend to go a lot longer and mostly on talking speed. You can check various groups on Facebook like the HK Trail Running to ask for groups in the areas that you would be interested in running at. The meetups that I used to join seem not active these days, but you could try too: HKTrailRunners & Fast and Hard Hikes in Hong Kong.

A peculiar social running option is the Hash House Harrier groups. The group meets in a location (usually an MTR station or similar) without knowing the course to be run on. A couple of the members (the hares) start running first, approximately 20 minutes beforehand, and they mark with chalk, flour, and others the route. The fun is to try to find the way in a half competitive half collaborative way. The end of the run tends to be a place where to have drinks and chat.

I have only joined one of them, the T8 Hash HK. The auto-proclaimed “most dangerous Hash in the world”. It only happens when there is typhoon signal number 8 or higher 😅

Routes

Sections within the major hiking paths are the easy starting recommendation. Hong Kong Trail is approx 50 kilometers long, Lantau 70 km, Wilson Trail 78 km, and MacLehose Trail 100 km. So you have plenty to choose from.

Several routes that came to mind due to various reasons, explained. Those with specific post already written about directly linked.

· Shing Mun reservoir clockwise starting from the mini bus stop.

See full screen. Relatively flat, with several sections of concrete, but mainly on dirt paths. Well shaded and with several streams and creeks to cool down. Good to test beginners.

· From Shing Mun up to Tai Mo Shan through the path parallel to Tai Shing. My main trail running training ground as soon as it was getting a bit hot.

Very shaded, streams to cool down in and to replenish water with the filter, and the highest peak in HK for cooler temperatures (up to 7 degrees less) on the top. Steep in several sections. Not for beginners.

· Lion Rock area. The shorter training ground. A couple of posts about this area: Lion rock classic through the pink color starting from Wong Tai Shing for cooler days, or starting from Beacon Hill on the purple line for as many creeks and shade as you might want to cool down on hotter days.

· South Lantau Country trail, Pak Kung Au towards Mui Wo. Pretty, relatively flat, crossing Tsing Lung & Double Dragon streams, perfect to replenish if with a water filter, or cool down.

· Lantau 2 Peaks race old route clockwise. Explained further down. I have run this uncountable times. Steep demanding ascents, fun steep descents on the highest peaks in Lantau. Not for beginners.

· The West of Lantau trail. Pretty hills and coastline with less people than other parts of Lantau.

· Kai Kung Leng to Tai To Yan. Bare, with almost no shade, but very picturesque, with Shenzhen on the background. Sandy slippery. Winter fun.

· Hong Kong trail starting from HKU. Avoiding the HK trail section 1’s upper concrete and downhills from the Peak, by starting on Pik San Path.

See full screen. Mostly shaded and with tons of variants and exits, for longer/shorter options. I have marked Wan Chai Gap as a good end option. But you could go longer or shorter and accordingly your exit will be on the North or South of the Island.

· Pat Sin Leng. Up and down and up and down with some of the nicest views. For the hardcore add going all around Plover Cove reservoir (very exposed route with no exits).

· Yuen Tsuen ancient trail. The original path that connected Yuen Long and Tsuen Wan. The video with Summer, Alexa, and Tim was running there. Completely renovated.

I’ll keep on adding more later.

Races

I haven’t raced in a long while. In my very first year in Hong Kong, I ran the 10km in the Standard Charter marathon. We jumped the queue and started in the front area. Good decision. I finished it at almost 40 minutes. Not bad considering the several ups and downs + under the sea tunnel crossing required at that time. Several years later I ran the half marathon and I hated it. I was not aware of how many untrained people joined this kind of races & want to arrive early at the start line to set themselves as most in the front as possible 🤦‍♂️ So I started mid-pack and I spent the first 7km waiting, passing people left and right, needing to jump to the sides to pass some, sprint, slow down… There were people tired walking just after 1km! 🤦‍♂️ I clearly understood that the main goal for the majority running in these road races was to get their Facebook pic. So I ran it next time jumping the queue again. That way I was able to finish it in 1h28m30s and no more pure road racing for me.

I did a few duathlons (swim + trail run) and a couple of triathlons. Without bike practice, but the static bike at the gym. I don’t like riding a bicycle in Hong Kong. The roads are narrow and there is no bicycle culture = cars get dangerously close. It was fun anyhow to be able to catch and pass triathletes as soon as there was a steep slope up. No way to keep the pace downhill or even the flats with my rented basic bike versus their fancy extra light ones. Catch a few more in the run leg. It was an OK experience, but far from trail run races.

They are a lot more fun and varied. If you are new to this, start short and easy (not too steep or technical) and increase the difficulty while you find what type of races you like the most. Distances start as short as 5k to grueling 100 miles or more. As some old timers used to tell me: the longer you go the less running it is and the more an “eating competition” becomes. You need to keep a steady input of calories, mainly carbs, to be able to continue running really long. I am pretty bad at it. My stomach didn’t tolerate eating too much solid food and then running. Therefore, and because I liked to go fast, my preferred races were up to 3 hours, which I could do just drinking. Full nutrition post, explaining further.

Consider the terrain too. Some races are in major hiking paths. Therefore on well-maintained open paths, with, frequently, long stairs and concrete sections. Instead, you have more adventurous races with more bush and “fun” like King of the Hills and others.

Also, consider the total elevation gain. The most extreme would be a vertical kilometer race. Where you go up 1000m in total elevation in the shortest horizontal route possible. In HK, I raced up to Lantau Peak through the Dog’s Tooth. Quite fun, but not the cup of tea for most. They are all out maximal effort races.

To prepare for the race try to train according to the conditions you will face: distance, terrain, slope. The bulk can be the same: low effort consistent run or slope hike to build your cardio base. But you better do the hard training simulating the race. Definitely checking the route before can help you. The days before the competition try to reduce the workload and if it is a long race you might want to do a Carb-load. If it works or not is a bit debatable, but you can give it a try. A lot of people due to pre race stress don’t sleep much the day before. Take it easy. If you have rested correctly the previous days the impact will be small. Prepare all your gear the day before. Go early sleep. Keep yourself in bed for your usual hours even if you are not sleeping and try to meditate or else. Legs will be rested. Have a good breakfast that you know you would be able to digest fully. Head to the race. Go to the WC and try to pee and poo as much as possible. Go to the start line and enjoy!

My last race was epic. The 2017 Action Asia Lantau 2 Peaks “Skyrunners edition”. I had run the race a couple of times before. This third time the organization had changed a bit the course (from the original 21km & 1800m elevation to 23km). I didn’t know the reason, but I’d discover it soon 😅 I was never part of the really good runners in Hong Kong. It used to take me around 15% more time to end the race compared with the winners. Which usually meant being around or slightly faster than top females. As soon as we started running I realized that there were faster than usual runners that day. Including a few girls that were running really hard from the start. I tried to follow them on the roads till the start of the stairs up to Sunset Peak, thinking I should be able to pass them there.

Guessing that they were road runners… Nope! Even stronger on the uphill! So I let them go and I focused back on my originally planned speed. The good thing about initially trying to keep up with the front was to arrive at the stairs before the heavy rain completely changed the course 😅

I was able to climb at my own pace without almost anyone around me after I passed a few. Behind with the rain creating chocolate colored streams and waterfalls soon quite some people got trapped within the crowds and more than half of the participants decided to retire going back to the starting point.

In the meantime, we were “enjoying” the clouds on Sunset Peak and the completely muddy paths a bit later.

And the wind hit us too. Guts well over 100kph which made challenging even to keep the balance while climbing Lantau Peak.

The run down on the soaked rock stairs and the extremely slippery donkey trail was quite an adventure. But eventually, I arrived at the finish line and chatting around I understood what had happened.

The added distance was to make it comply with the international series requirements. And those ladies I was trying to chase were the elite of the international elite. With even my homeland national team participants. They smashed the route records. Even with heavy rain & typhoon winds (officially only T3 but the records showed over 140kph guts), the first male ran the whole 23k & almost 2k of elevation in 2h14m 🤯 Full story in Spanish.

After that race, I focused more on exploring Hong Kong out of the most common routes where I had been training. And I started creating my own challenges, like the run swim on the Northern islands. I also helped the community. Path cleaning & volunteering in races.

Sweeping the TransLantau, for example, was an interesting experience that I would recommend. Our duty was to jog/hike at the back of the race, behind the cut-off time. 17km from Tai O to Pak Kum Au.

Removing all the ribbons and signs from the race and taking care of the very last runners. We left Tai O main path Tung Chung direction just before sunset. As soon as we turned up the bush path heading towards the cable car I started seeing headlamps above. The very last participants, who I caught little by little. 60km+ and more than 18 hours in their race, the start of their second night, a bit disoriented.

One with an injured knee trying to continue by taking ibuprofen… Another was so tired that was asking me to pass them. “Ehhh… I can’t do that. I need to remove all the marks and you might get lost”. Another slightly delirious, with his stomach completely shut down, unable to eat or drink at all. Very slowly we hiked up the path until we arrived at the cable car. He asked me if we could sit for a few minutes. “For sure”. Supporting his head with his poles he… got asleep! Just a few minutes. He didn’t even realize. He woke up, vomited, and was able to continue with not much problem. The wonders of the human body. Once we arrived at the Control Point / Aid station all of them stopped and I could run a bit uphill towards Lantau Peak. Mid way I caught a group of three that were enjoying the challenge. In very good spirits. The top and descent got a bit tricky with dense fog in the dark. But they made it safely and within the cut-off time to Pak Kung Au. I ran down to Tung Chung and took a bus to go back home well past the mid night. Full story in Spanish.

Lastly, if you read 100 km/mile race and you thought it sounded crazy, there is a crazier challenge in HK: the HK4TUC. The 4 aforementioned main trails in one go (barely under 300km total & 14k+ of elevation) under 60/72 hours, including the transportation between the trails.

For the most hardcore.

PS: Apologies for not being able to credit the race photographers. I tried to go back the links of the original publications, but most are down… A few from Action Asia.