Differences Between Elite Road and Trail Runners with Frederic Sabater Pastor, PhD (2023) #216
Episode overview:
Frederic Sabater Pastor is a CTS ultrarunning coach with a PH.D. in Exercise Physiology and experience coaching athletes for a variety of challenges. He is also a Postdoctoral researcher at the Inter-university Lab of Human Movement. His area of focus are running, trail, performance, physiology and fatigue.
Episode highlights:
(32:02) Training differences: road runners 20 hrs/week, trail runners 10 hrs/week, road runners cross train and strength train more, overall road volume is double despite race duration being up to 10x less
(37:11) Why are trail runners stronger: do runners self-select, is trail running innately better strength training, strength training is a broad term
(51:38) Specificity of running economy: train for specificity, changing protocols from road training, strides over technical terrain, differences in strength training
Our conversation:
(0:00) Introduction: setting up the study, re-introducing Frederic as a CTS coach
(1:53) Comparing marathoners and ultramarathoners: Guillaume Millet’s 2011 presentation
(3:46) the research environment, getting access to elite training camps, study outline, limited testing around athlete training
(6:54) The traveling lab: logistics of studying training camps, appreciation of research limitations
(8:38) Study design: comparing elite road and trail runners, hypothesis and strength testing
(10:10) Measuring “eliteness”: comparing French national level champions in both the road and trail scene, discussing reasonable similarity, ITRA scores
(14:27) Strength tests: Isometric strength test, force-velocity profile, avoiding sprinting tests due to skill discrepancies and risk of injury
(18:14) Running economy: cost of running, treadmill testing and paces, using consistent sub-threshold paces to compare male and female runners, biomechanics measurements
(20:53) Training metrics: training questionnaire, recap of variables tested
(21:48) Strength test results: no differences in isometric strength per bodyweight, trail runners produce higher force despite road runners strength training more, importance of dynamic tests
(24:04) Biomechanics results: no differences in flight time or contact time, measurement limitations, discussing the graded exercise test
(28:37) Running economy results: road runners have better economy at 7 min/mile pace, no differences in uphill running at 10% grade, differences likely appear at the extremes, challenges of transporting treadmills
(32:02) Training differences: road runners 20 hrs/week, trail runners 10 hrs/week, road runners cross train and strength train more, overall road volume is double despite race duration being up to 10x less
(34:42) Professionalism in road vs. trail: athlete occupations, examples, impacts on training
(37:11) Why are trail runners stronger: do runners self-select, is trail running innately better strength training, strength training is a broad term
(40:36) Strength training speculation: muscle mass complications, diet, recovery, discussing potential programming errors from a coaching lens
(43:11) Athlete takeaways: training strength, future research on durability
(44:12) Relevance of running economy: importance in the road versus trail space, why road runners focus on running economy
(46:56) Discussing road versus trail economy: examples, studying running economy on trails and track, there are more variables in trail running
(49:40) Specificity of running economy: train for specificity, changing protocols from road training, strides over technical terrain, differences in strength training
(52:46) Banter: can road runners succeed in the trail space, ultramarathon running is more than running, examples, differences in physiology and skills
(55:58) Koop’s 10% conjecture: trail specificity is worth at 10% or more in physiological terms, examples
(57:00) Frederic’s specificity conjecture: training physiological durability, DNF factors
(58:21) Wrap-up: deriving practicality from research
(58:50) Outro: giving thanks, the value of talking to researchers, strength running takeaway, share the podcast
Additional resources:
Trail Runner Magazine’s coverage of this paper
SUBSCRIBE to Research Essentials for Ultrarunning
Buy Training Essentials for Ultrarunning on Amazon or Audible
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