5 Trail Running Tips to Help You Love The Night
Posted by David Hanenburg on 11 May 2010 at 2:26 pm | Tagged as: trail running or ultrarunning
Training – Racing – Darkness
At some point in your trail running adventures you may experience a new world, the world of darkness. This may be during some crazy training run or a 100 mile race.
This new light-less, dirt loving experience can be both exhilarating and uncomfortable. With a little awareness, the darkness can become like a best friend in which you look forward to every opportunity to spend time together.
Here are five night-time trail running tips to jump-start that new relationship.
1. Got Light?
Unless you have night-vision skills, you will need to illuminate the path in front of you. Most runners use a headlamp. Some will simply use a handheld light. A few others will use a headlamp / handheld combination. There may be a few other options but I would say the majority of trail runners use the above methods with headlamps dominating.
There are plenty of quality light sources out there. I am a headlamp fan as I like to keep my hands-free and available to do other things (eat, drink, catch my fall, etc). For more technical running with many hours of darkness, I like serious light and have been using the Petzl MYO XP (my review). For less technical and shorter periods of darkness, I use a older model of the Petzl Tikka Plus2 (less bright but lighter).
Below are some light distance over time (30 mins and 10 hours) manufacturer data that provide a relative idea on the amount of light output between three Petzl headlamp models. These distances are at maximum light settings and provide a nice range of trail running brightness levels depending on your needs.
- Petzl MYO XP – (time = 30 mins, light distance = 59 meters), (time = 10 hours, light distance = 39 meters)
- Petzl Tikka XP2 – (time = 30 mins, light distance = 38 meters), (time = 10 hours, light distance = 18 meters)
- Petzl Tikka Plus2 – (time = 30 mins, light distance = 26 meters), (time = 10 hours, light distance = 15 meters)
If you are running for extended hours during the night, extra batteries placed on you, or in a drop bag (for a race), may be nice or even necessary.
(The above headlamp links are from Running Warehouse and will include a nice Endurance Buzz visitor discount at checkout.)
2. Throttle Back
You will likely not be able to safety run as fast during the night hours as you do during the day. Accept it. With reduced vision, varied terrain, and trails/courses that provide opportunities to send you off into no-man’s-land, control the throttle unless you are quite comfortable with your surroundings. A digger or two may also help persuade you.
3. Frozen Butt Protection
As the sun goes down, temps usually drop, your pace slows, the heat generated from the internal engine can likely reduce. Have some layers accessible if you start to get cold. This could be carried on your body or placed in your race drop bags.
I have ran in two races in which I didn’t bring enough clothing options and the combination of darkness, 12 hours into the run, and freezing my butt off equaled NO FUN.
Until one is fairly confident with how their body will perform and respond to various race distances and conditions, have the options available.
4. The Familiar Face
If possible, get to know the trail during the day-light hours so you can create a baseline comfort level and have some idea of what to expect. It never hurts to bring a map as well, especially if you are unfamiliar with the trail. Getting lost – not so fun.
Also, running with another trail running friend, has rarely been a bad idea.
5. Appreciate the Experience
Stop, turn off your light, look into the sky…the moon…the stars…open space. It can be a very peaceful experience.
As much as I love seeing daytime trail stimulation (trees, flowers, lakes, etc), there is something unique about only being able to see the 10 feet in front of you as you move along the trail.
Trail running at night opens a whole new dimension to experience and I hope these tips can help make it an enjoyable one.
What else has supported your trail running on the flip-side?
Be active – Feel the buzz!
David – EnduranceBuzz.com
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I second the frozen butt protection as learned at Rocky!
Who knew?
Running in the dark is quite special. I could swear something was growling at me one night.
Greg
Yep…the night running is fun! I spend a lot of time in the dark already (more ways than one) and will use a red-filtered light when I’m out stargazing.
The red light preserves the eyes’ dark adaptation….it works quite well to allow me to look at star charts, and then still see things that are very faint through the telescope.
I think I may try a red filter on my headlamp for the next run in the dark.
Jennifer, Greg, and DavidP – Thanks for sharing!