alt Hacker NewsAnecdote for any runners reading this: I'm a 75 year old runner. (Some young runners might say I run at a jogger's pace, I just tell them to keep off my lawn.)
A couple decades ago, I stopped running on concrete or asphalt, and took up trail running, i.e. running on (mostly) dirt. It feels way easier than running on asphalt, much less on concrete. If you're skeptical that running on concrete or asphalt feels harder, give it a try. YMMV, but I'd bet you notice a difference.
And yes, I do fall sometimes, tripping over roots or rocks. But I recover quickly.
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You're not wrong, but most of us don't live near a good dirt running trail so we have to drive to reach the trail head. When we have to squeeze in a run on workdays it becomes a choice between running on the street versus not running at all. Mud is also a problem for trail running in areas that get much rain.
Trail running is fun. But it’s probably not the surface but the technique change, that gets rid of the pain. I’m currently going through the process of shifting my running technique to where I push rather than pull myself forward and it’s a revelation. When your foot lands in front of your center of gravity, it necessarily brakes your forward movement. All that momentum has to go somewhere, eg get absorbed by your joints. Changing this makes you more efficient as well as reducing strain on the soft tissue.
Trailrunning is less harsh on joints for sure, but certainly not easier based on the times of anyone who's run trail vs road events over any distance.
Mud, obstacles, and terrain that hasn't been bulldozed and rolled to be pan-flat make it much slower.
I'd worry about sprained ankles on a false step or a slippery leaf-rock trap. Is there a technical approach to running in these conditions?
Yes, I noticed this too. I ran a lot in high school / university, and for some reason we mostly ran on the roads. In my late 20s a doctor told me my knees sounded like they were "65".
I read a book my Michael Colgan at the time, and he mentioned training athletes on the trails as much as possible to reduce injury, so I gave it a try ...
That was 25+ years ago. At first people looked at me strange, like I was running from an animal. But its common now, and I'm still running on the trail, and knees seem OK.
Yes of course, you can still trip, step on a snake, etc, but its a different kind of injury. You are adapting gait and balance constantly which is nice too.
Running on the trail is much more interesting, with constant change, ups, downs, variations. Whereas running on grass / asphalt I can go into autopilot mentally and start ruminating, this is harder on the trail and I am more in a state of "here and now".
Alternatively rubber tracks also are great, if you have one nearby.
I switched to trail and found I stopped getting injuries related to lateral stabilization of my hips and legs.
I've come to think it's because the trails challenge those stabilizers sufficiently so they get trained properly rather than... I don't know, repeatedly being irritated by running too straight for long periods of time?
I'm not a kinesiologist so I have no idea what the real difference is, but I do know I get hurt far less on the trails than I did on pavement.
One possibility is that I go slower overall so I can't push the limits of some muscle and tendon groups like I could on pavement. Everything gets more equally pressured, but less on average.