Trail Runners’ Habits
by Doug Stewart
What are common patterns amongst trail runners when running and racing?
ITRA (International Trail Running Association) recently published the results of a worldwide survey exploring trail runners’ habits and behaviours while training and racing. 9,514 runners (82% male, 18% female) from 104 countries participated in the online survey that had 46 questions. Around 1/3 of the respondents were 35–45 years old, another 1/3 were 46-55 years old and the remainder were below 35 or above 56 years old.
Here are the 10 most interesting results:
Almost 2/3 of all the trail runners surveyed started with road running, but a significant 20% of the respondents started directly with trail running. The majority started trail running between the ages of 26 to 45.
Salomon (37%) and Hoka (35%) are the top choices for shoe brands, and Salomon is by far the most favoured apparel brand (for 42% of the respondents), followed by Nike – a favourite of 22%. Garmin is the most popular choice for smart watches, with almost 60% of the respondents possessing one. Suunto is next in popularity, with almost 20% owning one.
Most of the respondents (41%) own 2 pairs of shoes, 23% own 3 pairs, 11% own 4 pairs, and only 2% own 7 or more.
Most respondents invest between 200 and 600 Euros per year in trail running equipment, 9% have an annual budget below 100 Euros and 5% above 1,000 Euros. This is not a lot of spend compared to, for example, the spend of triathletes.
Cross-training is a common practice among the surveyed trail runners with mountain biking, swimming, road biking and weightlifting performed by 17% to 24% of the respondents.
More than 2/3 do not have a coach and just 12% hire a coach throughout the year
Hours of training per week vary widely; but the majority train between 1 and 6 hours a week and will complete between 1 and 3 sessions a week.
Accumulated weekly elevation gain for 57% of the trail runners is between 500 and 2,000 metres and almost everybody includes long-running sessions in their weekly program. For 24% the duration of this long run is longer than 6 hours.
Taking running breaks during the season is a common practice – 69% of the respondents do it, but the duration of these breaks seem quite individual. They can be anywhere between more than a month (6.3%) down to just one week (24.4%).
When it comes to racing, more than 60% compete 1-6 times a year and the most preferred distance is 80 kilometres (50 miles). A mere 12% favours 100 miles, albeit more than 40% of the respondents have already raced longer than 100 kilometres.
My key take-away from this survey is that, when it comes to habits and behaviours of trail runners, they might have a lot more in common than we think. While these are some of the key variances, especially around running distances and yearly spend, there are a lot of similarities. At the end, we all practice trail running mostly because we love being outside (56%) and discovering new places (65%), want to stay fit (68.5%) and prepare for our next race (47%).
References:
ITRA survey: trail runners’ habits and behaviours while training and racing, 2022. https://itra.run/content/news/EN_ITRA%20TRAIL%20RUNNERS%20HABITS.pdf