How to Use Alpine Trail Runs to Train for Autumn Trail Races

By Annalise Grueter

  When September rolls around, some folks find themselves dreaming of snow blanketing the ground, of the shh of skis or the hard thunk of axes sinking into ice. That is perhaps especially true after last winter, a year when some of those favorite cold-weather activities were scarcely feasible.

Others are giddy for what lies in between. As the summer heat starts to break, the afternoon light turns to gold. People head higher in elevation on weekends not just to escape high temperatures, but to bask in the changing natural palette. We watch as aspens and cottonwoods turn bright yellow, and as scrub oak and high-altitude willows singe orange. We wear even brighter colors ourselves, knowing other recreationists are in the woods working to fill their game tags.

There's something else about autumn, something wired into my tendons and muscle memory: we're rolling fast into trail race season.

    I ran cross-country growing up. Five days a week, my friends and I ran local trails, lapping hill climbs and creekside descents from our school campus into town. My favorite training days were the big vert ones, the afternoons where we power-hiked up steeper trails on nearby mountains, then raced each other down singletrack, shrieking and gleeful with the sensation of momentum and gravity.

Those days probably helped set the foundation for Colorado Alpine Trail Runs. I think of the long afternoons we loped up the Conundrum Creek valley, or the metallic-bronze ones spent cruising along the Government Trail, which stretches from Snowmass Village into Aspen. Days like that were great for making teen athletes enjoy endurance training. Days like that are good for all runners, for a variety of reasons.

You've probably heard about altitude training: how running in thinner air naturally increases red blood cell production, improves the body's ability to extract oxygen, alters breathing patterns, and increases capillary density in your muscles and other tissues. It's the reason Front Range runners flock to the Flatirons, Estes Park, and Manitou Springs. It's why runners in Vail, Carbondale, and Summit County claim bragging rights, they live where others travel to train. Elite endurance athletes often face more frequent monitoring for blood doping simply because living at high elevation offers advantages that competitors might use needles or pharmaceuticals to emulate.

Even if you live at 7,000 or 8,000 feet, you can reap additional benefits by training higher. It just requires a little more planning and caution. Mountain towns around the world run high-altitude physiology studies to understand the risks and benefits of living in thin air. All of Colorado falls within the range categorized as "high altitude" (4,900+ feet), while our mountain ranges reach "very high altitude" (11,500–18,000 feet). Our mountains top out at 14,440 feet on Mount Elbert, west of Leadville. Lucky for us, many of the state's alpine peaks, Elbert included, are accessible, featuring well-maintained trails and trailheads reachable by standard vehicles.

Runners looking to carve out an advantage for autumn races (or general fitness) can do more than just layer in interval and tempo workouts. Running, or even just hiking, at very high elevations can be a secret sauce, offering benefits at a comparable heart rate that would otherwise require far more speedwork to achieve.

Not to mention, it's a fun way to change things up!

     One misconception I've noticed since Colorado Alpine Trail Runs was published is the idea that you must maintain a running stride for the entire length of any route in the book. Unless your name starts with K and ends with -illian Jornet, that's simply impossible for most of us, myself included.

Even when I'm in peak shape, my comfortable running pace is 9-minute miles (right now, it's closer to 11). My guidebook is simply a collection of route descriptions with estimated time ranges for those who choose to run part or most of those trails. Every location in it is stunning and well worth hiking, even if you don't jog a single step. You'll still reap those high-altitude adaptation benefits.

The most runnable options tend to hover near the bottom of the "very high elevation" range, just touching the treeline around 11,500 feet. Plenty are great for a power hike uphill; from there, you can use the gravity boost on the descent to train your muscles and reflexes for downhill running.

Routes worth visiting to step up your autumn training Colorado Alpine Trail Runs:

• Blue and Mitchell Lake | Indian Peaks Wilderness | Page 21
• Mount Flora | Berthoud Pass | Page 35
• Lost Man Trail | Outside of Aspen | Page 70
• Capitol Lake Trail | Outside of Aspen | Page 83
• Igloo Peak | Independence Pass | Page 188 

You can grab your copy of Colorado Alpine Trail Runs on our CMC store. Members get 20% off! 

Annalise Grueter
Author of Colorado Alpine Trail Runs

Hope to see you out there!