Tune Up Your Running

Springtime usually means the revival of your outdoor activities - especially running. Just as you know that functional conditioning requires variety in your movements, the same is true for your environment. Your running will benefit you most when there is a variety of intensities, distances, surfaces, terrains and topographies rather than just running the same old hard-surface routes. I know of many hard-surface runners who come up with knee injuries the first time they venture off-road. The problem is that they're trying to bring the same intensity to their run on the irregular surface as they did to the flat one, yet they have failed to train the supporting muscles that those varied terrains require.

Hit the trails, add some sprints, abandon distance as the measure of your conditioning; these are the strategies of fitness.

Read: "Ten Things To Know About Trail Running That May Surprise You"