Trial / fell running-good HM training??

I spent last year trying to get my HM pb to under 1:30 with training totally on roads, and a mix of speed work / steady runs-1100 miles in total.

Got a 1:34 in August then increased millage and speed and got injured.

I am trying a new approach this year-I found I really like trial running, I live close to the peak district and there are great trials to run on here.My most enjoyable sessions at the moment is a dark night / head torch and my dog with flassy collar-we do 9 miles big hills but at a slower pace compared to road running-but it feels bloody hard!! especially with the mud.

What impact do you experianced runners think this will have on my pb's.

Previously I was to anal about my training would not take our dogs as time putting leads / off on would mess up my average pace, would not run off road as opening field gates / climbing stiles would do the same!! My injury at the end of last year was quite bad and lasted many weeks-was worried for a while I would not be able to run again- so this got me to reconsider what I was doing.I now love running again but most of the time opt for a off road run.

My aims for this year were

5K

continued?? don't know why post cut off--to long??

5k

continued?? don't know why post cut off--to long??5k

sorry must be a technical error- or I can not use this pc-will try later

eye fell running rock's mate all you really need to know it's good for training as your getting a lot of hill work in which does show when your doing a road race. Only real issue is if you turn your ankle or something on stanage edge or somewhere. I'd just go for it.

If you havn't checked it out already there is a race near you called the trunce link it's basicly a bit of a laugh and you might enjoy it. There are a lot of fell race's around the peaks year round if you fancy it.

Thanks Cake will look at that event.

Have just got in from a 9 mile run around ringinglow/whirlow all trail apart from a few hundred yards from my front door to Bingham Park-fab run-what was I doing all last year with just road running!!!

Walked at stanage at the weekend-very muddy maybe a bit to heavy for a novice fell runner like me to try with head torch-but its starting to freezing now which will firm it up so maybe tomorrow..

rest of original post should have read

5k under 20mins currently 20:30
10K under 42 mins currently 42:55
and the HM as I said above.
I also want to move upto a full marathon would like under 3:30
So the point of this rambling post is what is likely to happen to my times as I spend more time off the road-these runs feel every bit the effort of a quality road session with HR in zone 4-5.
Shall I give up the idea of reducing my pb's and just enjoy the running or will these off raod runs help my pb's?

think I have just worked out the problem with my original post.

If i put a

less than sign it ends the post??

anyone else had this?

Oh yes - ended up with several posts in the Hadd thread like yours  same reason, I figured it out in the end.

I'm not quite in your league of times (you've a couple of minutes on me; 3 at 5K and 10K, and 12 min at HM) - anecdotally I found running offroad/trails much better for me regarding injury (notwithstanding the risk of twisted ankle from going over on a stone), perhaps less repetitive strain as different muscles in use on the different terrain and gained a lot of leg strength due to effectively hill training on each trail run (hilly area where I live).

I train mostly offroad because I like it and enjoy it more. Hills come with territory. I'd say give it a go, but chuck in 25% of roadwork and speed to sharpen up - you need to get used to turning your legs over fast for longer periods. You should probably race a bit too where you're not so bothered about the result to work on your speed. Hope this helps.

It's all running  but from a purely training benefit I think if you want to race on the road then 90% of your running should be on the road or at least fairly easy off road tracks just as you wouldn't see fell runners expecting to do well off a diet of road training.   

I think the same with hill reps to an extent - people think they are good because they are hard - but running with a backpack is hard it doesn't necessarily make it good training for a road 5k or whatever.  Not saying there aren't some benefits but it's the icing on the cake rather than being key sessions.

I think you'd be better off with most of the running on trails. You legs and feet are constantly at slightly different angles and the strengthening gives a protective effect in the long term, cf flat tarmac, not to mention the reduced jarring and pounding. It can be tricky fitting intervals or threshold work off-road without increasing the risk of tripping too much, so those could do for a bit of road work.

It can be hard to get the effort level right based on pacing, so I switched to HR-based effort a long time ago, so that I could keep to the desired effort for the outing pretty much regardless of climbing or the conditions underfoot. Also, a HR monitor with GPS gives you the option of a breadcrumb trail to retrace your steps should you get a bit too adventurous and start to get lost on trails

eye just in case there are quite a few folks on this site who live near you, if you want to share jokes or need a taining buddy take a look in the clubhouse section at the sheffield Social thread.