Effort and vert, where pace lies
Trail pace is terrain-dependent, so climbs and technical work are prescribed by effort and time while flatter sessions stay anchored to your tested paces — each tool used where it’s honest.
Trail & ultra running · Adaptive S&C
Trail races are won by the legs that still work on the last descent.
Trail running training built to your race profile — climbing strength, descent durability, and long runs measured in hours and vert, not just kilometers. Effort-based where pace lies, anchored to your numbers where it doesn’t, and regenerated from every session you log, with a real coach in the loop.
The free tier is a real program, not a trial. No card required.
Today · VertWeek 7 · Day 4
Trail ultra · Build phase
Hill repeats — 8 × 90 s @ hardLogged
Effort over pace · hike the recoveries
Step-downs — 3 × 10 eachLogged
Eccentric control · descent insurance for the quads
Long run — 2 h 30 min · 800 m vertUp next
Terrain engine
Long-run hours and vert build toward your race profile. Log a harder week than planned and the next block absorbs it instead of stacking fatigue.
The race
Four demands the road never made.
Road fitness ports over; road training doesn’t. The plan trains what the trail actually asks for.
01
Climbing
Power on grade — uphill repeats and the hiking strength that saves the race when running stops making sense.
02
Descending
Eccentric quad durability, built on purpose. Descents are where races are lost and where the soreness lives.
03
Time on feet
Long runs progressed in hours and vert toward your race profile — not just a distance on flat legs.
04
Durability
Ankles, tendons, and trunk — the resilience that keeps uneven ground interesting instead of dangerous.
Where you’re coming from
Almost nobody starts on the trail.
From the roadRoad → trail
Add vert to your engine
Most new trail runners arrive from road running. The aerobic base ports straight over; climbing strength and descent durability have to be built. That’s the plan’s job.
From HYROXHybrid → trail
Convert station strength
Sled-pushing legs and compromised running are real trail currency. The HYROX-to-Trail Transition block converts station strength into climbing and hours on feet.
Going longer50K → 100K
Step up to the distance
Ultra training turns on time on feet, back-to-back long runs, and practicing fueling until it’s boring. Volume builds to the race, not to a template.
How we program it
Your numbers drive the plan.
Strength for the climbs and the descents
Step-ups and hill power for the way up; eccentric single-leg work for the way down. Loaded off your real numbers and placed so it never steals from the running.
Time on feet, built to your race
Long runs progress in hours and vert toward your race profile, with back-to-back long days when ultra training calls for them — so race day is never your longest day on trail.
Adapts to how the mountain treated you
A brutal long run, a missed week, a hot race build — the next block responds to what you actually logged. Flag pain and it deloads and alerts your coach rather than pushing through.
Start today
Train for the trail this week.
Free is a real plan for your race and date. Pro adds the adaptive engine — climbs, descents, and long-run hours built to your race profile, regenerated from every session — plus a coach in the loop, for $19/mo. The programming a hands-on coach charges $100–300 a month for. Crossing over from HYROX? HYROX-to-Trail Transition: 8 Weeks is in the store.