Kim Sankey and Duane break down the fundamental jargon used in trail running with our beginner’s guide to trail running lingo!
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⏰ Timecodes ⏰
0:00 Healthy Runner Podcast Trail Running Terminology
1:14 Kim Sankey physiotherapist & trail runner
7:15 Buffed out single track
9:58 Gnarly or technical trail
10:55 Mashed potato snow trail
12:15 It’s runnable
13:55 Yoyo
14:30 FKT
16:07 Boomerang
16:20 Lollipop
18:00 VK
19:26 Vert
22:14 Trek
25:09 Traction
27:35 Pain cave
32:45 Drop bag
33:30 Aid station
37:23 Hydration
39:18 Trail nap/dirt nap
41:01 Muling
41:17 Pacer
42:42 Crew
45:53 DFL
47:23 DNF
48:02 DNS
49:09 LSD
50:37 Double Qualifier
52:39 Golden Ticket
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Let’s break down the fundamental jargon used in trail running welcome to episode 27 on the healthy Runner podcast and our beginner’s guide to trail running lingo in this episode we’re going to dive deep into the world of trail running terminology and cover pretty much everything you need to know to
Communicate like a pro on the trails so whether you’re new to the sport or whether you really don’t know anything about trael running like myself um or you’re looking to expand your knowledge this episode is really your ultimate resource and today back on the show for the third appearance is our friend and
Our co-host the co-host of the inspired Souls podcast um is none other than Kim sanki Kim thank you so much for agreeing to come back on the show oh it’s always a pleasure Dwayne so happy to be on again yeah thank you for uh being willing to come on and probably allow me
To embarrass myself when I don’t know many of these term terms um and honestly share all the knowledge that you have from your wealth of experience um that you have with trail running and for those that don’t know who Kim sanki is she is a actually
You know what I’m not even gonna give a formal bio Kim if you don’t mind telling uh the listeners if they haven’t heard the other episodes that you’ve been on um who are you uh where do you come from what do you do well uh yeah the who am I question so
I am a I like to say I’m a a Mom first and foremost um I am a trail Runner uh mother of two teenage boys who love their football so my life is pretty much about running and football right now I a am a licensed physio therapist we say
Here in Canada physical therapist where you are Dwayne I’ve been practicing for over 20 years but right now I’m I’m my day job is in management I actually manage a vision Rehabilitation organization did you know that was such a thing Dwayne Vision rehab yeah for people who’ve partially lost their sight
Or fully lost their sight so we work with guide dogs and teach people how to walk with their canes and it’s it’s very interesting so I I manage an organization here in Calgary Alberta Canada and I do some home physio on the side right now um I’ve been a runner
Essentially my whole life um got into trail running shortly after University when I lived on the west coast of um British Columbia and just loved exploring nature and going further and further into the mountains and it was an organic evolution of short runs turned into longer runs turned to ultra
Marathons so that’s kind of what I’ve been spending my time doing for the last decade or so is spending a lot of time on the trails and on that note Trail Runners tend to kind of be a subculture of our own and have developed a little
Bit of our own language or lexicon so I’m excited to talk with you and your guests a little bit about what the heck does that mean yes oh my goodness I’m so excited to honestly learn more and really to add honestly to your bio because I think
It’s something that um I know we’ve talked about in the past uh that you didn’t mention but I know you have a wealth of experience you like used to work at the Gate lab and you have a lot of experience working with Runners earlier in your career as a physio
Um so yeah you come with a wealth of experience in kind of different areas of practice research realm um Gate lab leadership route uh and then obviously your podcast and have we hit the big uh 200 episodes yet not quite we’re getting close by the time this is released you
Might be honestly close so yes my my friend and co-host Carolyn coffin and I started that podcast over three years ago now almost three and a half years ago and we’ve been dutifully recording once a week for three and a half years it’s hard to imagine but we love it it
Is definitely a passion project for us as I know this podcast probably is for you too Dwayne oh absolutely yeah I’m so I’m so proud of you guys honestly and just having done the whole 200 you know episode and Carolyn was nice enough to come on and um interview me for that
Great oh so good I loved it um yeah she did a phenomenal job but yeah congrats to you guys because it is a passion project in like all the the work behind the scenes and the planning and the pre the post- production all of that um yeah
Kudos to you guys and yeah celebrate that 200th uh episode in the consistency that you’ve shown right um all of those weeks well you know just as you were saying that I was thinking there’s so many parallels to the personality types that make a good runner and a good
Podcaster right you have to be consistent just showing up every week doing the work and eventually you see the payoff which um yeah we’re just having a lot of fun with it yeah absolutely and for those that um haven’t heard the other episodes and you’re interested in learning more about trail
Running uh Kim has been literally our expert um in covering the trail running topic back in episode 108 uh Kim and Carolyn came on the show to talk about like the differences between trail running and Road running um so might want to check that one out and then the
Other one was super super beneficial was episode 162 on the healthy Runner podcast where Kim really shared it was like phenomenal tips by the way 10 tips to go from like road to Trail so if you’re getting started in trail running and you’re listening to us right now
You’re like oh yeah I want to know the lingo um go back to episode 162 and the blog for that because we kind of lift it listed out all of Kim’s uh 10 tips um they were very helpful I remember getting getting a lot of feedback actually from that episode from those
That are listeners who are Trail Runners they were like yes they were really great uh tips and hon it was more like 57 tips we tried to categorize them into 10 it was a fun one though so I’m glad some people enjoyed it yeah and if you’re tuning into this and you’re
Really um doing primarily Road running then you know definitely stick around and listen to this of course but also check out episode 213 in Kim’s uh co-partner uh Carolyn coffin came on the show to talk all about kind of like Road running terminology 101 where things
Runner say and as we were going through um this list that Kim sent me because yeah I don’t really know half of these things I was like okay this is good because this is a totally different list that we talked about with uh Carolyn so if you’re looking for more running lingo
That isn’t relevant to today go back to 213 and listen to that episode um with Carolyn so let’s get into today’s topic of really talking about kind of trail running terminology 101 were the things that trail Runners say so yeah let’s get to like the the types of trails first
Like buffed out single track I remember when I I mention training in the gym yes not quite I mentioned that during one of our previous conversations you were like whoa whoa whoa stop what what did you just say so buffed out single track um you think of what is buffing something
Right it’s making it smooth and and pretty so buffed out trails are typically very smooth no rocks routs um single track means it’s a very narrow Trail there’s only enough room for one person to run run on it you can’t run side by side so that’s kind of like a
Trail runner’s dream is running downhill in a nice long buffed out single track section you just kind of flow down the trail so you don’t have to think too much about picking up your feet it’s almost like Road running but there’s usually lots of Curves and some hills
That’s what what buff out single track is all right if the if it’s wide enough for two people is it called a double track or no yeah pretty much yeah wi Trail quad track sometimes because often quads make those Trails right so yeah okay and TR quad track if you’re on the
Single track and I’m G to have so many follow-up questions to this uh because I’m just curious uh if you’re on that single track like you said it’s like a trail runnner dream where you see that single track and you’re just going downhill what happens if there’s someone
Else on the track like does that ever happen that’s a good question Dwayne yes it definitely happens and it all it will happen in races too like what if you want to pass section like that right so yeah you’ve just got to hop off the
Trail find a good spot that you can jump around them hop around pass yeah all right all right it’s kind of like I’m sure definitely not like but as I mentioned in my uh Dopey recap episode in like run Disney where you know it’s really crowded in the beginning so I’m
Like hopping up on the grass and it’s dark out and it’s uneven so I had to kind of hop on the grass to get around some people so the same thing happens in the trails I’m sure it happens in the trails yeah a lot probably more dangerous uh because it could be even
More unstable it can be and that actually that could be our next next year’s topic it’s Trail Runner etiquette but um essentially you usually let somebody know when you want to pass if it’s a steep you know or a Cliffy section the person you know usually that’s going
Uphill will step to the side on the uphill side so that the person com downhill has free free passage because it’s usually more harder to stop yourself going downhill than up so yeah there’s ways to kind of safely get yourself around it just depends on the
Type of Trail all right that makes sense and what about gnarly what what does that mean if it’s a gnarly Trail yeah my girlfriend and I were just actually having a discussion of what gnarly means to each of us I tend to Define gnarly as technical so there’s
Distractions on the trail there’s Roots there’s rocks there could be mud bogs there could be um logs to crop hop over but it’s definitely something that you have to pay attention to it’s not buffed out single track it’s the exact opposite some other people Define gnarly as if
You’re in a mountainous environment it could almost be very Rocky or maybe even almost a scramble where you have to use your hands and your feet to get along that section you could debate whether that’s actually running but let’s be honest sometimes you just have to bridge
A section to get from where you can run to the next section of where you can run so gnarly is is something with lots of technical components all right and then I I feel like we did mention this in the last episode mashed potato snow yeah
That’s a fun one so yeah think of of snow that has been ran over multiple times so you’ll typically experience this in a race right where if you’re running along a snowy section I can think particularly a good example was along a lake you know just kind of
Offshore on the ice part of the lake but it was all snow and as people were running over it it got soft you’d sink in maybe to your mid uh lower calf but the snow is kind of like mashed potatoes right it was like dense but soft enough
You’d sink in and never even you’re always kind of in your foot’s going down in different ways so not fun I actually really don’t like running on mashed potato snow hard see that definitely being hard and yeah a little like nerve-wracking because you don’t necessarily know how
Deep your foot’s going to go each step right yeah or is it it it tends to be if you get mashed potato snow it’s usually pretty cold at that if it gets warmer it’ll turn as slush right but if it’s still snow it’s usually pretty C which means it will
Pack down a bit on the very bottom but it’s not like you’re running right on the top of it you’re sinking down into it all right next next term here it’s runnable what does that mean okay there’s been memes made about this it’s runnable yes it’s quote
Runnable wink wink so what does a TR Runner mean when it’s a runnable well uh literally that so you can actually run on it so a lot of Trail runs will have hiking sections to them right it’ll just be too steep to efficiently run um uphill particularly so if you say it’s
Runnable uphill it’s usually at a grade that most people could continue to run for the majority of it uphill without blowing up um what’s runnable for an elite Runner is completely different than for a beginner Runner so if people are talking about it’s runnable you want
To know who you’re talking to what they Define as runnable um for the downhill sections often it’ll be the technicality of it that or it’s just too steep it’s either too technical or too steep to safely run on so you need to slow down and walk in that section um but if a
Person says it’s a very runnable course it’s a very renable race it means yeah you you actually will probably spend the majority of your time truly running the entire time um and most people will versus who that was a completely not runable back half meaning maybe there
Was tons of mashed potato snow maybe it was very technical it was very boggy you’ll get anything on the trail right all right all right and um what about you know I was doing this uh Trail race and you know there was this like yo-yo part of the course what what does that
Mean so yo so I know when you chatted with Carolyn uh last week I think it was I don’t know when it when this episode will air but it just dropped a few days ago from the date of this recording you talked about out and back sections so
That’s essentially the same thing as a yoyo um Trail Runners like to be weird so we just throw in terms like yo-yo instead of out and back so if you yo-yo a a trail you’re running out and back it’s often used in the same kind of sentence of conversation when people talk about
Ftts so do you want to go there and address what right now yeah what is that so fkt has became very popular during covid it stands for fastest know and time so Trail Runners like to run in a variety of ways right you can race or
You can just pick a route say in the mountains you know that that people tend to like to hike or or um run and say okay I’m going to try to do this be the fastest person ever to do this route and often if you have a point-to-point section
Um people will have the fastest know in time going One Direction and sometimes they turn around and run it back so you’ll have an fkt One Direction and then you’ll have a yo-yo fkt where you go out and back all right and these are um tracked there’s rules there’s
Websites where you have to upload your garment data like it’s become very official um you have to announce that you do it in advance you have to have witnesses um there’s rules oh wow whether you’re supported or unsupported meaning did you carry every single thing you needed on your back the whole time
Did people meet you at certain checkpoints and give you supplies so there’s it’s kind of become this whole thing of its own the fkt um wow is there like an official site that this get is fastest know time.com I think is it is yeah interesting another person with a
Passion project that has made it his labor of love to assess and validate ftts worldwide yep all right so if I had to so the yo-yo’s out and back so I would imagine is is that the same thing as a boomerang because a boomerang you
Throw it it comes back abely is that the same exact boomerang yo-yo kind of the same all right and then lollipop you’re in like a lollipop section of a race or course yeah what does that mean so think of what a Lolli what the outline of a
Lollipop looks like so if you have a lollipop section it’s a section of of Trail where you will run out you’ll break off you’ll start doing a loop and you complete that Loop and then you come back to the Stick of the lollipop and then you run back to join the ne main
Trail or the rest of the race along that same stick of the lollipop so there’ll be a an out and back section where you’ll pass Runners right people going both directions but in the loop everybody will be going in the same direction so in a trail race it’s a good
Spot to see where you are in relation to your competition um because you can often see the people ahead of you coming back on the stick of the lollipop or if you’re at the lead you’ll see the people behind you coming up the stick as you finish that section right yeah and that
That’s I would say is similar to like a road race you know there are sections of road races where that happens as well there’s like little loops and you wind up you know coming back um which is always nice and sometimes when you think you’re going to see someone you know
Who’s running the race and you miss them then you’re like oh it must have been like on that I wouldn’t have said lollipop but I would have said like the loop section um yeah so okay now you’ve got a new new way to use the word new terminology think like Candy Land
Lollipop I don’t know yeah they play Candyland in Canada but if you guys grew up with that game um yes we did yeah we had that here all right and uh so we talked fkt so what about VK what is VK VK VK stands for vertical kilometer and
That has also become quite a phenomena so uh it’s a vertical kilometer is a th000 vertical meters so it doesn’t mean you know you’re climbing a ladder for a th000 meters but it means over the distance of the race however many kilometers or miles um horizontally it
Is there’s a th meters of vertical gain so the shorter the race obviously the steeper the route’s going to be you know a VK over a 5 kilometer race is a 20% grade the whole time over a 3 kmet race it’s going to be you know 33% grade so
Um it’s it’s the sport there’s there’s races that are just simply vertical kilometers to see how fast you can get up and then also how fast you can then turn around and continue to run down without doing summer salts all the way down in um in the UK they kind of call
It fell running um running downhill really fast but yeah there’s also um race a lot of um places will have these race weekends where they will be in Golden here in British Columbia near bamp they have I think the vkas on the Friday night then they’ll be like a a
10K on the Saturday and a half marathon on the Sunday or something all in the trails so oh interesting yeah very interesting um how about vert what’s the vert so vert is the amount of vertical or gain or elevation that is over a course so Travelers really like to brag
About vert this is one of those things people don’t care how how far you went what was the vert how how many how many thousands of feet did you you know climb on this run if you live in a mountainous place it’s another thing they’ll ask
Right away about a race or race course what’s the vert in that race or what’s the gain in that race because the profile could be completely different you know uh 50K with I try to talk in in uh American units here let’s say a 30 mile run oh with you know
2,000 feet of vert is going to be totally different than a 30 mile run with you know 10,000 feet of so yeah kind it is Trail Runners do think in the cartisian plane right we think in two axes it’s not just how far it is across
It’s how much up and down there is because that really can change the experience of the race for the Run okay and is the vert just to clarify there is it um how many kilometers you actually gain an elevation or is it the subtraction of like the up and the downs
And what is the net kind of vertical yeah so that’s a good question now typically it’s used to express just up okay so a net net uh vert will be zero if you’re going up and down the same amount right if it’s a net downhill then
There’s going to be you know more down than up but vert typ always talks about the up nobody ever right too much about the yeah because I think you know road races a lot of times I feel like everyone like race directors or whatever like to Market their Racers and and
They’ll say like you know zero gain or flat course or net flat whatever but then you actually run the race and it’s a lot of up and a lot of down so it’s a hilly course and people will get the impression that it’s like a flat course because there’s no like elevation gain
Um but they were actually going up as much as they were going down yeah exactly yeah okay yeah a lot of trail races will list different sections with the amount of gain and loss because you know okay so this section you’re going up 2,000 feet and you’re going down 500
Feet and then the next section you’re going to go down 800 feet and only gain 50 feet so it’ll kind of give you an idea of how you hard you’re going to work in those different sections all right all right what about Tre what’s Trek TR is a is a fancy word for
Walking you don’t want to ever say that we walk we track dang it okay so yeah um Track Power hike um it’s walking though with purpose so it’s kind of used on those non runnable sections if you can’t run any more efficiently sometimes it really is more efficient to track I have
Been caught trying to run sections that I’ve looked behind me and the people behind me are just power hiking along and I’m like why am I wasting all this energy burning out my calvs trying to run this section I should just Trek right so trekking poles are often used
In those sections okay um um to be more efficient um you know a a good treer I’m trying to think in miles an hour here can yeah I mean I’m pretty short but I can Trek over four miles an hour I can usually power along but four four and a
Half miles an hour trekking so there’s certain sections that you’re not even running five miles an hour so you might as well track right right right yeah and winter M trrain yeah and this is uh super uh specific but just kind of curious here uh with your trekking poles do you know
That in advance like you’ve already looked at the the course and you’re like hey this section I understand I’m going to need to track all right I’m approaching that section let me pull out my poles or is this like totally random you you get to a point you’re running
And you’re like yeah I’m just like burning way too much energy it’s going to be more efficient to track right here let me pop my poles out how does that work out that is another like a combination of both yeah that’s an interesting discussion because
So if it’s a race and you’ve done your homework and you know what’s coming from the different sections you you’re typically prepared that yeah this is going to be a pole section and you can run with poles too you don’t have to just um Trek and sometimes running
Downhill with poles it’s almost like downhill skiing like you use the pole to kind of Center your gravity and your your balance as you’re going down um just don’t try to pass someone while you got your P out exactly on a single track well yeah holding them in one hand
Sticking out to the side it can get dangerous but it’s it’s really not efficient to use poles if it’s just going to be like 10 steps right you want to make sure this is a section where you’re you’re it’s worth getting those poles out it’s worth putting them in
Your hands um my rule is if I can see the top it’s not worth it if it’s if it’s a section I just I have no idea where the top of this climb is and I’m starting to feel um like I want a little extra power I’ll pull the PS everybody
Has their own rules but yeah okay all right U that makes sense and we have on the the list here traction so if I had a guess let’s let’s see if Dwayne can guess the term here traction um traction would just be would refer to uh how much
Grip you have underneath your feet maybe yes absolutely so this actually can be a uh Roadrunner term as well but traction I mean if you’re talking talking about how much traction your shoes have yes absolutely like how deep are the lugs how what’s the type of of outsole is it
Vibram is it you know um you know basically what kind of material is is the outsole made of but if somebody uses traction as a noun like are you bringing your traction today what they’re talking about is micros spikes usually or some some kind of um
Thing that will help you on ice so if you think running along the street is dangerous on Ice try running down to 20% grade on cheer ice it gets pretty darn dangerous right I can imagine so yeah shoes will either have traction built right in you can get spikes you know
Like shoes like ice bugs that are uh it’s built right into the shoe or you can bring traction that you take on and off um in an area like I live here in um in the Rockies you know Canan ascus bam area it this is this year’s been a
Perfect example we had the Vortex you know in early January where it was literally minus 45 and that’s where Celsius and Fahrenheit converge right is at minus 40 so it was really cold and this last week it was well above zero like everything melted and then it now
Froze again so we have a lot of variation in our temperatures here which means it’s always going to be icy you might have snow on top of the ice but you’re pretty much guaranteed to have ice on the trails for the majority of the year so tractions really important
But as you as spring comes and those weather changes happen the entire Trail isn’t going to be consistent you can have muddy sections you can have rocky sections and then when you go on like the the north side in the shade it’ll be ice so sometimes having traction you can
Take on and off is is good you may not want to have your spiked shoes on that entire run because it’s not great running on sheer rock with spikes right so right okay that makes sense and I’ve used this term before I’m interested to see if you use it in the
Same fashion but like you’re entering the pain cave yeah well how do you define that how would you define that how don’t you tell me first to me that’s that’s the end of you know a marathon effort even a half marathon effort where you know you’re hurting you’re you’re
You’re starting to almost Red Line um you know you’re using every single uh fight mental Mantra you can at that point you’re starting counting exercise you know Vision it might be starting to get a little blurry uh you know you’re you’re really you’re you’re hurting you’re hurting this is like you’re
Pushing and T taking your body to the limits essentially so yeah absolutely and and this is where I think my definition will will tend towards more Ultra trail running than shorter trail running because they aren’t the same thing trail running doesn’t have to mean Ultra but as you start to go even longer
Um the pain C becomes less physical and it definitely is more mental so you may not be moving fast enough to have you know a lactate burn but but your world is narrowing right you feel like you’re entering that really dark place like you said the vision um starts to narrow and
Your your sense of your environment starts to disappear and you’re in your own misery of suffering and and the you know those those negative thoughts the bargaining you know should I quit should I not quit sometimes it’s gut related sometimes you feel really crummy in your belly um
Sometimes it’s sleep deprivation for me the pain cave usually comes nearing the dawn of the next day so if you’ve started a race and you’re now like 20 hours in and you’ve been all night I’m a night owl I love the midnight 2 o’clock but you hit 3:30 oh
It’s just like the sun’s not coming up it’s cold you you know your body’s saying I want to be in bed now I don’t want to be out here so um yeah I would say the pain cave can mean something different for so many different people but it usually I think whether it’s
Physical or mental relates to that narrowing of perception right all you can think about is yourself and your own misery you’re not thinking about anything else um it is possible to come out of the cave um some people like Courtney de Walter uh most people even non-rail Runners
Know who Courtney de Walter is she’s basically um well she was just named Ultra Trail Runner of the year yeah um she talks about actually trying to go into the pain cave as fast as she can she just Dives right in there and gets it over with and then comes out on the
Other side so different people use different mind games and mental tricks to deal with the pain cave but it’s a place that I think if any Runner that’s been running along enough will experience at some point the key is how long do you want to stay in there yeah
Interesting yeah so it it does sound like for Ultras you pretty much come out of it right there is a there is a point that you do come out of that I would say again everybody’s going to be different every experience is different but yes it is possible sometimes you can come into
The that cave multiple times in a race right and it is really fascinating that you can feel so incredibly crummy and then an hour later it’s like you just woke up and started running again like the body is a really and the mind are really strange especially if it comes to
Sun up and a Dawn and and fresh cup of coffee and off you go when you’re out of the pain cave so yeah yeah interesting um and yeah I know that was similar to what you had talked about with Carolyn on your show when you guys had kind of
This conversation um and what Runners say kind of similar to like when you hit the wall and you know for most marathoners it’s like you hit the wall you stay at that wall and I know you had mentioned for like Ultras you can hit the wall and then come out of the wall
And so it sounds like almost like a similar concept to the pain cave that there there’s a chance of coming back and yeah I think most marathoners or half marathoners probably finish the race in the pain cave well exactly because you’re you’re pacing to use 100%
Of your energy up at that Finish Line right well every race is but um yeah there’s time right like you can you can do it in the the hour and a half to three hour mark right right right so yeah you’re not gonna sit around and
Wait for half an hour for things to clear and then keep going you’re just gonna finish the race whereas if the race is 24 hours long you can’t do that you can’t run yourself into the wall until there’s no coming back so right right that makes sense and this next
Term sounds a little shady I’m not going to lie this is like kind of like a drug deal gone bad like a drop bag what’s up with that oh drop bag you got like random drop bags like you know some stuff happening in the inner city what’s
A drop bag yeah this is one of those terms that is so common and normal to me that I have I do a double take sometimes I’m like what do you mean you don’t want to know what a drop bag is so a drop bag is literally a bag full of stuff that
You leave somewhere along the race course so again for longer races where you’re going to be out there for a longer period of time you may need um fuel you know gels bars electrolytes more than what you really want to or can carry on your body um at a time and so
You can leave drop bags at certain Aid St which are spots where you can pick up said drop bags so what you will typically do is the Night Before the Race um if we’re talking a race environment um when you check in and pick up your bib they’ll have spots that
You can leave your drop bags you usually label them with your bib number and the Aid Station that you want it to go to the race um organization will deliver them to that spot they usually have them in a like a gazebo popup tent so they’re
Kept dry and when you come up to that eight station you go grab your drop bag and you can get depends on how big of a drop big they allow or how long the race I’ve left a fresh pair of shoes in my drop big I’ve left clean socks I’ve left
Spring energy gels which are my favorite um I’ve left my poles in drop big sometimes because I knew the race started fairly flat but the next section was climbing and I don’t want to Carle the poles for the whole flat section so I picked them up for my drop big so as
Much as you can pick pick up stuff from a drop bed you can also leave stuff so if you’re moving from morning to night you may pick up your headlamp you may change your shirt leave your sweaty sweaty you shirt that you used In
The Heat of the day and pick up maybe a warmer shirt and potentially a coat um if you’re changing shoes you would obviously leave your wet muddy shoes in your drop big and take your nice clean dry shoes with you so yeah it’s kind of like a restocking option if especially
If you don’t have family or friends to meet you to have your job big um your your supplies you can self-support by leaving them there one thing I will a little tip I will give back to the trail you know top 10 tips on on this topic
Though is that if you if you’re new a trail Runner and you decide you want to leave a drop you want to have crew sorry come meet you at the different Aid stations I would still highly recommend leaving a drop bag with all of those Essentials just in case just in case
Your crew gets lost they get a flat tire they under or overestimate your arrival time there is nothing worse than showing up in an a station expecting to see somebody with you know that extra gel and you know ChapStick and fresh clean socks and they’re not there and or even
Worse you expect them to have your headlamp going into the night section and they’re not there and you can’t go because you you’re waiting for your light so if you leave it in the drop bag your crew can get that bag for you they can have it ready but you have that
Peace of mind of knowing even if something happens to them my stuff is there I’m going to be okay right and is that pretty much like 100% reliable um like you’ve never been in a situation where you did have a drop bag and like wasn’t there never no oh nice okay all
Right that’s something I think every race organization knows is would be super important right and it could be dangerous right for for those reasons of of lights and and fueling and that kind of stuff yeah right okay and are the drop bags at you mentioned Aid stations
Are they always at the Aid Station like where you could have family members there present or no are they in different sites there will always be at a designated site um and usually at a place where vehicles or at least quads can get in because nobody wants to pack
Volunteer to all people’s draw bigs on their back um but it can be either or you can leave Drop Eggs at Aid stations where your crew can’t access or and or you can leave them sometimes at places where Crews can access so it can be both
All right um okay so yeah uh fueling I think we’ve covered before I think most people can you know recognize what that is the nutrition right that they are taking in how about hydration um I know your point is that it’s not just water what else entails hydration in your
Mind yeah so again I’m not sure this this definitely isn’t specific to tr Runners but I have a little bit of a passion for people just assuming that hydration only means water because you can get into real trouble if all you’re taking in is is water you need those
Electrolytes right um I personally have had a really bad experience with hypon neuta which is too much water not enough salt um and and it actually almost became very dangerous you you can have heart problems you can have brain swelling like you can have some significant issues if you if your
Electrolytes get really out of whack so just drinking water doesn’t mean you’re hydrated that water needs to get into your into your system right into your bloodstream and not just sit in your belly or in in the tissues you know surrounding your your um blood vessels
So having um you know your sodium your potassium your magnesium um as well as your water is really important especially if you’re getting into longer races right where where again you can’t just push for another 20 minutes and then go home and have a beer
Like you need to be out there for a long time um but this is where I will also say though that hydration doesn’t necessarily mean fueling you can have fuel in your hydration right you can have calories and glucose and fructose in your hydration mix but they’re not
Necessarily the same thing and so being able to sometimes separate that I appreciate like I don’t like to have calories in my water because sometimes if you’re drinking to get enough calories you’re actually overdrinking the liquid so it can be nice to be able to separate those two out yeah no great
Points great points um how about Trail nap or dirt nap you just taking a nap literally like on the floor literally in the dirt on the side of the trail yes so if you ever have a trail Runner friend if you’re rner listening to this and
You’re like yeah I’ve got some a few Trail Runner friends and they just throw flippantly about having a dirt nap that’s what they mean literally laying down on the side of the trail and going to sleep it’s often for only a couple minutes like maybe three to five minutes
Um if it’s an ultra but yeah you’ll just lay down on the you set an alarm or no like your body just if you’re alone you can um Trail Runners that need dirt naps are typically ones that are going really long right like for 100 miles 200 miles
They will often have a Pacer with them just somebody running with them who will wake them up okay stand guard make sure they don’t sleep for too long okay yeah I’ve I’ve Seen It All I’ve seen people lay down near on a in a hay stack I’ve
Seen people I was once doing a raise and tripped over my friend who had laid down what he thought was on the side of the trail in the middle of the night and he was halfway across the trail oh my goodness but yeah it was and he was out cold like out
Cold so it happens have you done a trail that before you know oh that’s a good question no okay no I’ve never actually slept during a race I had to pause there because I had a race where I very much planned to I wanted to push the uh 48
Hour limit and see see how long I could go without sleep but I had to drop because of injury so I never got quite that far but no never the side of the interesting yeah all right what about muing what what does that mean muing that’s an interesting one so muing is
Carrying another runner’s supplies for them so back to the fact that when a race gets long enough often you’ll be allowed a Pacer which is different in trail running than Road running um in trail running the Pacers sometimes there to keep you going fast but usually is there to keep you
Entertained conscious on the trail not going off in some direction that you know will get you lost in your in your fatigue State um yeah just keep you company and so a Pacer can be there to provide moral support verbal support map and directional support but cannot most
I don’t know of a single race that will allow a Pacer to meal for you which is carrying your water carrying your hydration carrying you know supplies that you might consume there’s rules about you can only pick up supplies in the eight stations or you know in
Certain spots on the route it’s cheating right yeah so does the Mueller they don’t do the full race right no no Pacers will typically come in for sections from an eight station to an eight station or every race is different some will allow them um almost from like
The 30 mile mark on others won’t allow it um Pacers until the halfway point depends on the distance and length of the race okay all right and you mentioned this term kind of in passing before like crew like your crew those are like the people supporting you for
The race is that correct yeah yeah so Trail Runners who who go again a bit longer so I know this is really more Ultra specific but we’ll often have support crew literally like a NASCAR bit station crew it’s actually really fun your runer will come in and depending on
Their their state their physical and psychological State usually the aim is to be in and out as fast as possible like we’re talking minutes um two minutes five minutes max 10 minutes is considered a long stop unless you’re you know needing a reset unless you’re really in rough shape then you’ll stay
Longer um and so the crew will usually have you know a blanket a couple chairs things laid out you know the any blister care stuff um the water bottles ready to switch out in your packs sometimes people just switch whole packs they’ll come in and their crew will just grab
One pack and shove the other one at them if you watch the elites um they’ll be there to provide sometimes ice emotional support but crew is not mandatory it is entirely possible to do a trail race without crew the longer it gets though sometimes it’s really really nice to see
A friendly face and have some hot soup and yeah have somebody there to support you so um yeah crew crewing if somebody says I’m crewing this race mean you’re going not to run it um you don’t have an entry bib but you’re going to support your runner at the different checkpoints
All right so and they are usually bopping around to different checkpoints oh yeah and that’s it’s actually really fun I en cre more than I enjoy racing sometimes it’s just a big party right and you’re waiting for your Runner to come in and everybody’s chatting and and
You get to see all the r all the elites come in and then um you know your Runner come in and and then you as soon as they come through you pack up everything and then you go to the next spot and you unpack everything and you often have
Your own little cold beverage there and you’re waiting for them to come in and yeah it’s it’s a really um it’s a community kind of feel when you’re crewing because often runners run almost the same pace through a race too so you’ll get to know the crew of the
Runners that are all running the same Pace yeah so yeah it’s that’s neat it’s almost like tailgating it is it’s totally tailgating absolutely people will set up I’ve seen people set up barbecues and you know potlucks and yeah have their own little gazebos if it’s hot for their crewing so oh my goodness
Typically you’ll have a wagon uh those Costco wagons you know that you can fold and unfold and then you put all your stuff in so you’re not carrying it from your car because I you know the trail head is usually not right beside where you can park there’s a little bit of a
Walk so yeah there’s a science to crewing there’s been whole podcast on on how to crew race property wow okay all right so let’s go to some letters that I have no clue what they mean um so dfl are we talking about like an airport what is dfl dead F and
Last oh my good that’s what it means nobody wants to be dfl so so in the ultra World winning isn’t necessarily in the cards for some of us we just don’t want to be dfl just don’t so that’s that’s what that means yeah okay so they don’t like take pride
In that they don’t like give awards for the person who is dfl no it’s not like a thing at racist well well actually there’s I would say maybe there is awards at some of them but it is so a good example is gold the golden hour at Western States the last
Hour between hour 23 and 24 is really special um and the the last person to cross some of those big Finish Lines they’ve worked just as hard plus right you think of an elite that finishes in 100 miles in 15 hours yeah of course they’ve suffered but there they’ve been bed and
Woken up and had breakfast and and you know slept slept in their own bed and then the person crossing the Finish Line at the 24-hour Mark um has lost a whole night’s sleep they’ve missed a few more meals they’ve worked really hard too so it’s it’s pretty special to watch the
People that do dfl even though we all joke that nobody wants to right all right what about dnf that’s that’s pretty uh Universal right did not finish and that’s another one so you know Carolyn and I actually did a whole podcast I forget the number
It’s called Anatomy dnf yes I that was a great one yeah so there’s a real um yeah discussion on how road runners and Runners running shorter races address and maybe might dnf um and might accept dnf in different ways versus Trail Runners but yeah did not finish in the
Pain cave people often think about that do I do I want a dnf or not not and of course nobody wants to but sometimes it happens all right and then DNS if I had a guess did not start did not start yeah is that a thing like at the Chicago
Marathon well they list the people that DNS it’s very common tell you the truth I I I I would imagine the elites probably like if that did happen I would imagine I’m not sure though so don’t quote me okay yeah no it’s um a lot of the different you know starter lists and
Race rosters will very specifically list the dns’s in winning I know I’m trying to like think of it just you know I haven’t done huge races but you know when you’re scrolling through times like I’ve never seen a DNS on but I would imagine for some of the majors and like
The elites if someone was supposed to be there and they didn’t start I would imagine it would list it but not a last minute decision right like they might have their they might have been there but for some reason morning they didn’t cross the start line so yeah mhm all right so this
One sounds a little trippy here um LSD what’s an LSD Run Okay so LSD yeah this is a fun one you throw out the term at a dinner party I’m GNA go to an LSD run tomorrow morning and you’re G to get a few looks but that stands for long slow
Distance so again not not an exclusive term to Trail Runners but let’s be honest TR Runners tend to do a lot more of those really long slow distance runs um so yeah that’s what LSD means I would argue road runners need to do more of those long slow distance runs you just
Need to find a and then that will slow you down that was actually the theme of uh uh recording that I I just um was kind of a little passionate about and just did an impromptu recording actually this morning on kind of that topic it was
Like uh slow the heck down I was just yeah went on somewhat of a low rant um but yes I would I would argue that U most road runners would benefit from a a longer slower duration or distance run in improving in their overall Fitness and actually getting faster if that is
Their goal um in their training um so we actually talked about Carol and I talked about like um Boston qualifier and then um we talked about uh the the BQ plus the buffer um but I don’t know what a double qualifier is what’s a double qualifier okay so in the trail running
World there’s a few key races that you have to qualify for so the most well-known is Western States 100 very um I would say analogous to the Boston Marathon right it’s that iconic one of the oldest it is the oldest 100 in the United States um and so everybody’s
Always looking for their states qualifier okay now there are a few other races and the two that come to mind most significantly would be hard rock so the Hard Rock 100 is in Colorado um and it you also need to qualify for that the other one would be UTMB alra Trail
Dumont Blanc which is in uh Shaman France and so if somebody’s looking for a double qualifier they’re often looking for a qualifier that gets them into two of those three races triple would be amazing very rare oh okay um so races that are have qualifier status not every race can be a
Qualifier has to be on the approved list um so if you’re looking for a double qualifier you’re looking for a race that is usually pretty long that might cost you a lot of money to get there and also a lot of energy and time to train for so
If you can qualify for two races by doing One race that’s kind of the Holy Grail so a double qualifier will allow you enter both that makes sense awesome yeah that’s pretty cool um I could see that being very desirable um and those races would be popular um those double
Qualifiers yeah typically all I use the word typically a lot don’t I I got to stop that um you will have to get online you know within minutes of opening and just keep hting register to to get into the um if there is no Lottery if there’s a
Lottery then you’re entering that and you hope your name gets pulled interesting all right let’s uh finish off here with with a little uh it sounds like it’s an award the golden the Golden Ticket what’s the golden ticket you like win something yeah so again back to western
States which is on a lot of Runners bucket lists to to run at western states there are of the qualifying races for western states there are some of the that are golden ticket races and a golden ticket race is one where the top two females and the top two males get
Automatic entry into Western States so if you don’t want to take your chances of getting in the lottery and running a bunch of qualifiers and you know you’re pretty fast you can show up at one of these races and as long as you get first or second you’re guaranteed into Western
States that’s a term I believe that is pretty exclusive just to Western States but people about it so much in the trail running Community golden ticket golden ticket golden ticket that’s what they’re talking about interesting yeah do people like try to show up so is it only certain races that
You can get gold ticker or like any sanctioned race if you wind up finishing first or second has to be a a Golden Ticket designated race and there’s only a handful of them because you can imagine can’t give out four entries at every race in the US or else there’ be
No spots left Western States so they’re pretty coveted they’re highly competitive I I believe is it this weekend or next weekend black Canyons is happening in in um Arizona and that’s a Golden Ticket race so because it’s the first of the year um and it’s it’s cool
Down in Arizona right now it’s a highly competitive race a lot of people heading down to that one hoping to get a golden ticket ah I see very interesting um is there any other uh term or lingo that you feel that we haven’t talked about that you would like to
Mention oh goodness we think we covered everything I think we’ve covered a lot of them that’s one thing is that there will always be new words kind of created or new things that kind of said um especially in trail running we are we’re weird sometimes right we’re also sleep
Deprived so we’ll make up things and and double meanings for a lot of words so I’m sure the the lexicon will continue to evolve over time but maybe you’ve learned a few terms today that might make you sound more intelligent the next time you’re talking into a trail rner
You’ll know exactly yes yeah I definitely did and yeah thank you so much for sharing uh those terms and if someone wanted to hear more of your goodness and learn about either trail running or really learn from others because you have a lot of great um
Guests that you have on on your show to kind of share their story um you know where could our healthy Runner Community learn more about um what you do yeah so I will direct you to our podcast which is the inspired Souls podcast Dwayne um has been so gracious
To kind of help help us get the word out about our podcast and we get the word out about yours Dwayne uh you can find us on Instagram um inspired Souls with an S OES like The Souls of your shoes inspired Souls cast um we are on Apple
Spotify Google all the different players personally you can find me on Instagram as well my handle is flying fanges one um maybe you can link that up so I don’t have to spell it me your fingers and your toes um yeah so and I’m also on Facebook so feel free
To follow along yeah um I will definitely link all of those in the show notes wherever you’re listening to this Kim thank you so much for coming on again it’s always a pleasure to chat with you uh this was fun this was fun yeah yeah it was really fun I I always
Enjoyed chatting with you doing all right I’m going to try to go for an LSD run uh this weekend and listeners thank you so much for tuning in hopefully you learn some uh terms that you didn’t know and um yeah you can enjoy some of the uh
Buffed out tracks and the mashed potato Snow Trails and as always let’s maintain a strong mind a strong body and let’s just keep on running until next time
