I’ve had a couple falls in the last few years on trails. In each and every time my concentration on the next few steps lapsed and one of my feet hits a rock or root. I’ve been working on making sure I know where my feet are going before I turn concentration to the person. The two worst, first I tripped over a rock and came down hard on a bunch of other big rocks. I still had 5 miles to the car. Blood running from one knee, one elbow and one hand. I managed to make it to the car and was able to run the next day. The other was at the 30K mark of a 50K. That probably hurt pride more than anything because it was right in front of an aid station. Drew blood but it didn’t hamper my running.

The other thing I do specifically on the downhills is take the worse possible line on every hill.

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Dave Jewell
Free Run Speed

Can you explain how this helps?

On every trail hill going down or even up, there is a line you can see that has less rocks or less roots etc.As you know that line is never straight. I specifically pick a side and stay on it no matter what. At the same time I do every single run no matter if it’s a long easy paced run or one with some tempo built in the exact same way. I try to float on the flats, stay strong and purposeful going up and gain time and or pace going down. Doing that on a bad line sure makes life interesting.

End result is I can run down hill much better than say 2 years ago.

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Dave Jewell
Free Run Speed

As one who has fallen on my knees plenty of times ... Two things: Slow down. Learn to use this time to pick better lines for your running. And ... you're going to have to make it a habit to lift your feet much more conscientiously than when road running. Easy to forget when you're wiped.

And don't wear a mask. If you see someone approaching, just go off to the side as far as necess.

I had a friend years ago show up to an indoor pick up soccer match at the local school gym while wearing full hockey pads because he ‘did not want to get hurt.’ The other guys were all like WTF is up with this guy and basically booed him when he walked in. So funny. He totally sucked at soccer and basically bombed around making cool slide moves and getting crazy sweaty.

Same guy would try and wear his ski boots at the rock gym to simulate high alpine training. And the owners were like WTF

Yes he did lots of LSD

Any chance it's a depth perception problem? Do you wear glasses or contact lenses?

I was tripping a lot wearing my multi-focal contact lenses. Turns out they were messing with my depth perception and it was getting worse as my eyes aged. I switched to single focus and have much better depth perception (and trip less often). The drawback is I can't read the little numbers on my watch very well. And I take off my sunglasses for the technical parts, particularly if I'm dripping sweat on them.

I have been more conscious lately and have had a good week of running. I have not worried too much about pulling my mask up and am not picking my head up to acknowledge people when I pass by then.

I do think it could be a contrast thing that contributes. I had corrective eye surgery a few years back and all though I can see fairly well when there is good contrast. I have noticed that I struggle when things blend in. A rock poking up from the sand in a shadow is very difficult for me to see.

I was very cautious this week when the sun is at my back and my shadow cast in front of me. I also took my sun glasses off, which helped.

Not sure what I can do about the vision thing. I will bring it up next time I am at the eye doctor.

Cut the distractions and focus on where you're running... If you listen to music while you run, and have issues biffing regularly, cut the music... There are some great suggestions in this thread, physio to correct imbalances (or poor balance), hill running and bounding drills to help with shuffling (throw in common running drills like A's and B's emphasizing the toe up position in the drills) and prevent tripping...

But generally the equation of success vs. peril works out to an equation of skill/technical demand. Effectively, if your level of skill exceeds the technical demand of the trail, you should be successful, if the technical demands exceed your skill, you're more likely to leave some flesh on the trails... There are plenty of factors that influence this:
- Distraction (not focusing on the 10-20m ahead of you, either due to music, not being present in the moment, etc.) tends to lower your effective skill level, the more distracted you are, the less skilled your performance becomes
- Speed: this one impacts both sides of the equation, speed can make technical elements more demanding, requiring a higher skill level, also, you need to practice your technical skills at a variety of speeds, in order to be comfortable executing them at higher speeds without losing control (or even lower speeds, some technical descending is more forgiving at higher speeds). You can help balance the equation by slowing down through elements at the upper end of your skill level, in order to make them more navigable... Unfortunately you tend to learn this balance through trial and error...
- Conditions: This tends to impact the technical demands side of the equation, rain, snow, extreme dry, wind, etc. can all impact trails (or even roads) and make it more demanding. Time of day can impact some surfaces too, depending on how many people have been through to pack stuff down, or chew things up... A nice grassy path can transition into a muddy trail without mother nature's intervention, through people using the trail before you...
- Visibility: Fog, shadows, and low light (or high light, i.e. sun in the eyes) conditions can impact your ability to see obstacles or perceive depth, which increases the technical demand (unless you have run that trail so much that you know every root and dip and could run it with your eyes closed). Carrying a headlamp (even if it's the middle of the day, if you are venturing into deep bush, or caves, etc. or if there's a chance that you're going to get into twilight hours) can help, or running at better visibility times of day.
- Fatigue/injury both of these tend to decrease your skill level (or rather your ability to execute the skills). Elements on a trail that are easy 5km into a run, might be much harder a couple of hours later as you fatigue), similarly injuries can impact things such as strength and range of motion that can be critical in the execution of technical elements of a trail.

In order to improve the skill side, you need to gradually push above your skill level and try more challenging elements, or different lines, etc. to start to push the boundaries of the comfort zone... But generally if you think about that when you approach trails, you at least have the information available to help balance the equation (either through route selection, gear, or modulating speed). Incidentally, the same principles apply in cycling, speed being a critical element there...

If you are going off trail and falling, next time just walk when you are going around other people. If said person is going the same direction, just say 'passing' and most hikers will stop and let you by.

No to the pads.

If you are new to trail running, you'll get better the more you run trails (obviously). Don't look at your feet, look about 10 feet ahead and focus on where you want to step/your line. Make sure you are getting your feet off the ground and aren't shuffling or you're bound to trip on roots and rocks.

Really helpful - thank you for the thoughtful post