We've done our fair share of vert sessions over the years. From long steady climbs to hill sprint repeats, building that posterior chain is essential to nailing your next mountain race. Finding a nice few kms of steady gain isn't always possible though so for those of you training in a flat area or looking for something close to home why not try this stair workout specifically geared towards trails.

Stairs 1,2,3 Repeat

The concept for this one is simple.

3 rounds of stairs.

round 1 - running/hiking every step of the staircase

round 2 - running/hiking every second step on the stair case

round 3 - running/hiking every third step of the stair case

REPEAT

Now the number of repeats will be determined by your level of fitness and the number of stairs you have to work with. We also should add that you should aim to use every step on the way down (3 steps at once on tired quads is a recipe for disaster... don't ask how I know).

The Advantages...

It's not uncommon to encounter a set of stairs on your local trails. What is uncommon though is to find a perfectly even set of manicured stairs. This workout helps to simulate trail conditions and climbing using different heights, leg extensions and engaging your muscles at varied lengths as you are much more likely to do on a set of trails.

So give this trail stair session a go and let us know in the comments how you found it.

Check out more from Moretrail

So You Want to Run Your First Trail Race.... Series (pt 1 - Shoes)

In this series we offer advice on all the things required to run your first trail race. In part 1 we focus on trail shoes and our advice on getting your first pair.

Hot Takes from AMA with Rod Farvard's Coach! (M2 Western States)

Matt Ison has been Rod's coach since 2016. After his break out performance at States, Matt did an AMA on Reddit going in depth on a range of topics around Rod's coaching and training. Here are some hot takes and best bits from the thread.

Tips for Returning to Running After a Long Break.

Some times life gets in the way of a consistent running schedule. Here are our top tips to returning to running when its been a while since your last running block.