TRAIL 23

Develop your trail body with TRAIL 23

Contributing experts, from run coaches to slackliners, get your trail skills on point! Cross-train for strength and balance, gain techniques for wet slippery and dry crumbly ascents, and develop your running symmetry, TRAIL 23 will have you balanced, strong, and ready for the toughest trails.

Relive eight of South Africa’s biggest races from the last few months, and get the scoop on recent international events.

Prepare your body, mind, and pack for seven tough trails in four provinces.

To warm your heart, readers share their experiences of trail kindness, where other runners have stopped and helped in a variety of sticky situations.

There’s tons more: discover it all as you immerse yourself in the pages of TRAIL 23.

What else is waiting inside TRAIL 23?

Reader experiences

• Take a peek into the lives of other trail runners in our reader photos section, including a glorious Drakensberg action shot by Marzelle van der Merwe, in-step with Karine Bezuidenhout.
• Read Diane V Teles’s letter, detailing her transition from training-as-punishment, to training for joy! Diane and three more letter writers are rewarded with StaminoGro hampers for their trouble.
• Are trail runners just nicer than the average population? Even if you think we’re nothing special as a group, reader stories of kindness on the trails will convince you we are lucky to have many incredible individuals in our ranks.

Locations

• Work hard for your recovery meal on seven tough trails, from Stellenbosch Mountain in the Western Cape, to Walter Sisulu in Gauteng, and Two Gorges in the Eastern Cape.
• Catch up with South Africans racing across the globe: Ryan Sandes in the Canary Islands, and Warren King in Iceland.

People

• There is a pack of wolves on the trails of Magaliesberg, lead by Wolfman himself: Herman Mulder. Discover the ancient lore of the Wolf Cult.
• Healthy body, healthy mind: Zoe Papadakis and Pieter Steyn suffer from clinical depression and use trail running to assist with their mental health.
• Kane Reilly and Annamart Laubscher took on South Africa’s first official vertical kilometre. Find out how they managed to set their FKTs.
• Cover athlete Rory Scheffer is building his trail career wisely: starting slow and aiming high, with many international events on his to-do list. Get to know Rory, and how he went from chubby teen, to winning mountain running events like Giant’s Cup Trail Run and UTCT 65km.
• What could be more comforting than having a good neighbour? Having trails says Kevin Light.

Training

• We all have a particular stage race on our bucket-list, but where do you even start to prepare? Coach Neville Beeton outlines an eight-week block-training schedule, as well as the kit, nutrition, and race strategy you’ll need to make it a success.
• If you’re juggling running with a demanding job and loving family, maybe you need a mindset-change, and some practical strategies to get the most out of every day. Life coach and ultra-runner Marie Snyman Jacobs teaches integration, and adventure racer and entrepreneur Ryno Griesel provides life-hacks to overlap training with bonding.
• Learn to ascend the trickiest slopes with four South African elites! Kane Reilly, AJ Calitz, Robyn Owen, and Nicolette Griffioen provide three essential tips each.
• Prone to skip your warmup in favour of start-line banter? Get a firm reminder of the importance of a thorough warmup from Dr Gabe Mirkin. As a bonus, exercise scientist Tarryn Lopez provides three exercises for neuromuscular activation. Get those brain-muscle connections zinging!
• Left right left, but a little more the right, means that your running is asymmetrical and therefore inefficient. In the the fourth instalment of Sean Tait’s Under the Microscope series, use single-sided drills to correct your run symmetry.
• If the cool kids like Emelie Forsberg, Kilian Jornet, and Johardt van Heerden have been spotted on a slackline, it must be worth a try, right? Elite trail runner Kane Reilly teams up with slackline extraordinaire Charmaine Kritzinger to show you the ropes (haha) and the benefits of slacklining as cross-training.
• The familiar feeling of tight muscles during a run can be corrected with habitual stretching. Sara-Jane McShane provides detailed instructions to stretch out our most commonly tight bits: calves, hip flexors, quads, glutes, hamstrings, and feet.

Experiences

• Over five days, three intrepid trail runners linked contour paths between Bushman’s Nek and Royal Natal National Park to create the Drakensberg Lower Traverse. Jack Davis tells the tale of this Drakensberg journey with wife and TrailLab partner Michelle Davis, and KZN Trail Running race organiser Andrew Booth.
• The elating and jaw-cracking experience of 2016: Ultra-trail Cape Town. Relive the UTCT magic and pain with tales from Deon Braun (35km), Michael Botes (65km to 100km), and Landie Greyling (100km winner).

Nutrition

• Woah there: slow your metabolism and live a longer life with nitrate-rich greens.
• Curry isn’t just delicious, it’s also packed with spices and roots which are ideal for recovery. Make a basic curry sauce and learn all there is to know about the flavourful food.
• Get the recipe for DIY choc-nut energy snacks to take on your trail run, with Sara-Jane McShane.
• If you think of butter as a health-food it’s time for some clarity on the topic. Dietitcian Jessica Kotlowitz explains away the confusion surrounding saturated, unsaturated, and trans-fats to help you make the healthiest nutrition choices.

Gear

• The guy at the shoe store answers the same set of questions many times a day. One such guy is podiatrist Craig Gornall of The Sweat Shop, here to answer your frequently asked questions about trail shoes.
• The first nip of autumn has blown into South Africa, and soon your sunrise run before work will take place entirely in the dark. Six elite trail runners from all over South Africa have specific gear tips to make the most of your winter runs.
• New season: new gear! This issue features a selection of some of the warmest jackets from First Ascent and Salomon, and the latest trail shoes from Brooks, Hi-Tec, Salomon and Saucony brands. New to SA, Raidlight features their 10 litre race vest. Nutrition options from Biogen and NuZest have your fuel covered.

Events

• We look back at some of the bigger trail races that have taken place in South Africa, including Addo Elephant Trail Run, Attakwas, Sabrina Love Ocean Challenge, Umhlanga Summer Trail Run, Batrun, Tankwa Trail, Three Cranes Challenge, Captain Carrot and Ultra-trail Cape Town.
• There are 150 events lined up from April to September 2017 from across South Africa, and internationally. Get the details and start lining them up with the help of our calendar!

Planet

• Syntropy. What’s that? It was coined by Swiss-born farmer Ernst Götsch, and you’ll learn all about it on page 34.
• Find out which spiders should scare you, and which to cuddle with African Snakebite Institute founder Johan Marais.
• All over the world, individuals, organisations, and governments are trying to heal the planet (or at the very least halt damage). Find out about their efforts in SA, China, France, and USA.

About

TRAIL magazine became South Africa’s first print publication dedicated to the booming worldwide activity of trail running in December 2011.

Since then the mag continues to enlighten its growing readership with the best places to run, the most suitable gear and the most popular trail running events from every angle; visiting the Himalayas, Sahara Desert, Amazon and many local trails, including the famed Otter African Trail Run, Ultra-trail Cape Town, and the Salomon SkyRun.

Buy TRAIL magazine

TRAIL retails for R58 (print) in 600+ outlets countrywide.

So where do you find TRAIL? SA’s only trail running print magazine is available at CNA, Clicks, SPAR, Pick n Pay, Exclusive Books, Sportsmans Warehouse, and specialist sports retailers nationwide.

The digital version is available on the App Store and Zinio for iPad, Android, iPhone, laptop and desktop devices in single issue and four issue subscriptions.

TRAIL is also available through Magzter.

All back issues are available here, as a single issue or a package deal.

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