After two years of trail running in Ontario, I have officially joined the club of people that have moved away from the province to gain greater access to mountains and competition at the highest end of the sport. But after going through the trials and tribulations of gaming the system in the province, I wanted to share some of the methods I used to scan for the best trails and races, and how I worked to maximize my potential while training in the province.

For the unfamiliar, in the two years I spent in Ontario competing on the trails, I featured on the podium of all four races I did, winning two. I hold one of the top five fastest times on both The Bad Thing 50K and Sulphur Springs 20K, crowns on many of the uphill/downhill segments in the provinces, and was the highest placing finisher from outside of BC, Quebec and Alberta at the 50K National Championships this summer in Squamish. I was never the fastest guy on the roads or cross-country/track, but I found a way to get every inch out of myself to a competitive level in the trail scene both inside and outside of the province. Here are some of the ways in which I worked toward success.

GAMING THE SYSTEM

When I first started running on the trails in and around Cambridge, Ontario, I created an entire database of trails that existed within a 2-hour radius of where I lived, ranked by elevation gain per kilometre. This is now posted here:
Ontario Trail Running Database – Google Sheets

When creating this database, I used the ever-popular All Trails app, which is actually quite difficult to use without an account. Using the free version of the app, I listed all the trails that popped up within a 2-hour radius that had some degree of elevation gain, and then used excel to rank them by elevation per kilometre.

The elevation per kilometre metric is a useful one when considering your races. For example, knowing that Sulphur Springs 50K has an elevation gain of about 20m per kilometre, you then don’t need to go significantly higher than that on your long runs. You can instead prioritize trails and runs that hit around that mark, for example, doing a 25K long run that has 500m of elevation gain.

While it took about an afternoon to create, this list became extremely useful. It’s how I first discovered trails like Pretty River and Smokey Hollow which would become two of my favourite places to run.

Essentially, anyone could re-create this formula.

1. Research all the trails in your area, prioritizing the types of trails you want to utilize in your training. Make a database that lists each one, including the travel distance from your location, and the elevation gain you’d acquire.
   
2. Use this list to rank the trails based on any metrics that you find useful (how close they are to you, what you’re going to get), and start to explore!

As you visit different locations, you can then find hills, terrain, and segments that work to bring out the best in your training. For example, after a few visits to Pretty River, I found a way to get a 12-15-minute sustained uphill effort, which I had previously thought would be impossible outside of ski resorts. I then created segments that would allow me to memorize the exact path and utilize it in my training to simulate sustained efforts I would be experiencing at my races in BC and Quebec.

In addition to utilizing this research, I also learned of unique spots to train in two other ways:

1. Where the best races are located.
2. Friends.

The first one is obvious! The best races are located in some of the best spots, on some of the best trails. I’ll delve into this in the next section, but this is something any runner could do in any area. When travelling through the States recently, I researched some of the best races in the area to locate some of the best trails.

The second one is also obvious! When asking friends for recommendations, I found a few more trails that became useful in my training – ones that I had previously discarded in my research. As a quick example and thank you – Paul Vanoostveen casually mentioned the Speyside section of Milton’s trails one time to me.

I hadn’t ever run on Milton’s trails at that point, because most of them were flat and had decently difficult parking access. But as soon as Paul mentioned Speyside to me, I started using the rocky terrain for technical practice (my favourite kind), practicing some of those same muscle patterns I would need on a trail like Mestachibo in Quebec.

RACES

If you’re someone that is motivated by racing or wants to exist within the community of the sport, doing races is a great way to maximize your fun and grow as a runner. I’ve written about the best races to do in the province before in a longer article, but my favourites are:

1. Sulphur Springs – The most competitive and popular. Great atmosphere with several distances to do. Extremely runnable.
2. The Bad Thing – A great community-based race with a difficult to master 25K and 50K.
3. Falling Water – One of the more difficult, technical and challenging races, giving you a similar experience to what you’d experience racing outside of the province.

If you’re going to do one Ontario race and only one, it would probably be Sulphur Springs, as it’s the most applicable to all levels of runners and done in a loop format – making it easy to utilize when it’s your first time trying a new distance.

The faster runners know they’re going to get the best competition at the race, while those that don’t care about competition will also get a great community feel. For those that are more experienced on the trails, and don’t care as much about the level of competition, Falling Water is the race to do for an increase in challenge.

TRAILS

Previously I’ve written about some of my favourite segments and hills, but I haven’t shared in detail where I liked to train. This database includes my ten favourite trails in the province and what to expect from each one. Ontario Trail Running Database.

However, it does not include trails in Northern Ontario such as ones in Algonquin Provincial Park, Frontenac or Killarney, which I know are also popular hiking and trail running spots. It only includes trails within about a 2-hour radius of Toronto, Ontario, that I have personal experience utilizing to maximize my trail time in the province.

If you’re interested in maximizing your potential as a trail runner in Ontario and want to see how I might be able to help, don’t be afraid to reach out! Thanks for reading and see you soon!