Just had another amazing run in Hälsingland, Sweden. Came back to our holiday home feeling invigorated and ready to take on the world with my wonderful wife and our three amazing daughters, only for my loving wife to turn feral the moment she saw me running up the driveway. She screamed something about my socks, slammed and locked the door before I even got a chance to defend myself. So now I’m sitting outside (the weather is still amazing) contemplating my choices in life and turning to you guys for some honest advice: visible socks with Tectons, or any similar shoes, or socks that stay hidden?
Some details may have been slightly exaggerated. The socks have not.

This is a classic Scandinavian trail, specially in Sweden and around where I live, it's constant highly technical terrain combined with short spiky vertical climbs. It's not the classic trail that others might associate with. Yet, it's always fun being out for a few hours and just enjoying the trails while doing some basic recovery run.

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I got tired of spending $10-20 on what amounts to sugar goop on my long runs, so I've been playing this summer with a DIY gel recipe. This mix took some tweaking for flavor, but I'm pretty happy with where it's at. This gets you a pretty clean 2:1 glucose-fructose, and for about $0.35 per 100 cal gets you a gel thats nutritionally equal (and very similar recipe wise) to something like Gu.

I've heard people say its too much of a hassle but i can whip up a batch in 15 minutes, and do it in my sink which makes cleanup super quick.

Settling with the following:

(Makes 3x3oz flasks, ~290 cal / ~72g carbs each, ~100mg sodium)

Ingredients:

1 cup maltodextrin

1/4 cup table sugar (sucrose)

1/2 cup fructose

1/8 tsp regular salt

A pinch lite salt

1/2 tsp citric acid

1/4 tsp sodium citrate

1 1/8 cups warm water

A pinch gellan gum

Optional:

Flavor extract

Food coloring

Process:

1) mix dry ingredients in a blender or other container 2) in a small cup, mix a tsp or two of dry ingredients with gellan gum 3) mix 1/2 cup of water with gellan mix in a sauce pan, bring to a simmer 4) mix 5/8 cup of tap-hot water with dry mix in blender 5) pour gellan solution into blender, blend if necessary to smooth out 6) add flavor extract to taste and food coloring 7) pour into flasks while hot 6) cool in fridge

Some notes:

- using a large syringe (like 300-500ml) makes getting this in the flasks way easier

- i also tried a number of versions without table sugar, but its less sweet per tbsp than fructose, and its a little less cloying this way (plus cuts cost slightly)

- the gellan gum adds a little cost and hassle but improves palatability substantially. Careful though, the difference in texture between a small and large pinch is pretty substantial.

- the lite salt isn't necessary, just adds a little potassium.

- these 3oz soft flasks are about $9 for 10 and come with a handy little funnel. I've actually found theyre a lot less hassle and mess than single serve gels

- the food coloring feels a little silly, but without it they look an awful lot like a certain white creamy bodily fluid. Idk maybe youre into that kind of thing

- i played around with adding things like orange extracts for flavor, but they added a sort of strange flowery quality. Maybe worth continuing to experiment with but I'm settling on the nuetral flavor for now.

Edit to add: since it keeps getting asked: the flasks are from Amazon. SKYPRO brand, but a bunch of vendors make the exact same thing.

Edit 2: I am aware there are many simpler options. This was my attempt to bridge the flavor gap between store-bought gels and simpler sugar mixes. This is also still pretty easy and mostly just stirring powders together. Just wanted to be detailed here.

Hand strap broke a few weeks ago. Finally got a chance to fix it. Think I've had this thing a bit over 3 years now. Felt like an opportunity to remind the community of the most important parts of enjoying and honoring our open and wild spaces.

Reduce, recycle, reuse. Leave no trace.

Impossibly idyllic

11 miles with 3200ft up and 5200ft down, in Austria.

Hi everyone! My friend volunteered at the Gobi March and met a Thai woman with Moo Deng patterned running gaiters. Obviously she fell in love with them because who doesn't love baby hippos?! It's a long shot, but if anyone has seen these before or would know a company that makes custom-designed gaiters, I'd be thrilled to get her a pair. Thanks in advance!

Urban park trail with great views.

Hey guys! I'm gonna do my first trail marathon this year in September. Very excited, 45k and 2000m up and down. I've been running for some years, did a lot of trail half marathons and some 30k ish runs, but never went for the full one. My training is going ok so far right now I guess.

Now my problem: I'm gonna go on a two week hike to the Pyrenees in France/Spain around one month before the race. It's gonna be relatively tough days with a lot of elevation gain in pretty technical alpine environment and with a heavy backpack.

Do you think I should do some training on the side, in the evenings or mornings? Like some mountain intervalls? Or better not overdo it and stay with the hiking?

Thankful for any advice, Cheers!

I'm looking to take a trip for a week this fall and would like to go somewhere with great trail running. I'm in NC but open to anywhere in the US. I'm thinking of Sedona but not set on that.

I'm not at all interested in a group or tour or race, just wanting a vacation with cool running trails.

Any ideas?

Some running, some walking, about 20 miles all told, 3000 ft of elevation gain.

I’m 5’7” and 78kg, I’d like to lose weight and get down to 70kg. I’ve had injuries in the last form running that have put me out from running for 7 months which makes me cautious about. I want to lose weight safely whilst maintaining my mileage (30 miles a week) ideally I’d like to increase mileage and I introduced some interval and tempo workouts to improve my pace. Does anyone have any experience of losing around 6kg whilst making progress. Should I just maintain and run a mild calorie deficit and reap the improvements from weight loss or is it possible to add some intensity at the same time?

kind of a dumb question but

I realized one of the reasons I like running races so much is just the positive atmosphere, everyone is just on their grind and trying to better themselves. I'm basically a complete loser and running is the only positive thing I have in my life and I just want to be able to have that same kind of atmosphere at least once a week or something, since everyone else in my life is just negative or bad for me in some way

I don't know this is just me sort of spitballing I am a very awkward, shy and messed up person (like I am genuinely not a very likeable or good guy) and just wish I could find a non committal group of people to run with who won't judge me for being poor and deeply socially inept

as far as practical concerns I also want to run a 100 miler at one point and the more I learn about them the more running one without a crew seems like a bad idea

How do I find local trails? Is trail running safe? Do I need special shoes or gear? What do I do if I encounter some wildlife? What if I get lost? WHAT IF I HAVE TO POOP IN THE WOODS?

There are no dumb questions in this thread! If you are new to trail running or if you are a veteran who just wants to hear how other trail runners do things, ask away. If you have some ideas that can help your fellow trail runners and future trail runners, pitch in some answers.

No Dumb Question Day will be a regular, biweekly feature on the trailrunning sub.

**Thanks for participating!** Any questions, [please message your helpful mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Ftrailrunning).

Just a short few minutes from one of my Drift Edits.

The first section in this ultra that starts at the Mar Lodge Estate is up to the Hutchinson Bothy.

A remote ultra-marathon, not many like this in the UK, miles from the nearest road and a part of the biggest rewilding project in Scotland and the rest of the UK.

Always great to bump in to old friends and make new ones on such an adventure in a beautiful part of the world.

Smoke season has begun but I’m training for a September race and need the training runs. At what point do you go or not go? I’m generally healthy and have run in slop like this but wondering if I’m going long term damage.

Edit to add: I don’t have access to a treadmill.

I did the GR20 last month (southern section). Here are a few shots taken along the way including an epic final day where we tripled up the last 3 stages, setting off at night at 2 a.m.

I’ve been here for several years and im about to move out soon. Recently got into trail running (I was missing out!). I’ve ran a few and hiked plenty, almost all the runs were in the foothills area (between Eldorado springs and Pine Brook Hill).

I’m willing to travel up to 45 minutes for my next one. Any favorites? Ideally around 10 miles, could stretch it to a half marathon. Not too worried about elevation gain as long as it doesn’t exceed a mile in gain. Where would you go?

Hi community, in the 1 year I’ve been trail running I’ve experienced three different injuries - a tweaked knee (minor), a skinned up knee in a race (minor) and now an ankle sprain (more serious). I’m starting to wonder if I am doing something wrong or that’s just the inherent risk to the sport.

For more context, the trails in my region tend to be wet and muddy so the risk seems more pronounced. There is no “waiting until it’s dry” around here unfortunately. That definitely contributed to my most recent injury. I hit a slick root and rolled my ankle hard.

Is falling just part of the game? Should I do more strength and agility drills? Maybe I’m not looking at the ground closely enough? I’m starting to get frustrated because I do love the sport but not enough to constantly hurt myself.

I had my first ultra planned this weekend and I’m thinking about attempting it even though I’m still nursing this ankle sprain…

Just seeking some advice from norda 005 users as to the difference in the footbeds that conewith the shoes.

So far i have only used to ones that came in the shoes and not the ones in the little box.

Did anyone notice any major differences between them?