After 20 years away from running, Laurel Beversdorf jumped into the 2023 Oak Park Challenge trail run at Monte Sano. She enjoyed being in the woods on the trails, scampering up through the Land Trust and Bankhead Parkway to the park overlook before heading down to the finish line. It’s 3.5 miles up and down, a nice test and popular among local dirt-pounders.
“It’s pretty challenging, for sure,” said Beversdorf, 44, a Huntsville yoga instructor and online trainer. Two decades ago, she was a mid-distance sprinter and also ran “for enjoyment and stress relief” while living in New York City. And then, at about age 25, she stopped.
The urge hit again about five years ago, though. Pandemic running “was half-hearted, hit and miss,” she said. Too much, too fast, too hard, and it just didn’t sync. In 2023, she joined a Fleet Feet training group. Oak Park was her first trail run, and first significant anything after the layoff. When the Oak Park Challenge rolled around in late October, “I did better than I expected. I had such a positive experience.”
The spark grew, and she added a few more events. Balancing work, marriage, a young child, all the life things, now included running and training. The latter was important, too, with the accountability of the training groups helping Beversdorf improve her stamina, distance and results.
A year later, Beversdorf smoked the Oak Park trails to win the 2024 women’s title and finish ninth overall in 1:13:53. Her time is the race record by more than two minutes. She’s in the field for Sunday morning’s Oak Park Challenge, which starts and finishes at 8 a.m. at the Oak Park ballfields. More than 80 runners are registered, and registration still is open.
Ten Minutes?
Knocking off a few minutes of a personal best is a typical goal for runners in any event, be it a 5K or 50K on the roads or trails.
Ten minutes? That’s quite an achievement, along with jumping 25 places in the standings. That’s what Beversdorf did last year.
“I’m a fairly new runner and think as a case across the board, as a newbie, the improvements at the beginning are going to be much better than intermediate or advanced,” Beversdorf said. “I wanted to do Oak Park again (in 2024) for comparison. The accountability of the run club helped, and the trails will slow you down, so I was forced to move a little slower and be on many more hills than I was accustomed to. I think that made the on-ramp to my volume a little more gradual. It forced me to take it a little slower.
“I think the thing that helped me slow down is I ramped up my running to six days a week. So I had some fatigue every day. I became more in tune with my body’s signals and that helped modify my volume down. I don’t need to go out every day and kill it. The days I do those (speed) days, I don’t run the day before or I take it easy.”
Along with her yoga, Beversdorf incorporated strength training along with learning to run slower. That means a more controlled, comfortable pace than a spurt-and-go. It’s a challenge many runners face on the road or trails. She also learned “how to be a morning person,” which many athletes have to do for life balance. Fitting in time to run, bike, swim or for other activities is challenging after breakfast, school dropoff, work and whatever else comes along.
Training Plans
Beversorf laughed after admitting she didn’t realize Oak Park was a trail run when she signed up for the Fleet Feet training group.
“About halfway thru the workouts I thought, “this is so hard” but I got more into it,” she said. The experiences in the group, talking with other runners and learning to manage the trails and training all paid off. She said a couple of key factors helped her improve and win last year.
“I follow running programs,” she said. “One day a week with speed, one day with a long run … weekly volume increased to between 35-40 miles per week. It took a full year to get there. I had a calf strain, too, probably because I was going out and running too fast. Learning how to run slow might be my No. 1 suggestion, and one day a week do interval or burst training.
“The other thing is strength training might be my secret weapon for the downhills. I can go really fast on the downhills. The thing that helps me go fast on downhill is I’m lucky and have no knee issues. I do heavy stength training … heavy squats, heavy deadlfts. I’m not doing low-load training. It’s heavy training, so I feel stronger going downhill and can leap and hop.”
Beversdorf’s key takaways for new runners? Increase volume slowly, learn to run slowly and build strength with weight training. That doesn’t mean becoming a Ms. Olympia competitor with muscles bursting from your tights. But failing to increase weight, appropriately and over time, doesn’t help as much.
Running on roads or greenways requires some focus. But not like on trails with roots, rocks, mud and little toe-grabbers. Any of those can turn you into a leaf-eater in seconds. Paying attention to what’s ahead is important.
“My mantra for downills is to “Squish rocks!” Beversdorf said. “If you ever played a video game where you’re trying to grab or stomp or squish things, you want confident foot placements and no wishy-washy thoughts about where you’re goiing to place your rocks. No second-guessing when you’re squishing the rocks. Stay focused where you’re putting your feet. It’s very much about focus.”
Yoga Helps, Too
As a yoga instructor, Beversdorf knows the upside of a positive, comfortable workout. Yoga combines breathing, movement and focus during poses that provide myriad benefits. All athletes can see positive results with yoga.
“Running is really repetitive, right?” she said. “One thing yoga can offer runners is variety to how they’re moving their body, including everything with the hips, ankles and knees. It’s low impact, and a great way to focus your energy and sleep better at night. Stretching is a way for some people to see a reduction in pain. If we don’t move all our joints in ways they’re designed to move, we start to lose some flexibility. It offers a physical practice to help maintain the body’s ability to move through a full range of motion.”
Yoga also is relaxing, which athletes can use during a training regimen. Laps in the pool, long rides, running sessions with sprints or long days … it’s taxing. Even the most carefully planned training program, mixed in with daily life, can get to you. Yoga helps quell those “ugh!” moments, whether it’s a 20-minute session or longer ones a couple of times a week.
“There’s a mind-body connection, along with focusing on your breath, and calming,” Beversdorf said. “It’s a contrast to running, which can be very repetitive and sometimes intense. If you’re competitive and do races, you’re obviously focused on the goal of beating your opponents and looking outside yourself to do that. Yoga is totally opposite of that …. there’s no competition or finish line. When you leave the practice you hopefully feel more grounded, calm and more flexible.”
And you might even shave some serious time off your personal best in the next run, bike or swim event, too.
