TRAIL RUNNING — A DIFFERENT WORLD.

Weekdays: Isar, English Garden, city run with the crew at six in the morning. Weekends: elevation, elevation, elevation. That's no coincidence. It's philosophy. Dr. Alexandra v. Strempel, coach at runningsociety and passionate trail runner, explains what running in nature does to the body, the mind, and the heart.

Two ways to run

City running and trail running are both running — physiologically similar, psychologically completely different. Anyone who only runs on roads or in parks usually knows exactly: how far, how fast, how much. The route is predictable, and the mind runs along on autopilot.

Trail running is the opposite. You watch the next meter of ground. You react. You stumble, you decide, you climb, you push. Your head is fully in the moment, not because you force yourself to "meditate", but because the alternative is a fall.

That's not a drawback, it's a feature. Mindfulness, which otherwise has to be cultivated with effort, arises on the trail entirely on its own.

What research says about "Green Exercise"

Science calls it Green Exercise — physical activity in a natural environment. And the research is clear: exercising in nature has demonstrably stronger positive effects on mental health than equivalent activity in an urban or indoor setting.

A systematic review of Green Exercise shows: - Significant reduction in stress and anxiety after just a single session - Improved mood and reduced symptoms of depression - Increased self-efficacy and self-esteem - Better cognitive recovery (restoration after mental fatigue)

The mechanism behind it is biopsychological: natural environments activate our parasympathetic nervous system, reduce cortical overactivation (the "rumination loop") and trigger evolutionarily anchored relaxation reflexes. Our nervous system recognizes nature as a safe context, and switches down.

Why elevation trains more than just fitness

Running uphill regularly doesn't just train your legs. Climbing a long ascent — 500 meters, 1,000 meters, more — teaches something a flat loop never can: real endurance in the mental sense. You can't cheat it. You can't hold the pace. You have to make peace with the discomfort of being slow and still moving forward.

That's exactly the pattern that matters most in real life under pressure.

Alexandra puts it like this: "Mountains teach humility and consistency at the same time. You reach the top because you didn't give up, not because you were especially fast."

The power of weekend runs in the mountains

The runningsociety concept is deliberately split in two: weekdays belong to structured training in the city — punctual, with a group, in measurable sessions. Weekends belong to the unmeasured. Longer runs, trails, mountains, time in nature.

This combination isn't accidental. It serves two entirely different physiological and psychological needs — and together, they make for more complete athletes and, more importantly, more complete people.

Ultra running — racing and training far beyond marathon distance — isn't self-punishment for Alexandra. It's a choice for a different kind of clarity. On long runs in the mountains, every distraction falls away. What remains is focused.

Ultra running as a school of life

What happens over 50 or 100 kilometers in the mountains also happens in life: there are phases where you feel you can't go on but have to anyway. There's low point after low point after low point before the next summit comes into view. And there are moments where you ask yourself why you're doing this at all.

The answers you find in ultra running are the same ones that carry you through other long projects — a doctorate, building a company, an intense career phase. The ultra mindset isn't a sports concept. It's an attitude.

If you want to know what that means for you: join us on the next weekend run. Or just write to us. runningsociety.de

June 4, 2026