Mont Blanc Trails

I was undecided about running with ski poles for the ultra-trail until fairly recently, but with all the hills to climb - mostly at a fast walking pace I decided that it would make life a lot easier.I started training with them a few weeks ago, and it isn’t as easy as it may at first appear!Walking up the hills is fine. The pole plants naturally fall in the correct place to assist with each step. You are taking some of the weight of each step with your arms, so relieving your leg muscles. Great! But what about running down - where relieving the leg muscles would be very useful. And for the flats, what do you do with the poles ?The first thing I realised is that as soon as you are beyond walking speed, planting the pole for each step is not practical. First, the extra weight of the poles means that you don’t naturally swing your arms in the right rhythm. I tended to plant every other step, but always on the same foot. This isn’t good as it’s asymmetric. In other words only one leg is relieved - so you have to make a deliberate change of pattern every so often to even things up.I soon discovered the correct pattern for me. Every other pace I pole plant for both legs. Hard to describe but you count foot falls, 1 2 3 4, and plant on 3 & 4 (It’s a quick 1-2). This works for down hills, where you aim to plant ahead of your foot fall, and flats where you aim to plant behind your foot fall to propel yourself forward (Ski Touring wise).For flat roads I tend to carry the poles - either one in each hand or both in one.It’s very effective once you get used to it, and I’m sure it will help save the legs a lot, but you do need practice to get it right!