Can't beleive I am saying this

I <3 trail running, and so does my dog. It's one of many interests we share along with cookies, steak, beer, Ninja Warrior (he's kind of luke warm on this one, but there might be cookies), peanut butter, sleeping late on Sunday.....but I digress

yes, find a trail, and maybe a dog.

I do 99% of my running on trails, and I would agree with what you say.  It does make you faster and stronger on the road.  The only thing I would suggest is a few months prior to road racing do some LD on the roads, if you train mostly on trails.  The cushioning effect of the trail is never so evident as when you hit pavement.  You'll need time on the roads to get your hips and knees acclimated to the pounding.

I absolutely love trail running. In the summer I will drive to these trails by me and do a lot of my long runs on them. They are horse trails combined with mountain bike trails with lots of hills. I always see lots of deer, rabbits, squirrels and even a fox or two.

This time of year they are used for cross country skiing.

Can't wait for spring!

Great topic!  My dog and I run trails in Wilderness Park, a huge park that enters the city (Lincoln Nebraska) from the south and juts right into the heart of the city.  One major trail is a flat, mostly straight crushed limestone trail (old train tracks ripped out).  It runs probably twenty-five miles from downtown to a small town south, and will go farther soon (all the way to Kansas I heard).  Off of that major trail are multiple side trails into the woods and they weave in and out around a small river, over bridges and such.  We see deer, turkeys, foxes, etc. nearly every time we are out!   My dog can run with no fear of cars. 

I even bought the Timex Trail Runner GPS/HR monitor to track speed, distance, altitude changes, etc.  It works well in the woods where my old GPS failed.  Trail runner shoes are a must too - the stability difference is tremendous.       

It is so much better than running on concrete streets.  But for now I'm stuck on a treadmill. . . arrgh!