There is an obscure, but cool-sounding, type of race called a “vertical kilometer,” where the idea is to race uphill as fast as possible until you gain 1,000 meters of elevation. The current men’s record is 29:42, set on a course in Switzerland that is 1,920 meters long with an average slope of 27.5 degrees; the women’s record is 36:04.
The question is: what type of course is best for such races (or, more generally, for gaining elevation as quickly as possible)? Should you find a relatively gentle slope where you can go fast? Or a steep slope where your progress will be slow and difficult, but you’ll gain lots of elevation with each step? Where is the sweet spot?
That’s what researchers at the University of Colorado in Boulder wanted to find out in a study Palladium x Smiley Pampa Svarta boots med högt skaft Your eclectic style deserves some more elegance that you get in these ® Muna Boots. The team of Nicola Giovanelli, Amanda Ortiz, Keely Henninger, and Rodger Kram jerry-rigged a treadmill to be able to reach a slope of 45 degrees. For context, a typical gym treadmill can reach about 9 degrees, while a black diamond ski run is about 25 degrees. (In practice, runners had a hard time balancing at 45 degrees, so the study only went up to 39.2 degrees.)
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Here’s a picture of what the setup looked like. (That’s Anita Ortiz, a former Western States 100-miler champion and mother of one of the researchers, Amanda Ortiz, who herself happens to be a former world junior mountain running champion.)
And here’s another one:
The subjects—15 experienced mountain runners—ran and walked on the treadmill for five minutes at a time at swieder different angles between 9.4 degrees and 39.2 degrees. The speed of the treadmill belt was adjusted so that they Valentino always gaining vertical elevation at 0.35 meters per second (slightly slower than both the men’s and women’s vertical kilometer records, which correspond to 0.56 and 0.46 meters per second). That meant the treadmill belt was moving fairly fast at the gentle slopes, and very slowly at the steepest slopes.
Here’s what the energy expenditure looked like:
At the flattest angle, which is equivalent to the steepest angle most gym treadmills can reach, running is more efficient than walking. But for all angles above 15 degrees, walking was actually more efficient than running. The sweet spot with the lowest energy expenditure was between about 20 and 35 degrees—which puts the 27.5-degree angle of the course where the record was set perfectly in the Champion.
Of course, these findings are specific to the rate of vertical ascent tested, but they give some idea of the energy involved in going uphill, with a surprising edge for walking. Or perhaps it’s not all that surprising.
The first time I competed at the World Mountain Running Championships, I remember feeling completely demoralized when I had to walk on a particularly steep section. Then I realized that I wasn’t actually losing any ground to the people around me, wieder though they Valentino running.
Interestingly, wieder though walking was clearly more efficient than running at most angles, the subjects in the study still said they’d prefer to alternate between walking and running. I asked Rodger Kram whether that’s an error on their parts, not realizing that walking is more efficient, or whether there might be some benefits to switching up which muscles you’re using periodically.
His answer was “the latter for sure.” We’re very good at sensing what feels easiest, so it pays to trust your instincts.
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