Pacing Strategy for Vert-Heavy Races
Power-hiking is not giving up. The maths of when to walk and when to run on a serious vert day.
The single biggest pacing mistake we see in vert-heavy races is treating walking as a failure state instead of a strategy you chose before the start line.
Above roughly a 15–18% grade, the energy cost of running versus a strong power-hike converges — you arrive at the top in close to the same time, but running gets there with a much higher heart rate.
Decide your grade threshold before the race, not on the climb. In the moment, ego always votes to keep running.
Save the legs for the runnable descents. That's where vert-heavy races are actually won or lost.
