Trail: Is it better to walk or run uphill?

TRAIL: Is it better to walk or run uphill?

In this article, the ambassador La Sportiva and university professor, Nicola Giovanelli, answers one of the most asked questions in the world of trail.

How many times have you found yourself in an uphill phase during a race, seeing some athletes walking and others running ? Yet moving at the same speed... So why run if you don't want to go faster?

Let's take a look at what happens on flat ground . On flat ground, the spontaneous transition from walking to running is between 6 and 8 Km/hour.

This speed minimizes energy consumption because humans have evolved so that if the speed is higher than 6-8 Km/h it is more convenient to run. While below this speed it is more convenient to walk. But is this rule valid on a slope?

Let's look at a "typical" Vertical Kilometre (1000 m of positive difference in height over 3 km of trail). The fastest athletes take about 30 minutes at a speed of 6 km/h. The slowest ones take around 60 minutes, at a speed of 3 km/h. This already implies that walking would be more advantageous since the speed is lower than 6-8 km/h, as mentioned above.

It is rare to see athletes running in a vertical race (even at the top), they almost all walk, with or without poles, but they walk.

By analyzing a race, we can then already find a partial answer to our initial question.

Science provides even more confirmation. Indeed, in a recent study a comparison was made between walking and running at the same speed on tracks with 20% and 80% inclination. The results clearly showed that walking was more convenient because it consumed less energy than running.

These results, even obtained in laboratory conditions, can be transposed to the real field. For races ranging from the Vertical Kilometre to the Ultra Trail, the message is clear: uphill it is more convenient to walk. Unless you can reach a higher speed while running!

But how should you walk?

For optimal performance, you should take long steps and if you don't use poles you can use your hands to "push on your knees".

So if in a race there is a phase where you have to walk, it doesn't make sense to just run during training.

Athletes of all levels should remember that if they have to walk during a race, then they should also walk during training, to prepare the muscles to work in a specific way.

In conclusion, it is better to climb a hill by walking than by running , but this requires training. Walkinguphill with long strides at a fast pace on different trails is what you need to do in training to improve your overall running performance.

Author: Nicola Giovanelli

Translated from English to French by the SAS AlpinStore technical team.