Elevation Gain and Vertical Speed

We've all heard it:

'Challenge yourself at the Eureka Stair Climb - 88 Floors / 1642 Stairs!'

'Tower Running World Championships at Taipei 101 - 91 Floors /2046 Stairs!'

But what does this mean?

How do you train for an event when there are so many variables from one stairwell to another?

For anyone that has competed or climbed in a variety of different stairwells, you will know that the number of stairs, or even the floor count can actually tell you very little about the challenge ahead. This is where elevation gain comes in.

Elevation Gain

To compare elevation gain, we can start by looking at the fastest times for the two stair climbs mentioned above. Eureka has 88 floors and the male record is held by Mark Bourne in 7:34. Taipei 101 has 91 floors and the male record is held by Paul Crake in 10:29 (both Aussies of course). So what is going on here? How could it take Paul the best part of 3 minutes longer to climb just 3 more floors? The answer is elevation gain. The Eureka stair climb has an elevation gain of 280 vertical meters, whereas the Taipei 101 Run Up has an elevation gain of 390 vertical meters - a difference of some 110 vertical meters. Now Paul Crake's time of 10:29 doesn't look too shabby after all, in fact it has stood up to the world's best stair climbers since 2005!

Vertical Speed

To compare vertical speed, all we need to do now is divide the elevation gain by the elapsed time, and what we find is that Mark ascended the Eureka Tower at an average vertical speed of 36.85 m/min for 7:34 min, and Paul ascended Taipei 101 at an average vertical speed of 37.15 m/min for 10:29 min. These are very similar average vertical speeds and so what we are seeing here is that the two athletes are really quite evenly matched (although kudos to Paul for not only being slightly faster, but holding it for 3 minutes longer!). So we have taken the variables of floors, stairs, and elevation gain, and we now have a way to compare them, even though they are quite different from one another.

But what does this mean for you and me? How does this relate to my training and my race prep? Well now we have a tool that we can use to compare any stairwell to the stairwell you train in, a previous race result, or a plan for pacing at an upcoming event. It allows us to think not in terms of how many stairs we climb per minute, or how many floors, as these factors are only really relevant to an individual stairwell. When we think about our vertical speed, we are free from individual buildings, and we can apply our performance level or expectations to a whole range of different training and racing scenarios.

Pacing

The number one reason you bonk at the top of a stair climb is because you got your pacing wrong at the start. You were fired up. You felt strong. You went too hard at the start. We've all done it! So how do we get this right? Well there are many thoughts on this. Setting a goal of floors per minute, steps per minute, using a metronome, targeting split times (I need to be at floor 20 in...) or just doing it by feel. All of these can work for different people, but the focus of this article is to talk about pacing using vertical speed, so that's what we will cover.

To use vertical speed for pacing, first we need to know what it is in real time, as we climb. But how is it possible for you to know your vertical speed while you are climbing? The answer is actually quite simple. With the advent of sports watches, it is now possible to provide yourself with this information.

All you need is a sports watch, but not any sports watch, what you need is a watch with a built in barometer, and one that will allow you to view your vertical speed during an activity. This would typically be a barometric watch from someone like Garmin or Suunto. (Incidentally, there is no intention in this article to promote any particular brand or watch, but the watch used in the illustration is a Suunto 9 Baro. This watch has customisable sports modes, where you can choose the information displayed during the exercise.) In short, the two things you are looking for when choosing a watch are customisable sports modes, and vertical speed in m/min or ft/min. Don't use a watch that can only measure vertical speed in m/hour or ft/hour as this will not be accurate enough.

Once set up, the display on your watch might look something like the one in the illustration below:

What we are looking at in the illustration are three important metrics:

Current Vertical Speed - This allows you to see at what speed you are ascending the building.
Total Meters Climbed - This allows you to see how far you have climbed, or how much of the challenge is remaining.
Elapsed Time
Also displayed are time of day and HR.

How do I use this information to train or plan for a race?

Now here's where it gets interesting. As demonstrated in the comparison at the beginning of this article, not all stairwells are created equally. If you are able to monitor your vertical speed while climbing, soon you will come to realise that some stairwells are FAST, and some stairwells are slow. Why is this? It's the gradient of the stairs.

Most stairwells ascend somewhere in the range of 35° (70% grade). But some stairwells could be as low as 32° (62.5% grade) and some as high as 38° (78% grade) This is a massive difference in gradient, which will make a massive difference in the effort required to climb. With this in mind it's easy to see how using cadence, stairs per minute, floors per minute, can lead you very quickly in to a scenario for which you were quite unprepared.

Think about a treadmill. You might be able to run on the flat quite easily at 10kph, now turn it up to 15% grade, how's it going? This is the same variance we are talking about when considering different stairwells. So for the same cadence, or steps per minute, vertical speed in the high gradient building is hard and FAST and vertical speed in the in the low gradient building is easier and slower.

What this means in the real world is that by training or racing using vertical speed, you can adapt your cadence to suit any building. You'll step slower in the high gradient building and faster in the low gradient ones, but your rate of ascent will be roughly the same.

Now that you know your vertical speed, you can set a realistic goal for a race. If you know you can maintain a vertical speed of 20 m/min, then you can quickly work out that a building of 300m will take you roughly 15 min to climb. There are of course other factors such as transitions, doors, flat sections, even swapping stairwells, but at least you won't go in to it hoping for 10 minutes, getting halfway up in 5, and then blowing up 10 floors later!

The elevation gain of a few Aussie buildings

Eureka Tower 280m

Sydney Tower 240m

Q1 Gold Coast 230m

Student One (Brisbane Vertical Night Sprint) 110m

by Ed Manktelow

TrainingStair Climbing AustraliaFebruary 11, 2020