You sign up for a trail race, look at the vertical gain and loss profile, and think, “Holy smokes, how am I supposed to train for that?” If you’ve ever felt this way, you’re not alone.
The truth is, not all trail courses are created equal. You can train for a flat and fast trail course, or you can train for a mountainous race that requires mostly power hiking and downhill surviving rather than running half the time. The stark contrast between trail running courses can be pretty vast, and knowing how to adjust your training for specific terrain is crucial to race day success.
In this post, I’m breaking down exactly how to approach training for specific race courses based on their vertical gain and loss profiles—so you can show up prepared, confident, and ready to crush your trail race.
When you’re training for a trail race, the first thing I want you to do is look up the race profile. The race profile is the X and Y axis chart that shows vertical gain and loss versus mileage over time.
Here’s why this matters: Total gain and loss only tells part of the story.
Say you’re training for a 50K with 5,000 feet of gain and loss. That race will feel very different if the profile shows slow rolling hills with maybe 200 feet of gain and loss per mile versus super steep climbs spaced out with flatter sections. Both races could have the exact same total vertical gain and loss, but you’d approach your training completely differently because of the terrain you’re preparing for.
So while training for vert is important, you first need to ask yourself: What kind of race am I training for? What’s the average gain and loss across the whole race, and what does it look like in certain sections?
If you have sections with 500, 600, or 800 feet of gain and loss per mile for several miles, you’re going to want to intentionally include steep incline hiking, treadmill hiking, or terrain-specific training. If you have rolling hills the entire time, you might focus more on runnable but hilly courses and trails.
Simple Rule of Thumb: Take the total vertical gain you’ll have in your race and try to get 50-100% of that within your week of training.
I give a wide range here because it depends on how many miles you’re training per week and the distance of the race you’re doing. Another helpful guideline is to have your average gain and loss per week on trail-specific vertical days or long runs mimic what you’ll see on race day.
The idea is simple: you’re specifically training for the conditions and terrain of your race day across your week in some way or another.
This can be a mix of:
For example, if you’re running 50 miles per week for a 50-miler with 7,000 feet of gain, you’d want to get somewhere between 3,500 and 7,000 feet of gain across those 50 miles when leading up to that race. Of course, that’s just an example—if your training looks different, that’s okay. It’s a rough way to gauge what you need in your training week.
When you’re thinking about how you’re accumulating that vertical gain and loss, think about the race profile you’re training for.
| Race Type | Training Focus |
|---|---|
| Steep Climbs with Runnable Sections | Very steep, high-grade hiking + steep downhill running + regular flatter trail running to maintain speed between climbs |
| Rolling Hills Throughout | Runnable, flatter trails that are oscillating + little climbs and descents to practice rolling terrain and maintaining speed and momentum |
The key is matching your training to the specific demands of your race.
For many of us, we’re not training on trail every day of the week. We also don’t always have access to the perfect terrain to train for our races.
If you can get on trail for one of your long runs per week that mimics your race course, great. If you can’t get in what you need on your long run day, do what you can on trail—I really encourage you to prioritize that.
But you can fill in or supplement the rest of the week with a vertical gain day or vertical gain cross-training day. In our programs at The Lyss Method, we encourage people to make their long runs look like the race as much as possible. If that’s not possible, we include a specific vertical gain day with prescriptions for:
This allows you to practice that change in grade and train across different race scenarios.
Key Principle: Sometimes it’s better to train for time and time on feet than hitting a perfect mileage goal. Races with a lot more elevation gain are going to be slower and take more time to train for.
This may mean you need a bit more hours per week and time on feet to prepare for these races. It also means you might run fewer total miles for the same amount of time compared to a flatter, faster race.
Make sure you adjust your expectations in your training appropriately.
Let’s talk about the part that gets neglected the most: downhill training.
The Reality: So many people worry about climbing and the uphill, but they forget that the downhill is what causes eccentric muscle damage and can blow up your legs.
Later in the race, you won’t be as powerful or able to use your legs as effectively because they’re swelling up and inflamed from being beat up going downhill—especially if you didn’t train for it.
When it comes to training for downhill, you want to make sure you touch downhills or hard, fast downhills at least 3-4 weeks before your race, or ideally once a week in preparation for your race.
In exercise physiology, there’s a concept known as the repeated bout effect. This is why you’re really sore the first time you do a new lifting program or exercise, but the next week when you do it again, you’re not as sore.
Your body essentially goes, “Hey, we’ve done this before. I’m not going to have as much of an inflammatory response or delayed onset muscle soreness in response to this training.”
The same thing happens with downhill running. Eccentric downhill running—where you’re braking and breaking down muscle fibers—causes eccentric muscle damage. Research has shown that having one bout of downhill running even 2-3 weeks before a race can help reduce the effect of downhills on race day.
Personal Example: I tested this at my Hyner 50K. I didn’t have access to steep uphills and downhills in most of my trail runs while preparing for that race.
But three weeks out, I went and did a hard run where I intentionally went downhill a few times on a very steep grade and blew up my legs at the end of a 17-mile run. When I showed up to race a course with significant vertical gain and loss and steep descents, I noticed a significant difference in how my legs felt and withstood those huge downhill grades compared to races in the past when I hadn’t specifically trained for it.
I’ve also used this approach before going to the Grand Canyon when living on flatter East Coast terrain. I found a local hill and did hard downhill intervals or sprints where I was intentionally breaking down my legs to cause that damaging effect so they’d adapt—even though I didn’t have the terrain to specifically train for it regularly.
You’ll most likely have a harder time getting downhill work into your weekly schedule. So I recommend trying to get it in at least once, 3-4 weeks out before your race, or practicing it every 4-6 weeks if you can.
Maybe you have to drive to a trail that has more descents or downhills so you can practice what it feels like to run down them—especially if you’re not a strong downhill runner—and get better at it over time.
The beauty of trail running is that every race and every course is a new challenge. It isn’t always comparable race to race or course to course how you perform, and you might train very differently for one race to the next—which makes it exciting and means there’s always a new challenge to tackle.
Don’t be alarmed if you need to adjust your training based on the race terrain, the race you’re preparing for, or even your deficits in training.
I used to train exclusively in a power-hiking fashion, and I found that really held me back from being a faster runner on actual trail. So I spent a season specifically training on trail that forced me to run when I was on trail, and now I feel like I’m a much stronger trail runner. I’m a strong hiker naturally—I’ve spent so much time training that. But I needed to fill in that gap in my training.
You might be the opposite. Maybe you’re a strong runner, you’re fast, you come from a road running background, but you’ve never really trained for vertical gain and loss. Maybe you need more of that to support your training.
Don’t just factor in the course you’re training for—also consider your training deficits, needs, and the things you know you need to be strong for on race day.
Don’t let the vertical gain and loss profile of a race stop you from tackling a big adventure. Train smart, prepare for it, and you’ll be surprised at how prepared you feel on race day.
If you need a program to help you train for your first trail or ultramarathon, we’d love to help at The Lyss Method. I have a variety of trail and ultra running programs—from 15K, half marathon, 25-30K, 50K, 50-miler, 100K, and 100-miler beginner and intermediate level programs—to help you find what you need for the trail running goal you have.
If you need help finding a program or race training timeline to reach your big goal, never hesitate to email us at hello@thelyssmethod.com to chat with a coach. We’ll help you build out your personalized race training timeline, stacking our programs together to help you get to your goal race based on where your fitness is right now and the goal you have.
Looking for inspiration for your trail running journey? Check out my 100-miler documentary to see what’s possible when you go after big, hard things.
I’m Exercise Physiologist, sports nutritionist, weight lifter, and ultra runner. I am here to bring science to your training in a no-nonsense way. I have helped thousands of women crush big lifting goals, cross race finish lines, and even do both. I’m here to help you do the same!
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