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Elevation Gain
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See this lesson’s sourceselevationclimbingverticalgrade-adjusted-pacealtimetergps
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DefinitionA short reference note, not a full lesson.
Definition
Total vertical climbed reframes how hard a given pace really was — without it, hilly and flat sessions look falsely comparable.
Detail
Elevation gain (and loss) is the cumulative vertical distance ascended over a session, in meters or feet. It is the context that makes pace honest: covering 10 km with 400 m of climbing is far harder than 10 km flat, yet pace alone would rank the flat run "faster" and therefore "better."
Uses in the data layer:
- Grade-adjusted pace (GAP) — combines pace with grade to estimate the equivalent flat-ground pace, so uphill and downhill segments can be compared fairly (see Pace, Speed, and Distance).
- Climbing volume — trail runners and cyclists track weekly vertical gain as a training load in its own right.
- Interpreting HR/power spikes — a HR or power surge that lines up with a climb is terrain, not a fitness change (see Logging Heart Rate (Avg / Max), Power and FTP).
Measurement caveats:
- Elevation comes from GPS (least accurate vertically) or a barometric altimeter (more accurate but drifts with weather pressure changes). Vertical error is generally larger than horizontal GPS error (see GPS Distance and Accuracy).
- Different platforms apply different smoothing, so total-gain figures for the same route can disagree noticeably.
Key facts
- Elevation gain = cumulative vertical ascended (m or ft).
- Enables grade-adjusted pace to compare hilly vs flat efforts fairly.
- Weekly vertical gain is itself a climbing-training-load metric.
- Barometric altimeters beat raw GPS for vertical but drift with weather.
- Platform smoothing differences make total-gain numbers vary by route.
Connections
- Pace, Speed, and Distance — elevation drives grade-adjusted pace.
- GPS Distance and Accuracy — shared (and worse, vertically) error source.
- Logging Heart Rate (Avg / Max) — climbs explain HR spikes.
- Power and FTP — power surges on climbs are terrain, not fitness.
Sources
Cited in text — not yet linked
Established endurance-monitoring consensus; barometric-vs-GPS elevation behavior is
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Explore related topics
Atlas Connections
Pace, Speed, and Distance
Pace (time per distance) and speed (distance per time) are the same intensity expressed two ways — but raw pace must be read against terrain and conditions.GPS Distance and AccuracyClosely related
GPS gives good-enough distance and pace outdoors, but multipath, tree cover, and tunnels introduce error — and vertical (elevation) error is worse than horizontal.Logging Heart Rate (Avg / Max)
Average and max HR turn a session into an internal-load measure — how hard your cardiovascular system actually worked, independent of pace.Power and FTP
Power (watts) is the most objective cardio intensity metric — instant, terrain-immune — and FTP is the threshold anchor its zones are built on.What to Log for Cardio
A cardio session is described by duration, distance, pace, heart rate, time-in-zone, power, cadence, elevation, and effort — log what your modality and goal actually use.