Ask Gabe: Dressing for Heat, Vertcovery, Number Crunching, and More

On this month-to-month article collection, ultrarunner, race director, and coach Gabe Joyes solutions reader questions on something and all the pieces operating. Be taught extra about this ask-the-athlete column, and remember to fill out the shape under to submit your questions for a future article!

On this article, Gabe solutions questions on dressing for decent climate, vertcovery, coaching knowledge, and extra.

Gabe’s Tip of the Month

Again within the day, I was closely concerned in music — I performed the saxophone, the violin, and even performed a full orchestra as soon as. One thing we used to follow was the idea of sight studying, the place the objective was to learn by means of a chunk of music solely as soon as and try and play it as completely as potential on the primary go. I’ve utilized this idea to path operating coaching, and it’s each useful, enjoyable, and refreshing. Many people run the identical native trails again and again and possibly have each single rock and foot placement memorized. One can solely enhance their path expertise a lot by operating the identical path repetitively, so I’ve made a degree to follow “sight studying” on as many alternative trails as I can. Even when the paths should not essentially the most inspiring or my most popular model, trying to movement by means of an unfamiliar and rocky singletrack on the primary strive is a superb and enjoyable method to construct expertise.

Peter Baxter working towards his path sight studying expertise on Orcas Island. Photograph: Somer Kreisman

How A lot Do You Stroll?

Hey Gabe! I’m a Brazilian runner, migrating from road to path and, hopefully, to mountain operating. My query to chances are you’ll be naïve, however how a lot of your operating on the paths just isn’t truly a run? How usually or for the way lengthy do it’s essential to stroll and even relaxation on a race of, let’s say, 100k? I’m asking this as a result of evidently strolling in a street race virtually by no means occurs, particularly among the many absolutely skilled and ready people. – Fernando

Not naïve in any respect, Fernando! My first suggestion is to reframe how you concentrate on strolling (or mountaineering) throughout a path occasion, and particularly an extended race like a 100k. I don’t even take into consideration mountaineering as “taking a relaxation,” however quite as simply essentially the most environment friendly method to transfer at a given second. Simply in the identical approach a bike owner may downshift gears whereas going up a climb, we downshift to a hike whereas climbing to maximise effectivity as properly.

How a lot we hike will range based mostly on how steep the terrain is, how a lot fatigue we’ve got, how fueled and/or hydrated we’re, and even what the present climate circumstances are. I’ve a favourite path loop that has about 3,000 toes of climbing in 9 miles, and though I’m able to operating each single step of it, I perhaps solely do that when per yr resulting from all of the elements listed above. My greatest recommendation is to consider conserving your effort constant and never fear if that appears like operating or mountaineering — simply purpose to be easy, regular, and environment friendly!

Kelly Halpin downshifting to a hike within the Tetons. All images courtesy of Gabe Joyes, until in any other case famous.

Dressing for Warmth

What are your ideas on solar shirts and ultrarunning? Do they really assist hold runners cooler? Do they assist with sunburn? – Nameless

Earlier than we reply that query, let’s think about how clothes impacts our temperature. In keeping with the e-book “Preserving Dry and Staying Heat,” (1) clothes of any materials works as an insulator as a result of it traps small pockets of air round our our bodies. In a sunless atmosphere, warmth solely comes from our personal our bodies by means of metabolism. Within the context of ultrarunning, our our bodies put out a ton of warmth! Any type of clothes we would put on, whatever the materials, will entice a few of that warmth from our our bodies.

Our our bodies primarily work to cut back temperature by means of evaporative cooling, the method by which we sweat, after which when the sweat evaporates, warmth is pulled away from our pores and skin. Any clothes materials, to some extent, additionally reduces our our bodies’ skill to make the most of the evaporative cooling course of. Most of us don’t run in a sunless atmosphere, so if you’re operating uphill on a solar drenched and open slope, burning by means of 90 to 120 grams of carbs per hour, you’re gaining heat from each the solar and your personal physique — on this situation I can’t consider any approach {that a} solar shirt retains you cooler.

Apparently, a 1980 research that was printed in “Nature,” Vol 283 (2), confirmed that Bedouin robes, worn by indigenous folks of southwest Asia, do certainly assist wearers handle temperature as a result of they “are worn unfastened. Inside, the cooling occurs by convection — both by means of bellows motion, because the robes movement within the wind, or by a chimney type of impact, as air rises between gown and pores and skin.” You will need to be aware right here that the Bedouin usually don’t put on backpacks, particularly skin-fit operating vests, that inhibit the convective cooling course of.

If you’re sporting a solar shirt to guard your pores and skin from the solar’s ultraviolet radiation, you’ll fare higher, as a solar shirt with a UPF ranking of fifty will block 98% of the solar’s radiation and will certainly assist stop sunburn. If you’re in a state of affairs the place you aren’t capable of apply sunscreen, or want to not use sunscreen, a solar shirt will definitely assist defend your pores and skin.

My very own private take is that overheating is in the end one of many largest causes that individuals don’t obtain their objectives on race day. Overheating results in impaired athletic efficiency, and steadily results in dehydration, which results in digestive points, and may even result in warmth exhaustion and warmth stroke. Whether it is potential {that a} garment could make me hotter whereas operating in any respect, frankly, I’m not sporting it, and I’ll discover a unique choice for pores and skin safety from ultraviolet rays. I do take pleasure in sporting a loose-fitting solar shirt if I’m hanging out at a high-altitude lake with my household and I’m not sporting a pack, however for operating trails, I positively desire to make the most of our our bodies’ pure evaporative cooling course of.

Ty Draney using a solar shirt in western Wyoming.

Vertcovery

I’ve seen the exercise “vertcovery” in your Strava. Assist me to know what that is. When do you insert it into this system? What’s it supposed to perform? What stage of effort ought to I do it at? – Josh

Vert + Restoration = Vertcovery, and it’s truly a factor! I’ve to credit score my former coach and ultrarunning legend Duncan Callahan for this concept. Duncan had me operating tons of flat and quicker intervals, and as somebody who was extra used to excessive quantity and excessive vert operating, these speedy intervals, that have been typically two days in a row, have been actually difficult for me each bodily and mentally. Maybe Duncan was making an attempt to simply appease me, however regardless, vertcovery was born.

The low depth, very steep uphill mountaineering and straightforward shuffle operating again down was so muscularly totally different from the interval coaching that I used to be doing that it principally functioned as cross-training. Vertcovery solely works whether it is totally different sufficient out of your common coaching, if steep terrain is one thing you’re already comfy with, and if you’re sincere about conserving the depth low. The vertcovery method doesn’t work if you’re not capable of hold your effort in test and are sucking wind on each climb, or whether it is was a Strava hero and simply pile extra vert on. For vertcovery to really be a restoration software, the timing, depth, and coaching historical past all must be excellent.

Your writer getting in some vertcovery.

Path Operating Knowledge

I’d like to know what knowledge fields you employ for monitoring your path operating coaching. – Luke

Utilizing just one variable — miles, time, or elevation achieve, as an example — simply doesn’t inform sufficient of the story in relation to path operating. A flat and easy, paved mile is night time and day totally different from a rocky, steep, mountainous mile. I are likely to assume in a number of variables directly, largely by way of toes per mile, terrain, and time. To calculate toes per mile, take the whole elevation climbed divided by the variety of miles. So a 10-mile run with 2,250 toes of climbing features a median of 225 toes per mile.

However that doesn’t inform the entire story both, as a result of that climbing and descending may very well be on a mud street, a rocky path, or perhaps a frozen and slippery quick snow-packed path such as you may discover at a Operating Up For Air occasion. These circumstances will all drastically affect each your climbing and particularly descending velocity, so you will need to think about what you’re making ready for. Lastly, I do take note of time as properly, as a result of our our bodies can solely take so many hours of train in a given week. To be completely sincere, I infrequently take into consideration the whole variety of miles I run per week as a result of that one single knowledge subject actually simply doesn’t inform us all that a lot about coaching.

Jenny Joyes utilizing the entire knowledge fields within the Wind River Mountains.

Notes/References

Out of doors Gear Coach. Preserving Dry & Staying Heat (Half 1): Easy methods to keep dry, heat …. Out of doors Gear Coach, 2020.
Dmi’el, Razi, et al. “Is a Black Coat within the Desert a Technique of Saving Metabolic Vitality?” Nature, vol. 283, no. 5749, Feb. 1980, pp. 761–762, https://doi.org/10.1038/283761a0. Accessed 17 June 2025.