Trail and ultra running asks for more than long road miles: climbing, descending, time on feet, and back-to-back long days on messy terrain. Vertical plans for all of it, then builds elevation-aware pacing and fuel for the exact course you are racing.
The gap
A road plan thinks in flat miles and even splits. Put that on a mountain course and it falls apart. Two hours of steep climbing and technical descent asks something completely different of your legs than two hours on the flat, and a plan that measures only distance and pace has no way to account for it. Runners end up under-prepared for climbs, wrecked by the downhills, and surprised by how long the day really takes.
The other gap is the hours themselves. Ultras are won and lost on time on feet, fueling, and the ability to keep moving when everything is tired, which back-to-back long days build far better than one heroic weekend run. Doing that safely, around a real schedule with its inevitable disruptions, needs a coach that reads your climbing load and fatigue and adjusts, not a spreadsheet that assumes every week goes to plan.
How Vertical coaches your trail and ultra
Vertical reads the elevation in every run, the climbing as much as the distance, and builds ascent and descent into your week. Your long runs and key sessions target the vertical demands of your race, so the terrain feels rehearsed by race day.
Vertical builds durability with back-to-back long days, the way ultras actually demand it. It grows time on feet gradually and keeps an eye on your fatigue, so the work leaves you stronger and still standing.
Vertical has grade-adjusted race pacing pages that turn a hilly course into an even-effort plan, so you are not running climbs too hard or descents too timidly. You pace by effort against the profile, which is how strong ultra days are run.
The race fuel planner reads your course GPX and builds a carb, fluid, and sodium plan for the hours you will be out there, matched to the climbs where you can eat and the sections where you cannot. Fueling stops being a race-day guess.
The short version
Saturday’s long run had 900m of climbing and your effort held even on the descents, a good sign the legs are handling the vert. Tomorrow we add an easy back-to-back run to build time on feet without spiking your fatigue before next week.
In practice
Moving beyond the marathon comes down to time on feet and fueling more than raw speed. Vertical builds your long-day volume and back-to-backs sensibly, rehearses eating on the run, and gets you to the start confident you can keep moving all day.
For a course with thousands of metres of climbing, flat training will not cut it. Vertical prioritizes the vertical work your race demands, then hands you grade-adjusted splits and a fuel plan built from the actual course profile.
Trail training rarely goes to plan: weather, travel, a session that wrecked you more than expected. Tell Vertical what happened and it reshapes the week, protecting the key long days and climbing while backing off where you need to recover.
How it works
Spend about two minutes connecting your watch or answering a few questions. Vertical reads where your fitness sits, what the terrain ahead will ask of you, and the right next step. No card needed.
Vertical periodizes your build around the demands of your specific ultra: the distance, the vert, and the time you will be out there. Climbing, time on feet, and back-to-backs are scheduled to peak at the right moment.
Ask how to pace a big climbing week, what a rough long run means, or how to fuel a night section. Vertical answers in plain language, drawing on your training and a corpus of 500-plus peer-reviewed studies, and adapts when life interferes.
Before race day, use the grade-adjusted race pacing pages and the GPX-aware race fuel planner to build even-effort splits and a carb, fluid, and sodium strategy for your exact course. You start with a plan, not a hope.
It reads the climbing in each run alongside the distance, and builds vertical gain into your weekly load and key sessions. Your plan targets the climbing and descending your race demands, so you arrive having actually trained the terrain.
For most ultras they build durability far better than a single huge weekend run, because they teach you to run on tired legs the way the race will. Vertical schedules them progressively and watches your fatigue, so they build you up safely.
Yes. Vertical has grade-adjusted race pacing pages that turn your course profile into an even-effort plan, so you climb and descend at the right intensity instead of blowing up early. You pace by effort against the terrain, which is how strong ultras are run.
The race fuel planner reads your course GPX and builds a carb, fluid, and sodium plan for the full duration, aligned to where on the course you can realistically eat and drink. It turns fueling from a race-day guess into a rehearsed strategy.
Garmin, COROS, Polar, and Suunto all connect, and yes, COROS is fully supported, which many trail runners use. Once linked, Vertical reads your runs and their elevation automatically, so your training and fatigue picture stays current.
No. The assessment is free and takes about two minutes with no card required. If you want the full plan plus daily coaching, race pacing, and fueling, there is an optional 7-day trial so you can try everything first.
Get started
Get your free assessment in about two minutes, then your trail and ultra plan. No card required.
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