Trail training is built around hills: repeats on the water tower climb, a tempo loop whose hardest minutes are the same ascent, a long run over three ridges. Trailbuddy finds those climbs and descents in your run and times each one, so you see a hill as a hill instead of a slow kilometer.
25 m
Minimum gain or loss for a detected climb or descent
4%
Minimum average grade
m/h
Climb and descent rate on every rep
How Trailbuddy finds a climb
After every run Trailbuddy smooths the elevation from your phone's barometer and looks for sustained ascents: at least 25 meters of gain at an average grade of 4% or steeper, over at least 150 meters. Trailbuddy merges two rises into one climb when the dip between them is less than 30 meters and less than half of either rise, and treats two climbs as the same hill when both ends lie within 45 meters of each other.
Trailbuddy finds descents the same way: at least 25 meters of loss at 4% or steeper over 150 meters. A descent keeps its own history, so you can watch the way down get quicker too.
Compare every rep by time and climb rate
Run the same climb several times and Trailbuddy lines up every rep on the hill repeats card with its time, your best rep and your average. Each rep also shows its climb rate in vertical meters per hour, its grade-adjusted pace and how much of it you hiked. My Climbs keeps each climb across runs, so you can set April's reps against August's.
The climb rate (VAM) is the number mountain runners train by: 54 meters in 3:08 is 1,034 m/h. On a descent Trailbuddy shows the descent rate the same way.
Hear your time at the top
When you top out a climb you have run before, Trailbuddy says its name, your time, the gap to your best and your climb rate: "Water tower climb, 3 minutes, 8 seconds. 4 seconds faster than your best. 1,034 meters per hour." A card with the same numbers stays on screen for 12 seconds. You get the split while the hill is still in your legs.
Trailbuddy does the same at the bottom of a descent you have run before, with your descent rate. Climb splits are on from the start, and Settings > Voice turns them off.
A running tracker
Elevation gain 412 m
Your watch sums the run's vertical and forgets which climb it came from.
Trailbuddy
Water tower climb, rep 2 in 3:08
Trailbuddy shows 1,034 m/h, four seconds faster than your best there, with every earlier rep underneath.
You choose where the splits go
Open any finished run, slide to the moment you crossed the creek or crested the ridge and mark a checkpoint there. From then on, Trailbuddy splits every run that passes the spot and shows the time in the lap's splits.