Rugbygirl

My understanding is as follows:

Think of 100m flat then 21% means you rise (or fall) 21m over 100m.

That I know from experiendce is steep, my sharpest hill around here is 17% using the GRG measurements while a run along my local canal barely registers.....

Hope this helps 

Sorry Mike, not quite right. The climb rate is in metres or metres per mile. On the saved routes page a climb rate of 21 is not a percentage but 21 metres per mile over the run. The percetage inclines are very small but believe me 21 metres a mile is quite a hilly run.

A 21% incline would be 600 odd metres per mile and unrunnable :). Very rarely a fell run in the lakes or Scottish mountains etc. might approach 100m per mile and we would categorise these runs as extreme.

Thanks Andy!

A bit of a difference between 21/100m and 21/1600m...

I still suffer though whatever the reality...

That's a bit of a mix of units, isn't it?

Shouldn't it be either feet (or yards) per mile or metres per kilometre?

Is it highest point minus lowest, divided by total distance, in other words an average for the whole route? Or does it somehow represent the steepest climb on the route, and if so how long does the climb have to be to register, as a very steep climb over a very short distance could distort the picture? Actually, I've convinced myself that it must be an average!

I confuse myself sometimes... then again, I'm easily confused!

Daves Pythagoras Theorem for dummies. Same as you shouldn't mix grape and grain, hic!!

Beer then wine you'll feel fine, wine then beer you'll feel queer.....supposedly!

Back on topic, yes, we seem to have mixed our metaphors and I'm sure there is a good reason .....and when i've thought of it I'll let you know :)

As for Dave's mind bending post ...yes, an average over the whole run.