Reply to "Effect of elevation on performance"

I experimented with the method described in my previous post by trying it for the Pioneer Woman 10 km course in Ponca City, same course used as an example in my 1989 article, where I estimated the elevation profile manually from a paper topo map. My conclusion: MapMyRun's "Download Data" feature should be avoided totally. In this case, I generated the course in MapMyRun using a dense set of points as described above. Here is a plot of the data exported using the "Download Data" feature:

Notice all the jitter in this plot. The steepness integral computed from this profile is 8.06 m, whereas I originally obtained 6.1 m in 1989. Meanwhile, MapMyRun displays a very nice (apparently quite accurate) profile in its "Full Screen" mode. I don't know how to export this data automatically, but if you hover your mouse over it, it shows underlying data as in the following screenshot:

My suggestion: work your mouse along the plot and write down all the data. You may need to copy about 100 data points. It takes some manual effort, but surely a lot less work than when we were using paper topo maps back around 1989 and 1990.

Also note: if you're using the profile inside MapMyRun's Full Screen mode, there's no need to use a dense set of points when generating the course. Use only as many points as needed to define the course. (As I wrote previously, always turn off "Auto Follow Roads" in MapMyRun, and select points manually to follow the SPR.)