Pace management for Hiking with Heart rate ~ looking for more data

Mt. Whitney

   As I mentioned a couple times about a method to manage hiking pace based on heart rate.  I had published a Japanese edition a few months ago.   I have been working on the English edition now.  The book is based on just my experience.   I am looking for data from others, not only myself.

   Today, I am writing to ask people who read this blog to share other hiking data with GPS, especially Mt. Whitney and Mt. Shasta.  The both mountains are very popular destination for hiking in California.   Please let me know if somebody willing to share the data.   For people who have a Garmin device, I prefer to get "*.tcx" format.  For people who have a device from other vendors, I prefer to get "*.gpx" data.

   Based on my experience, I can see a significant pace down around 10,000 feet elevation.  I want to understand what the generic trend is.   This helps to understand what I am writing is really reasonable to apply to everybody.

Mt. Whitney Hiking 2017 (8) ~ After May 1st

   It is almost the end of May.  I checked the availability of the permit on the reservation site and there is almost no available date except very early / late season.   Right after May 1st, probably a few days, there are a couple dates I could see even if some weekends.   There were many dates in weekdays.   But about a week after most of them were going away.  It might be hard to get a permit unless somebody cancel the reservation.   At this moment, people who have not got the permit might want to check the reservation site often.   Also, they might want to take a chance to get it at the visitor center, but this one is no grantee.  That is only option for now.

   As I did see on the reservation site, there were many chances to get it if people check it those few days often.  This is a similar as what I saw last year.  Especially people who can go early / late season the chance is reasonably good.  At least I got two different dates with overnight permit and I will pick one of dates for this year's hiking.

   Now I will focus on preparation of the hiking, especially training for the long hiking this year.   As I posted yesterday, I got injured when I ran in Taiwan.  Therefore, I stopped running for a month and my fitness situation is getting worse now.   I will need to recover my fitness level in next few months for the hiking.  Now, I just started slow jog probably a several times a week.

(To be continue)

An example of usage for Garmin fenix 3 HR ~ VO2max and Lactate Threshold

   Garmin announced some new running watches recently.  However, I just replace my running watch from Forerunner 910 XT to fenix 3 HR about 6 mounts ago.  It is good enough for me for now.   Today, I introduce one of my usage of fenix 3 HR.  There are functions to estimate my VO2max and Lactate threshold.  This function is not supported in Forerunner 910XT.

   As I posted before, I went to Taiwan last month.  The second day, I resumed running over there.  However I got injured during the training.   I tipped and tried to recover.  However, my right leg got some unexpected force and probably my muscle got injured.  Due to the injury, I stopped running since April 17 till Wednesday last week.  It's been a month.  The first week was really bad.   I had really bad pain even if just walking.   It did not happen when I was young at least 5 years ago.   I guess my body is not strong like before due to aging.

My leg right after the injury

(you can see internal bleeding)

   Because of the injury, I stopped running for a month.   I still feel something strange on my left leg, but I resumed running since last Wednesday with really slow jog around 3km.

   Then one of interesting function in fenix 3 is estimating VO2max and Lactate Threshold.  Those functions are supported in "fenix 3 HR" and newer high-end model.  Many running watches from Garmin supported VO2max, but supporting Lactate threshold function is still limited to the high-end models.

VO2max last 6 months

   Here is the trend of my VO2max.  Before the injury, it was around 43[ml/kg/min].  But after resuming running, it was dropped to 36[ml/kg/min].   Previous trend was staying more than 40, but just stopped running for a months, the number is significantly dropped.

　

Lactate Threshold (Heart rate / pace)

   The next plot is Lactate threshold.  The heart rate was slowly up from 160[bpm] and the value right before the injury was 163[bpm].   After resumed, it was slightly dropped to 162[bpm].  The pace was 5 minutes 30 seconds / km right before the injury.  Then, it was dripped to 5 minutes 47 seconds / km.  For this trend, I guess it might be hard to conclude the performance is getting worth.   But I think a little performance drop could be true.
   The both value has not been improved in 5 days.  At least VO2max is significant drop after the injury.

   Anyway, after age 50, the performance drop due to no training is getting bigger than at least 5 years ago (age 45).   Thinking about the fact, to keep a good performance, the best way is not get injured.  What I watch next a couple months will be checking the both value how I can improve the performance getting back before the injury, especially how long I need to take.  This date is probably very interested in how my training help to improve the performance.  Showing a number is a good scale to tell my performance and the result of the training.   I think it is very good feature to motivate daily training and monitor the progress.

(To be continue)

Planted Yuzu Tree

Yuzu Tree

   It was very hot day in my town.  The temperature was more than 90 degrees F in May.   It was really hot, but we did yard work with my son.   I got a lemon tree from my co-worker last Friday and to plant it was one of task this weekend.  In addition, we also wanted Yuzu tree. It is a citrus which is used in Japanese food especially new year.  So that we went a local nursery to get the tree and planted it as well.

   Every year, we want to use Yuze citrus for some of new year foods.  However it is not really easy to find out a local grocery store.   We usually go to a Japanese grocery store to get it.  However it is relatively expensive comparing a similar citrus like lime and the quality is not very well.  Therefore, we want to have a tree in our yard some day.  But there was not a chance to do it.  Previously, a friend gave us a few every year.  But they moved out to other state a few years ago and we bought the expensive one from the Japanese grocery store.

   We got Yuzu tree from the following nursery.  We got the last one in the nursery!

　Alden Lane Nursery (Livermore CA) 

   A person in the nursery was very nice and she gave us very detail instruction how we need to plant it.　It might take a few years to get some from the tree.  But I cannot wait for getting Yuze from our yard!

We also planted  lemon trees

Mt. Whitney Hiking 2017 (7) ~ Better to check the reservation site now!

99-Switch back from Trail Camp

  May is coming!   Dates which were not confirmed by people who won the lottery were posted to the reservation site and they are available for all people who want to go hiking to Mt. Whitney this season.   I  checked a several times today, it seems that they posted some times in different time.   Some dates were not there in the morning, but I can see more in the evening today.

   The most popular date in July and August, those slots are limited, however, some slots are available and there might be a better chance in weekdays as of at 11:30pm on May 1st in Pacific time in the US.   There are much more slots for dayuse permit.  There are many weekend slots available.  I am not sure more slots will be posted or not.  However, there might be a good chance to find a slot next couple days.  It is worth to check for available dates.

   I also reserved a week end slot in the middle of July.

  There might be more snow than the last year.  So that people who plan to go there in early season including early July might want to check the snow condition before going there.

  Now I have reserved two different weekend and I will check the conditions and my overall plan to make my final decision.  If someone is interested in hiking with me in the end of September, please let me know.  I have an extra slot.