Pace management for hiking with heart rate (1)

Garmin fenix 3 HR

   Although I am still working on the English edition of heart rate based pace management for hiking, I started thinking about how we can really set the target heart rate for hiking.  I did not post about this topic in the English blog.  However, I published a book in Japanese and posted to the Japanese blog in the past.   The basic idea of this concept is trying keep the heart rate in heart rate zone 2 ~ 3 during hiking.  That is one of my conclusion based on my past hiking data to Mt. Whitney.   This works very well at least my case.   On the other hand, I got some feedback that it might not work some people especially who do not training regular basis.  That is why I am looking into this topic again and looking for a better method.

   I think the concept is still valid and works.  However, the problem is probably those people might not be ready for some hiking or they might not be good enough fitness condition for a particular hiking.   It is a similar idea that running a full marathon.   I think pacing is key to finish full marathon and it is probably true.   However, it is also true that people need to have enough strength to finish a full marathon.  So they need to prepare or train to improve their fitness situation.   Without such effort it is probably hard to finish a full marathon.   I think a similar concept may apply for hiking as well.   If it is a short hiking like up to a few hours walking, then I guess many people might be able to achieve the hiking without training for hiking.   However, if it is a several hours or more, then people might need to prepare for the hiking to achieve.

   Here is what I found out from my training and its data in the past.   If I stopped training for a while especially due to an injury, then I felt it was heard when I resumed training.  After really bad injury like stress fracture on my leg, I had to stop training for more than several months.  Then it was getting really hard when I resumed a training.   Even if I started really slow pace, the heart rate was getting high in a short time and it was also hard to continue running as well.   However it was getting better after a few months if I was continue to train.   The heart rate was getting more stable and I could maintain a similar heart rate if the pace is reasonable.

   So if people who do not do training regular basis, they might not be able to maintain their heart rate in a reasonable range for long time.   Therefore even if we can estimate their heart rate zone from their age, it might be heard to keep the heart rate within the range during hiking.  The heart rate might getting really high in a short time and they need to take a rest to recover from such heart rate.  Therefore, the key is not only finding a target heart rate, but they also need to do some training to prepare their body for a hiking.

  Therefore what I am looking for is:

1. Sets a target heart rate first either based on age or training data
2. Tries the target heart rate for a reasonable period to understand their fitness situation
3. Do some training to prepare a target hiking destination

   The problem is I might not have a good sample data to show.  But I tried to propose a reasonable process based on some my experience.  If anybody give me some feedback for the method I will try to introduce, it would be really helpful for this procedure.

Recovery Time on Garmin Running device

   One of features in newer Garmin running device is "Recovery Time".   fenix 3 HR also has this feature and indicates estimated recovery time from one training.   It is not really clear how it estimate the time.   But I have been using fenix 3 HR for a year and I guess the number is reasonable. 

   I am not sure if it is useful for serious athletes, but I think it is useful for some older people like myself.   I had some experiences to get injured due to some over training in the past.  Therefore it is probably a good indication for such people to have enough recovery time between training.

   Currently, I usually pick a training plan from Garmin Connect and follow the menu.  Therefore, I do not have to worry about the resting time a lot.  As long as the training selection is reasonable, we probably do not have to check this value a lot.   But if people has own plan and see if they have enough recovery time, this feature is useful.

   As an example, in Full-Marathon plan, there are "easy run" which is relatively low intensity training and it usually requires around 24 hours recovery time.  But if the menu is "a long run" or "threshold run" the recovery time is getting longer such as 36 hours to 48 hours in my case depending on how hard I did the training.  After I follow the training plan, I have less problem for the injury due to over training.

   Many running devices from Garmin this feature except really low-end models in their current line up.

Water Treatment - UV light

Water Treatment - UV light

   One of outdoor equipment I got before is a water treatment with UV (Ultra Violet) light.  The idea of this is to kill almost all bacteria, viruses and protozoa.  The advertisement says 99.9%.   They have some data to show it works.  Typically, I am using a filter type purifier when I hike.   Actually, I did not have a chance to use this even if I own it.

   There are a couple reason I did not use:

1. If I camp on a trail, the amount of water I need is not small amount.  It only takes care of 1 litter of water at one time.   Therefore, if I need a few litters and water for the next days.   It will be a several litters of water.   To process such amount of water with this is not really efficient.  The filter type is probably much convenient.
2. I have never seen people who use this type of water purifier on a trail.   I guess the experiment data the vendor shows is probably true.  However, some of my friends had some questions if it really works or not.  Another words, people could not completely believe this product.

   On the other hand, here is the reason I got this product:

1. I thought it would be convenient to get some water other than a camp site.  Just getting some water on the way to a destination.  It won't be a lot of amount and this might be convenient other than using the filter type (pump type) in that situation.
2. The filter type won't be able to cover everything.  Especially viruses might be too small to filter them out.  So it is probably safer to use this type of product if I need to drink without boiling.

   In a reality, I typically have enough water of a day and I do not have to take extra water on the way.  Also, I have been using the filter type water treatment a several years and I did not have much problem in the past.  So I did not really think I really need such extra treatment.  I think people in the United States is safer side and the water treatment is much more popular than Japan.  On the other hand, at least when I was in Japan, the water treatment was not really popular and I had never used it on a trail.  Even though, I had never had any major issue without any water treatment.   I guess it is probably all right most of cases, but people recommend to use it just in case.  It is probably better to avoid any risk on a trail.

   As my conclusion, I probably won't use it proactively in the future anyway.   However I am curious if there is any way to check this is useful or working all right.   Currently I do not have much idea how I can verify this function.   But I just wonder if there is some good way to verify this.

   Does anybody have any idea about this?  

   I started thinking about this because I found it when I clean my outdoor equipment box this weekend.   I found it and I know I have never used.  I might try something in the future.

Resting Heart Rate and Training Progress

Resting Heart Rate last 6 mounts

   I posted about relationship training progress and VO2max and Lactate threshold.   I also think the resting heart late has some relationship with training progress as well.

    It is obvious that resting heart rate shows some conditions in short term.   For long term, it also show the training progress.  The plot above is average resting heart rate trend last 6 mounts.  When I resume the training the resting heart rate is getting lower.   Estimated VO2max and Lactate threshold, I only have data past 12 months since this is a new feature (data) in fenix 3 HR.  Previously, I did not have any device to get such data.   However, regarding heart rate, I had Vivosmart HR and I have a little more data than the others.  Based on my experience, the long term resting heart rate is probably a good factor to watch to see the training progress.

   Last a few years, including Apple watch, those "smart devices" are getting much better and collect various our body data to see many things in different aspect.   As I keep posting, they are good to to monitor our training activities, helping hiking, monitoring the progress, our body conditions and etc.
   I think even some low-end model has various monitoring features and they might be good enough to get some basic data for our daily training and supporting hiking.

   I really want to see what else we can utilize the devices.  I keep watching / looking for more useful way for those devices!

Running form issue .....

wearing out is not even

   Garmin fenix 3 HR has embedded optical heart rate sensor and it can monitor heart rate not only during an activity, but also monitor heart rate 24/7.   However, if people use chest strap type heart rate sensor, they can get some additional data from the sensor, such as running dynamics, running cadence and etc.  With some old Garmin running device, they requires foot-pod sensor to get the running cadence.   Now just chest-strap type heart rate sensor can get more information.

Ground contact time for a running activity

   If I look at my data, my ground contact time is tend to more on right foot based on the data.   Somehow, if I run faster, it is getting close to even.   I knew my running form might not be something really good.   This also shown on my running shoes as well.   The left foot sole is wearing out more than right side and outside is more than inside.

   I think this might be related my previous injury, which was stress fracture on my left leg.   So, it is obviously better to correct my running form somehow.  The problem is how I can do.  I have no idea about this.   Some internet search indicates stretching might help to improve this.   So I just started to do more stretching daily.

Assessment of Full-Marathon Level 1 Training Plan ~ Using Lactate Threshold

Estimated Lactate Threshold last 12 months

The previous posting is looking into improvement of VO2max after the training menu.  Today, I am looking into Lactate Threshold estimated by Garmin fenix 3 HR.

Above plot is a trend of my estimated lactate threshold last 12 months.  This is very interesting result.  Garmin shows two parameters for the estimated lactate threshold.  One is a heart rate and the other is a pace.   This scale is not very good to show the changes.   However, what we can see is the heart rate (red line) is increasing even if I stopped training from April to June due to the injury.  On the other hand, it is decreasing after I started the  training plan in August.   I thought lactate threshold heart rate would be better if the heart rate is higher.   But the reaction of the number is not really matched with my training.  However, the heart rate value in August is 167 bpm and now (November) is 165 bpm.   Because of scale, the change looks big, but it is only 2 bpm between the two.   So I am not sure if this is really changes or it might be within error range.   But the trend is probably decreasing.

The other factor is a pace.  This trend is link to the training.  April is 5:31/km and August is 6:01/km.  Now (November) is 5:51/km.  The trend is a similar as VO2max.   So that it seems to  be the pace as a sort of a performance number.

Overall, I think the training menu helps to improve my running performance and the features in Garmin fenix 3 HR, which is estimating LT (Lactate Threshold) / VO2max is probably useful to see the improvement of the training.

Assessment of Full-Marathon Level 1 Training Plan ~ Using VO2max

Estimated VO2max last 12 months

Full Marathon Training Plan Level 1 is almost the end

I started this training plan in August after I recovered an injury in April.  It is 16 week plan and it is in 14th week now.   Since the current running device I am using for my regular running has a feature to estimate VO2max from the training data and I want to know the relationship between the training progress and VO2max number.  The best number last 12 months was 43 [ml/kg/min] in April which is before the injury.  Then I got injured in the end of April and I stopped training about 6 weeks after the injury.   The number was dropped to 38 [ml/kg/min] when I resumed training in June.

Once resumed training the number was slightly getting better.  It was 40 [ml/kg/min] in July.   

The number was dropped to 38 [ml/kg/min] in August again.  There are a couple possible reasons:

• I took a rest about 10 days due to traveling to Japan in the end of July.
• I started a training plan from Garmin, Full Marathon Level 1 and the initial menu was probably too easy.

 I think I mentioned the reasons in my past posting.  Now the training plan is in 14th week and the number is 41[ml/kg/min].

Previous history of the estimated VO2max

When I got Garmin fenix 3 HR was October last year.  At that time, I was in a middle of the same training plan Full-Marathon Level 1 from Garmin and the number in October in 2016 was 39 [ml/kg/min].   The plan was completed in December and the number was 41[ml/kg/min].  So that the current number is the same as what I have right now.   After that, I moved to Full-Marathon Level 2 which was January to April in 2017.   Then, I got injured right before Level 2 plan was completed.  The number right before the injury was 43 [ml/kg/min] as I mentioned earlier in this post.

Based on the history of the data, it seems that my VO2max number is improved by the training plan.  Also, as I mentioned in some previous posts, the number is probably linked with the training.

Also, the pace (speed) for a similar running is improved as well, especially "Long Run" which is more than 90 minutes.  In the level 1 menu, the long run is combination of walking and running.  So the overall pace including walking is more than 8 minutes / km in the beginning.  The last 2 long run which is more than 120 minutes were better which is around 7:30 ~ 7:40 / km.

The training plan I picked is heart rate based training and the strength is managed by heart rate zone.  So the pace is not how fast I can run.  It is based on a similar heart rate and how fast I could do.  So 8:00 / km is very slow pace, but if I ran faster, then the heart rate is out of suggested range.   So I have to slow down the pace.  Even the training is after the injury, so far I did not see any injury after the recovery and I believe this is a good method for older people.

The data indicates, once people get injured and stop the workout, then the fitness level is getting lower and it is hard to recover the same as before the injury.   The key for older people like me, it is how we can avoid injury due to over  training.  The big problem is even if I do over  training in a short time, I may be able to do without serious injury.   But it may be a cause of injury for long term.  It is very different from serious athletes.  I think serious athletes may need to do high intensity training to improve the performance, but for general people, it might not be very good idea especially older people like me which is over 50 years old.

Last time I switched to Full-Marathon level 2 after Level.   However, I probably want to continue Level 1 menu after the current plan is end.   Even if I take the same plan, it is based on heart rate to define the strength, therefore, if I follow the instruction, I may still be able to get a right level of training.  Maybe in the beginning, it might be too easy again.  But overall, it might be getting some improvement.  Let's see how it goes.  I will continue to report my data and own analysis.

Burst on a highway!

After the incident @ home

This is an incident last week, when I was on a way to back home.  A tire on my car got burst on a high way.  It happened suddenly.  The car lost speed and I felt loosing the power to tire.  I though it might be better not to move further.  At that moment, I was not sure if the care still could move or not.   I pulled the car to the right shoulder and called AAA to tow my car.  I thought it could be transmission trouble that I had an experience with this car before.

It was scare to stop on a highway in a night.  However the towing car was arrived earlier than I was noticed.   I asked the agent to tow my car to a dealer near my home.  For my safety, the agent asked me to get into the towing care immediately and I did not have a chance to look at my care at all.  So I had no idea what was going on.

But.... after arrived at the dealer, I looked at my care and a rear tire on the right was gone!  And finally I got what was going one.   So that I just replace the tire to a spare tire and drove my care to home.   That was a story.

The next day, I went to a tire shop to replace the tire.   The tire is relatively new and I just replaced them early summer this year.  The mileage is about 5,000 miles.  It is a new tire and a person in the tire shop was also very surprised.

I do not know the cause of the problem.  But in general, it could happen in transition of seasons due to a big temperature change.  Since the tire pressure could change due to the temperature.  In my case I did not recognize any sign from sensors.  But it is better to pay more attention especially such time.  If it is not usual it is better to check it to avoid such incident.

I was thinking that when a tire gets burst then it becomes very hard to control the car basically loosing control pretty badly.  However, my case was not that bad.  I still had control and that was reason I did not realize that was a tire issue.

Anyway, be careful!

Sharing Experiences

@ Mt. Tsurugi in Japan

Sharing Experience
I changed profile and some setting of this blog.  There is no major changes, I will continue to post to share my experiences anyway.  In addition, I am looking for a way to share experiences for someone else as well.

I believe there is own story for each experience which includes a success, failure and etc and it is really worth to share the story.   I think it is easy to find out some "information" for any area from the internet search nowadays.   However, it is probably not enough to do something in many cases, it might not work or some unexpected things happen.   One of good example is a project brewing Japanese-sake.

As some people aware that I am posting a project progress for brewing SAKE in my Japanese blog.  I found a lot of information and knowledge about SAKE from the internet.   However I was facing a lot of issues when I actually brew SAKE.  It is not because the information is wrong, but some conditions and assumptions are slightly different for those information.  Therefore the end results are not the same as what the information shows.   I found this doing the project and I tried to share my experience as detail I had done as possible.  I guess it would help somebody else who wants to do a similar thing.

The direction of this blog, I won't change much.  However, I am focusing on story more in the future posting.   Also, I am thinking to re-organize my previous posting.

If you have some feedback, some interesting experience, please help to share your opinion / experience.   I probably want to try to get more information somehow and sharing the experience.

Anyway, I will keep posting some experiences !!

Brewing Sake 2017-2018 (1) ~ Start preparing ....

Home brew Sake!

It's getting cold ....

November is coming.   There were some warm days in October, however, it is getting chilly in the morning and the evening last a several days.   There is still some time to start brewing Japanese sake this winter.  I plan to start sometime around Christmas time.  So, it is time to start preparing now.

Brewing last season
It's been 4th years and I got some tips from my past experiences.   Last year, I used rice up to 60 % milled which is Ginjo-class and raw Koji.  As a result, I think it was the best one in last three years.

The plan for this season, I probably want to try a similar condition to re-produce a similar result.   There is an option to "steam" rice instead of cooking by rice-cooker.   The process is a little more effort for me and I am thinking to stay "rice cooker" method this year.


First of all ....
The first thing I need to do is to get all material for brewing, which is Koji and yeast.
We can purchase them from "Home Brew Sake"
Koji (40 oz.) USD$11 and Yeast #9  USD$6.5.   I also plan to use Koji for other purpose, therefore I might want to buy some extra amounts.  You can also get a special rice milled up to 60% from the site.  The price is 10 lbs USD$24.
Also, it is very good site for the process of brewing and recipe.

The plan is starting around Christmas, therefore I probably need to place order some time in the end of October.   I will post my progress this year.