Mt. Whitney Hiking 2018 (2) ~ Data analysis for the first day

Heart Rate trend for the day 1

Walking Speed trend for day 1

Elevation trend for day 1

Data for the first day

As I always do for each hiking, I captured GPS / HR data by a GPS running watch.  Here is the analysis result for the first day of the hiking to Mt. Whitney this year.
As a result, the total time from the trail head (Whitney Portal) to Trail Camp where I camped was:

• Total Time:    271    minutes (including resting time)
• Resting Time   14.2 minutes

The distance based on the GPS data is 7.4 miles (11.9 km).
To compare data from different years, some reference point (location) is picked from a map with latitude and longitude.  Based on the location data, a program looks for the GPS data entries within 50m from the reference point.  Then, the program will check the minimum duration for each section.  Since GPS and distance calculation in the GPS device has some error, the measured distances are not the same for each year.  The average distance of this section (Trail head - Trail Camp) in the past years is about 6.5 mils (10.5 km) .  So that the distance measured this year is about a mile longer than the average.  However, this is not an important parameter for this comparison.  This comparison is focusing on the total duration, therefore it is not a problem.

The following is the past duration in the same section:

• 2011: 264 (min) (Resting: 56 min)
• 2014: 276 (min) (Resting: 65 min)
• 2015: 266 (min) (Resting: 64 min)
• 2016: 310 (min) (Resting: 81 min)
• 2018: 271 (min) (Resting: 14 min)

(*) Note: The definition of resting time is the walking speed is less than 20 m / min.

Based on this data, this year is 3rd fastest after 2011 and 2015.  The big difference is much less resting time this year.

Actual feeling?

Here is what I felt during hiking this year.  Overall, my condition was pretty good.  I had 4 hours sleep at home before left home.  Just thinking about long driving during night, this would be a better than other years and it was not too bad at all!

However.......

When I started walking from the trail head, the heart rate jumped to more than 160 bpm right away even if the walking pace was not so fast.  I guess this is probably due to lack of training for ascending before the hiking.  I think my muscle strength was not enough and it was easy to increase the heart rate.  Therefore, I was very carefully manage the heart rate with slower pace from the beginning of this hiking.  The target range I set was somewhere around 140 ~ 155 bpm. 

Duration for each key section

Let's look into more detail!  A section from Whitney Portal to a branch to Lone Pine Lake, I took about 103 minutes.  I thought I was walking very slowly.  However it is very similar time as year 2014, 102 minutes  which was the fastest duration in the past.  The difference between the years are resting time, it was 12 minutes in 2014, but only 6 minutes this year.  It is the half of 2014.

The next section is from Lone Pine Lake branch to Outpost Camp.  It is relatively flat section and the fastest duration in the past was 28 minutes in 2011 which includes 3 minutes resting time.  This year was 30 minutes without any resting time.

The next section is probably the most tough section in the first day which is from Outpost Camp to Trail Camp.  The best duration in the past was 125 minutes in 2015 with 37 minutes resting time.  This year was 132 minutes with 9 minutes resting time.

Please note, the sum of duration for each section does not match the total time I showed in the beginning.  This is because, each reference location is defined within 50 m range and calculated the duration with the shortest duration between each reference point.  This means the moving time with in the 50 m range for each section does not include the time.  Thus, this is not an error.

Distribution of heart rate zones

The heart rate zone distribution for the first day, almost 80% of time, it was less than Zone 2.  Except 2012, that I hiked a friend who did not have a lot of experience in high elevation, therefore the overall pace was significantly slowing down.  The rest of years, Zone 3 distribution was more than Zone 2.  That is the major difference for this hiking.   This is a similar experience from Trail Camp to Summit in the other years that I kept my heart late below Zone 2 and I did not have to take resting time a lot.  I think if I keep my heart late below Zone 2, I could move without much resting for long time.

Overall, the total duration was not taking long time I originally thought during the hiking even if the walking pace was relatively slower than the other years since the resting time was significantly shorter than the other years.  Also, I felt it was one of easy hiking comparing the other years.

Summary of the first day

I think I am pretty sure that walking pace management based on the heart rate is really efficient method to manage the pace during hiking especially in higher elevation.
This year, the heart rate was much higher than usual and I intentionally kept slow pace and it helps overall duration in day 1.

(To be continue)