Mt. Whitney Hiking 2018 (3) ~ From Trail Camp to Summit -- Fastest time !!

Heart Rate trend from Trail Camp to the Summit of Mt.Whitney

Day2 2018

Here is a data analysis report from Trail Camp to the summit of Mt. Whitney.

The total time is 3 hours 7 minutes including 4 minutes of resting.  Actually I did not take any break, therefore the resting time is just stop walking in a short period to adjust breathing.  That is the 4 minutes shows in the tracking data.
This is the fastest time from Trail Camp in my past hiking.  The previous record was 197 minutes in 2015.  The other years were between 200 minutes and 250 minutes.  So that it is 10 minutes faster than the previous record.  It is really fast for me.
As usual, I started walking around 3:40 am.   The strategy was trying not to take a break and the target heart rate was keeping less than 140 bpm.

Walking Speed

On the way to Trail Crest, I was passed by other party in 99-switch back section, however, I did not take any break.  As a result I reached the summit a little earlier than them.  Since it was low temperature early in the morning before Sun rise, I might need to ware a jacket to keep warm when I take a break.  However, I did not take any break and just walking slowly, I did not have to worry about such thing.  It was really easy!!

心拍ゾーンの分布

Slowly is better!?


The average walking speed is about 0.6 m / sec, 36 m / min.  This is really slow pace.  However, the overall it was not too bad comparing with the other parties.   The heart rate zone was also stayed below Zone 1.  I did not feel hard at all.  It was really easy!
 
I think my fitness level was getting worse than 2015 due to my age.  Even though the total time is the best record for the section from Trail Camp to the summit.   I think this is a good indication for the pace management based on the heart rate.  It is really good method for hiking in higher elevation.

I think it is very hard to keep this slow pace if I do not see my heart rate.  It is really good indication to define a better walking pace where many people feel some symptoms of high altitude sickness.

The key is "Do not push your self".  This is really trick to have a better experience for such hiking.

The next posting is looking into heart rate other than walking.  I got some heart rate / SPO2 data in a camp site this time.

(To be continue)