East side From Mt. Whitney Trail
This post is 8th port of Mt. Whitney report this year. This post will be the last one for the hiking this year. Today's topic is weight reduction.
As I reported in the previous posts, the total duration of each section is probably close to the bast in the past records. One of big factors is probably a method of pace management based on the heart rate. I think I have a very good idea how I can manage the pace based on the heart rate. However, I believe there is another factor to contribute the improvement, which is "weight".
Weight reduction is in progress!
I am fifty one years old and will be fifty two this month. Due to the age, I think my fitness level is slowly getting worse. On the other hand, the overall time was getting improved close to seven years ago. It is not only the total duration, but also I did not feel I was really tired. I thought it was not just the pace management but something else. After some consideration, I concluded this is probably due to the weight reduction.
In April, a doctor suspect that I had sleep apnea and I did sleep study. The doctor concluded I was sleep apnea. I have been using CPAP machine during sleeping and the symptom has been improved. I also told that over weight is probably one of factor of sleep apnea in my case. Therefore, I started doing weight reduction since then. My weight last a several years was somewhere around 165~175 lb and I had 172 lb in April / May this year. Now the weight is 154 lib. I lost about 18 lib in 4~5 months and it is the lowest last several years.
18lb reduction？
Physically, it is equivalent to reduce weight 18 lb stuff I carry and theoretically, I do not have to consume extra energy for hiking. 18 lb is a lot. It is clear if the weight of the backpack is 18 lb less. It is actually a part of my body and it might be hard to recognize the extra weight. But the difference could be huge. That is my conclusion.
My fitness level is getting worse for sure, however, the weight reduction and the pace management can help or compensate. That is the result of this hiking. I feel a similar thing from my running as well. The overall time / speed is improved with a similar heart rate.
Hiking especially this type of hiking to attempt a summit, it is move from a lower location to higher point. The effort is basically carrying some "weight" to higher location. I am not sure how much the weight reduction contributes the improvement in this hiking, but it is probably true to contribute some big portion of this improvement.
I want to continue to enjoy hiking for long time in the future. However it is probably hard to improve my fitness, therefore, I need to find other way to cover this part. Optimize weight / pace would be one of better thing I can do.
I will probably want to be there next year and will post some related article next year as well.
This would be the last post regarding Mt. Whitney hiking this year.
（Mt. Whitney 2018 ~ END）
No comments:
Post a Comment