Data analysis for hiking! ~ good to have heart rate data during training!

Data analysis for hiking

Heart rate is one of good index to understand training effort.
It is not only managing your pace for hiking, but also analyzing your training effort as well.

The following chart is heart rate distribution for a training last weekend.

I went hiking to a local trail for a training for hiking to Mt. Whitney this summer!

As you can see, the majority of my heart rate stays in Zone1.  This means this activity was pretty mild and easy effort.

The following chart is heart rate distribution for hiking to Mt. Whitney in 2018.

I managed my walking pace based on my heart rate and intentionally kept my pace very slow.
Even though, the almost half of time is zone 2 and it got into zone 3 a little.

The training last weekend is only three and half hours.  And hiking on the first day to Mt. Whitney in 2018 was about four and half hours with heavy backpack!

I got really bad muscle ache after the hiking and I was exhausted.
This indicates my fitness level was pretty bad! 

What would be a potential issue?

The essential issue for my fitness level is really lack of strength of muscle for ascending / descending because I did not go hiking after Mt. Whitney hiking in August last year.

Thus, I really needs to walk more hilly trail next a few month!

Started training for Mt. Whitney hiking this summer！

Hike to Mt. Whitney from Cottonwood Pass this summer

As I mentioned a couple times, I will go hiking from Cottonwood to Mt. Whitney this summer.
This route is much longer than Mt. Whitney Trail where I hiked a several times in the past years.

I plan to hike there in September and I still have three months.
I just started training today!

Running is not enough!

I run 3 ~ 4 times a week, but I do not believe it is not good enough.
People need to train muscle for ascending / descending.  It would be hard to train just running. 

I think it is possible to train muscle for ascending with StareMaster in a gym, but muscle for descending is probably hard.   The best way is just go hiking to do ascending and descending.

I could not reach where I plan!

I went PG&E trail Rancho San Antonio County Park after I dropped my daughter at Japanese School.
I headed to Black Mountain within 2 hours.  However, I could not reach there and returned 1km before the destination.  Total 16 km with 3 and half hours.   It is obvious that my fitness level is getting very poor.

The heart rate is not really reach to Zone 3.   It was the first day, but I need to train on the trail every week to recover my fitness level.

It was bad and I do have muscle ache now!  Just for aerobic performance, it would be all right due to regular running exercise!

A good partner for hiking! ~ Easy hiking in high elevation!

Monitoring your heart rate duing hiking helps to manage your walking pace!
This is one of a good way to manage your walking pace.

For experienced hiker, they know their best pace for hiking.  They won't get exhausted based on optimal pace.  Many seriour climbers who climed Himalaya mountains, they understand what the reaction of their body in higher elevation.

However, for many hikiers who do not have a lot of experience more than 10,000 feet. It is hard to tell what is going on for your body.   It is almost no sign for impacts of high elevation.  As a result, you may be exhausted.   Your experience of the hiking won't be great if you really exhausted.

Monitoring heart rate and manage your walking pace will help to keep an optimal pace for you and you will have a great experience for your big desstination like Mt. Whitney which is the highest mountain in lower 48 states in the United States.

Let's get a device which can monitor your heart rate during hiking!

The lowest cost solution!

Hiking season is coming!

In the US, Memorial Day weekend is coming!   It is starting a nice hiking season this summer!

Mt. Whitney which is the highest mountain in Calfornia. 

It is the highest mountain in the lower 48 states in the United States.

Due to the "highest mountain" in the main portion of the United States, 

Mt. Whitney is very popular destination for many hikers.

High Altitude Sickness

Do you know "High Altitude Sickness"?

Due to low oxigen environment in highe elevation, many people feels some symptoms when they hike more than 10,000 feet.  It is sometimes headache, dehydration and others.

If you spend more time in higher elevation, human body will adopt the altitude slowly in many cases.  However, it is hard to avoid in short term. 

Many hiking might be done within a few days and it would be too short to adopt the altitude.

Pace management in high elevation

The pace management for a hiking in higer elevation, which is above 10,000 feet, is probably very difficult for most of people.  Because almost all people could not feel the impact in the early stage of high altitude sickness where the elevation around 10,000 feet.  At this stage, you do not feel anything different from a typical hiking in lower elevation.

However, if you monitor your heart rate, you will see the difference.  Even if you walked a similar pace when you hikin in lower elevation, the heart rate is getting much higher in higher elevation.  This means you do not feel anything special, but there is sign for the high altitude sickness already.

What happens?

Since you cannot recognize any impact of the elevation in the early stage of high altitude sickness, your walking pace is eventually "over pacing".  Then it will gets worse quickly and you will be exhausted in a short time.

Most of destination for hikers is somewhere around 14,000 feet and you may be able to reach the summit without any special thing for the altitude.  But you may be exhausted and your experience might not be great.

Monitor Heart rate helps your experience!

One of a good solution for the high altitude sickness is monitoring heart rate and manage your pace based on heart rate.

It used to be not easy since there is not very good way to monitor your heart rate in real time during hiking.   However, it is getting much easier nowadays.  Since there are many devices which can monitor real time heart rate just waring a watch!

A good solution is using activity tracker during hiking!

There are many activitiy tracker devices in the market.  Also, running is getting very popular for people's health, there are many running devices with GPS function.  Those are all good devices to monitor your heart rate duing hiking!

The following device is called "Garming vivoactive 3".

This device also capable to trace where you go as your record with GPS. 

This is a very good fit for many hikers to keep tracking where you go and how much time you took.

In terms of the cost, I would recomend this device for trcking your heart rate during hiking.

Nice device with GPS function!

The next device is "Garmin fenix 5".  This is a bit expensive.  However due to a updated model is introduced this price is getting lower and now it is a bit expensive but affordable range now.

A good thing for this device is more nice features for hikers.  Longer battery life, built in compas and more profile for many other spots to track your activity.   I have been using the previous modle "fenix 3 HR" and it is really nice gear for hiking.

If you can affort this price, I would recomend this device!

More outdoor feature!

I will post how to manage you hiking pace in the next post!

(To be continue)

Mt. Whitney 2019 Permit ~ expect last minutes cancellation....

From the visitor center in Lone Pine

Availability after May 1st

People who won the lottery need to complete its reservation by April 30.
After that, starting May 1, all dates which is not reserved will be available everybody who wants to get the permit.

I have often checked the availability after May 1, only dates I saw was early season which is May and June and late season which is after late September.  I did not see any other available dates so far.

For day use permit, there are many open dates in weekdays in summer time.  However they had been booked and it is almost full now.

The only way to get the permit is the last minutes cancellation.  Or you may want to get an exit permit like I plan this summer.  You can enter the Mt. Whitney Zone other than Mt. Whitney Trail from Whitney Portal.   But many of short hiking routes are booked and it is likely the last minutes cancellation.   It might be easier to get one than Mt. Whitney trail from Whitney Portal 

I am not sure if it is due to changing the reservation system or more people applied.  It is obviously getting hard to get the permit this year.

I think it is better to consider alternate route earlier to make sure you can get the permit.

Cottonwood Pass to Mt. Whitney ～Day 2 (Plan)

Overview for Day2 and Day3

Toward west side of Mt. Whitney

Although I have hiked Mt. Whitney a several times, I always see the west side from the ridge toward the summit of Mt. Whitney.   Now, if I start from Cottonwood pass, it is possible to get into the west side.

 

In the second day, this is a way to Guitar Lake and very famous John Muir trail is merged on the way to Guitar Lake!

The day 2, Guyot Creek - Guitar Lake (3,525m)　(13.2㎞). Overall, the trend is ascending, however the distance is much shorter than the first day and it might be a little easier. We need to camp about 3,500m elevation and we expect we adopt the altitude since we stay a little above 3,000m a day before. Guitar lake is still lower elevation than Trail Camp on Mt. Whitney Trail.

Due to summit attempt the next day, we will try to get to Guitar Lake camping site early to prepare early departure on the next day!

Although I have never been the west side of Mt. Whitney, I am expecting really nice view and quiet environment which is very different from crowded Mt. Whitney trail!

Cottonwood Pass to Mt. Whitney ~ Day 1 (Plan)

Elevation profile (Cottonwood Pass Trail head ~ Guyot Creek)

Started planing a hike from Cottonwood Pass to Mt. Whitney

Since I got a permit from Cottenwood Pass to Mt. Whitney this end of summer, I started planing the hike.

Here is the day one:

The starting point is a campground of Cottonwood Pass Trail Head.

Based on the elevation profile, I probably want to camp lower elevation as possible to avoid impacting of high altitude sickness.

The lowest elevation is a crossing point of Rock Creek at 20km from the trail head.

That would be one of possible point for the camping on the first day.

The other option would try to camp at a crossing point of Guyot Creek.  The elevation is a little below 3200m.

The total distance from the trail head would be around 20 ~ 22km.

It is better not to camp high elevation where more than 3500m.  So the selection is very limited.

The other factor this summer is minimize crossing creeks.  Since amount of snow last winter is more than typical years, therefore it might be hard to cross creek some time.  For safety, it is better to minimize it.

There are two possible route in the later section of the day one.

One is along with Rock Creek and the other is through a ridge.

I think through the ridge would be better this summer to minimize the crossing creeks.

Here is the day 1 of this hiking:

Cottonwood Pass Trail Head - Guyot Creek (22km)

(To be continue)

Alternate way to hike Mt. Whitney!

Overall plan

   Here is the overall plan from Cottonwood pass to Whitney portal!  The total distance including Mt. Whitney summit is about 35 miles.  It is much longer than a simple round trip through Mt. Whitney trail which is about 22 miles.

   Typical plan is 3 days 4 nights on the trail.

Permit

   It requires a regular wildness permit to enter the trail from Cottonwood pass and an exit permit for the Mt. Whitney zone.
   I got the both permits after notified Mt. Whitney lottery result.   I still can book the both permits on the reservation site outside of the lottery.  That is much easier to get the permit for Mt. Whitney zone via Mt. Whitney trail.

   I heard it might be possible to get a permit with just walk-in on the day of the entrance at the visitor center in Lone Pine.  The person who told me this plan got permit a couple times in the past.

   So it would be a good alternate plan to hike Mt. Whitney without much hassle to get overnight permit for Mt. Whitney trail.

Tip to get Mt. Whitney permit! ~ Avoid Mt. Whitney Trail!

The highest mountain in California!

Getting harder to get the permit

A permit is required to get into the area around Mt. Whitney to protect nature in the area.
They control people who are in the area a day!

As I mentioned in this blog many times, there is a process to get the permit every year!
It starts Mt. Whitney lottery.  It opens between Feb and mid March to file the application.
The result will be notified by April and the winner needs to complete the reservation by the end of April.

It is very difficult to get a permit in high season like July to September, especially during weekend.
I had not won any date last a several years.  However I got a reservation after April 1st / May 1st in the past years where the winner had not completed the reservation.

Even though it is getting harder, I keep checking the reservation site, but I could not see any open dates between July and September for overnight permit.  There are some for day use permits.

Is there any other way?

I guess many people want to go hiking over there!

There are a couple way people may get the permit:

The first one is to expect cancellation to get the permit at the visitor center in Lone Pine.
It might be still hard to get the one during summer time.  However, there is a little possibility to get it at the visitor center.

Second, to avoid the most popular route which is Mt. Whitney Trail. 

One of example is climb through north folk.  There is some easy rock-climbing sections and it requires some rock-climbing skill.  However it could be more chance to get the permit if you can avoid Mt. Whitney Trail.

The last one is to enter Mt. Whitney Zone other than Mt. Whitney Trail.
It is getting much easier than via Mt. Whitney Trail.
As you plan well, you could get the permit outside of Mt. Whitney Lottery.
Also, there is much higher chance to get the permit at the visitor center.
Many people tried this scheme to hike Mt. Whitney.

Based on an advice from a person, I got a permit this summer from Cottenwood Pass and hike to Mt. Whitney from the west side.  It will be a little longer hike than Mt. Whitney Trail, but it is probably the easiest way to get the permit.

Would you like to try it if you do not have permit this summer?
It is not too late!

Mt. Whitney ~ There are still some day use permit this summer!

It is May now!
How was the result of Mt. Whitney Lottery this year?

I guess you might unsuccessful the lottery.
It seems that it is getting harder to get the permit year by year.

Now, you can make a reservation slots which are not confirmed by the lottery winners starting from May 1.

There is not many open dates for overnight permit except early / late season.
However, there are many open dates for day use permit in summer time.

I think you have a better chance to get it now.

The following URL is the one to check it:
https://www.recreation.gov/permits/233260

Mt. Whitney Lottery 2019 ~ Unsuccessful....

99 Switch-back (June 2016)

My Mt. Whitney Lottery result was unsuccessful this year.  It seems to be hard to get the permit through the lottery last few years.

Key date to get the permit!

There are two important dates to get the permit for people who were unsuccessful the lottery.
I mentioned in this blog a couple times, they are April 1st and May 1st.

On April 1st, people can make a reservation a spot which is not allocated through the lottery.
Although I checked the reservation site on the day, I cannot any good spots for the overnight permit.  There are some spots for dayuse in weekdays.  If you are interested in a day trip in weekdays, it would be a good chance to get it.

The other date is May 1st, people can make a reservation a spot which is not confirmed by a lottery winner.  I got a permit from this type of spots last year.

My plan this year?

I will check availability on May 1st anyway,  however, I have a backup plan this year.

Although the most popular route to hike Mt. Whitney is Mt. Whitney trail, a round trip from Whitney portal, there is another way to visit Mt. Whitney from the west side where John Muir trail goes.  It is a long way to Mt. Whitney, however it is much easier to get a permit from that side.  It is called "exit permit".  I checked the reservation site and there are many available spots in the summer time.

I booked one of spots as my back up plan, which will be 3 nights 4 days trip from Cottenwood Pass.

I am a kind of excited to go that hike this year since most of hiking I had done recently is only one or two nights on the trail.

How about you?  Would you also like to try it?

Mt. Whitney Lottery 2019 ~ The reservation form has been changed!Mt. Whitney Lottery 2019 ~ The reservation form has been changed!

From the visitor center in Lone Pine

Mt. Whitney Lottery 2019

As I mentioned in this blog before, Mt. Whitney Lottery for this summer is now opened!  The application can be filed till 23:59 on March 15 (PDT).

I have just filed my application and the form is slightly changed this year.
This year we do not have to fill the entrance and exit location and the exit date in the application.  Just need to fill the type of permit, either day use or overnight and the entrance date.

The application fee is just USD $6.

The application will be filed at https://www.recreation.gov/.

People need to have an account.  If you do not have it, you need to register first.  Then just search by "Mt. Whitney", you will find out where you can file the application.

Again, the application can be filed till 23:59 on March 15 (PDT/USA)!

Update: Mt. Whitney Lottery 2019 ～ Feb 22 - Mar 15, 2019

Due to government shutdown, Mt Whitney schedule was postponed this year.  Now the new date was announced which is Feb 22 - Mar 15, 2019.  It seems that the rest of date will stay the same.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/inyo/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD609658

Mt. Whitney Lottery 2019 ~ No update yet

As I mentioned in the previous post, the schedule of Mt. Whitney Lottery this year was postponed based on a news on January 30.   Now it is February, there is no update so far.

Usually, the application can be filed starting from February 1, however what we know is it would be some time mid / late February and no information for the following schedule of key dates.  The government shutdown was a little more than 1 month and no further information how much impact for the following dates.

I will keep posting any update I found in this blog.  It is better to keep eyes on it if people plan to get the permit to hike Mt. Whitney this year.  It will be something different from typical years.

Mt. Whitney Lottery 2019

According to the following notice, Mt. Whitney Lottery will be postponed this year due to the government shutdown recently.   The actual date has not been settled yet.  You need to watch the update if you are plan to hike there this year.   Based on the notice, it will be mid / late February.

I will keep positing the update!

Mt. Whitney Hiking 2018 (8) ~ Weight reduction!

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）

Mt. Whitney Hiking 2018 (7) ~ Garmin fenix 3 HR

Garmin fenix 3 HR

GPS Watch

I posted reports for hiking on Mt. Whitney Trail.  Today, I am writing about Garmin fenix 3 HR which is a GPS device for many spots activities.  I got it about two years ago, but this is the first time to ware it for hiking in higher elevation with the pace management.

This is not the latest model from Garmin, they introduce newer model such as fenix5.  However it is improved in many areas from the Forerunner 910XT that I had been using before this model.

Heart Rate sensor

In the previous model I own, it requires a chest-strap heart rate sensor.  Without the chest-strap sensor, it could not monitor heart rate.  However, this model has an embedded heart rate sensor inside the watch and it can monitor heart rate without the chest-strap style sensor.  It is much convenient for hiking and climbing.  It is different from running like carrying a backpack.  The sensor easy to get loose, move and etc.
Regarding the embedded sensor, I evaluated the embedded sensor during my running activities.  Basically to compare the value from the both sensor.  As my conclusion, I think the embedded sensor is reasonably close enough to the chest-strap sensor and I have no problem to use it for hiking and my running activities.
The biggest improvement is it can monitor heart rate 24/7!  It is a big thing for me!

Watch function

This depends on a model.  Particularly,  Forerunner 910XT does not have watch function in the standby mode which is not tracking activities.  It is not really a big problem since whenever I hike, it is in a tracking mode.   However once I get into a tent, it works as a regular watch.  It is just convenient.  A model I owned before Forerunner 910XT, Forerunner CX405, it has a similar watch function.  I just wonder why "910" does not have such watch function..... 

Hiking profile

My previous model is something like designed for just running (and swimming).  It was not considered to use other activities.  However, this model has more profile for other activities like hiking.  It is nice.  The previous model has a feature to change the display setup for different purpose.  But I need to change every time I use different purpose.  It is much better to have a dedicated profile for each activities.

Display of heart rate

This is probably the most useful feature in this hiking.  The legacy style which just shows a heart rate value in the previous mode when I set a target heart rate to manage the pace.  I just need to know the current heart rate value.  However this model display is improved like a photo on the top of this post.  It is color coded to show the heart rate zone as well.   Therefore it is easy to see where the current hart rate in a zone.  It is really nice when I try to maintain my heart rate in a specific heart rate zone.  I just try to adjust the pace to stay my hart rate in the middle of the zone.  I do not have to memorize the boundary of the target zone.  It is pretty good way to display the heart rate!

Overall, the latest model has very similar user interface and features.  Therefore, I believe it does not have much difference.  The capacity of the battery is also good enough.  Although I charged it in the tent just in case, it might be OK not to charge it.  Based on the specification, it can be covered this activity, the total hiking duration this time is a little less than 15 hours and it supposes to be covered.

(To be continue ....)

Mt. Whitney Hiking 2018 (6) ~ Coverage of Amateur radio

From the summit

Brought an amateur radio .....

Since I got amateur radio license in January this year, I brought a radio to the hiking.   I did not have much chance to use it, but this is a report what the coverage looks like.

Coverage on the road

On the way to the trail head / Visitor center, I enabled APRS when I was driving a car.   I saw many packets when I was in Yosemite.  However once passed Yosemite and got into US-395 where the east side of Sierra Nevada mountains.  I guess it is due to very early in the morning.  (I did not use it on the way back since dead battery).

There is digipeter in Bishop and the station picked my packets on the way.

On the trail?

The trail goes along a creek and it did not seem to be very good coverage on the east side before Trail Crest.   Unfortunately, I did care about battery capacity, I did not turn it on all the way.  I only turned on when I took a rest for a few minutes.  So I am not really sure, but it did not seem that it did not work well, there were no incoming packets and my packets were not picked up any stations / digipeters.   At Trail Camp, I used more time in the tent, however, I heard nothing and no packets were picked up.  I use the standard hand held with 1 W output power.

I saw a few people carried amateur radio, however they used it for a communication within their group.  I listened some simplex frequencies, but I did not heard anything.

Once passed Trail Crest on the main ridge to the summit, it seemed that some of digipeters on the west side can be reached and there was a better coverage on the ridge.

Again, I did not turn it on all the way, so that I am not sure if it is true or not.  But we might not expect much coverage of APRS except the main ridge between Trail Crest and the summit.  I did not check frequencies of local repeaters before the hiking, therefore, I have no idea what the local repeater coverage looks like.   Simplex channels were very quiet and I did not hear any communication at all during the hiking.  It is better to check local repeaters next time.

Emergency usage?

I am considering Amateur radio for a communication method in emergency.  It does not seem to be very good since APRS coverage was not as good as I was expected.  Therefore it might be very limited to use in emergency.  However, it is better to understand local repeater coverage.  I guess it might be useful if I can put some local repeater channels into my radio.  So next time, I will plan this research with some local repeater channels.

(To be continue ...)

Mt. Whitney Hiking 2018 (4) ~ SPO2 value and Heart rate at 12000 feet

SPO2 value and Heart rate at Trail Camp on Mt. Whitney Trail

SPO2 value at 12,000 feet

Elevation of Trail Camp on Mt. Whitney Trail is about 12,000 feet (3,600m) where many people have some symptom of high altitude sickness.
I majored SPO2 value with a pulse oximeter before, however it was very hard to determine which value would be a real value since the majored value kept changed in a wide range.

For this hiking, I carried a one which is used for monitoring SPO2 during sleeping to understand a situation of sleep apnea.  It can measure SPO2 continuously what it looks like when I am in the tent.
Almost all time, SPO2 value was below 90% and the range of the measured range is huge.  It depends on how I breath and what I am doing such as walking and lay down.  This is expected based on the previous measurement with real time measurement.  The range is roughly 70 ~90%.

Overall, the average SPO2 value when I awake is somewhere around 85%.  However it is getting lower when I slept, the value was somewhere 75%.  This is probably due to lower breathing rate when I slept.  As long as I am awake, I might be able to control how I breath intentionally.  However once I fell into sleep, then it is very hard to control.  Also, the range of the measured value during sleeping is probably much smaller than when I am awake.

For heart rate, it is also wide range comparing data in lower elevation and it might be related to SPO 2 value I guess.

Without acclimatization

Based on this data, SPO2 value might be getting lower when people sleep.  I guess it is probably possible to get worse when people sleep in higher elevation without acclimatization.   The reason I woke up often during the night would be one of symptoms of high altitude sickness.

Unfortunately,  this is only data I have now and I do not have any other data to compare, it is very difficult to conclude what happens.   I need to collect more data such as multiple nights with longer stay.  Then I can find out more.

One think I can tell is probably SPO2 range when people is not acclimatized.  It is probably hard to determine what would be the value in this situation.  We might need to find some average during some period.

Data during sleeping at home last night

As a reference, I show a data when I was sleeping at home last night.  SPO2 value and the heart late are much more stable than a data at 12,000 feet.  The heart rate is below 60 bpm and SPO2 value is around 95% overall during night.

I think it is very clear, the data shows impact to human body who is in higher elevation.  I do not see any sign for acclimatization.   I guess it is getting much more stable when people get acclimatized.

It is clearly the range of the change for heart rate is much smaller and it might be a better index for hiking in my opinion.

(To be continue)

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)

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)