Trail Camp from the switchback
Not enough training
for descending!
This is descending
data from Trail Camp to Whitney Portal on the day 2.
Walking speed in 2016
Average heart rate in 2016
This result is similar as descending from
the summit to Trail Camp.
Walking speed in 2015
Average heart rate in 2015
Due to the
muscle strength for descending was not good enough due to a lack of training, I
was not able to walk as fast as the last year.
Then I had to slow down the walking pace. So overall trend is very similar, but actual
value for the speed and the heart rate in 2016 is lower than 2015. The total time is about 30 minute difference
between this year and the last year.
|
|
Time (H:MM)
|
Average Heart Rate (BPM)
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||
|
2015
|
2016
|
2015
|
2016
|
|
|
Trail Camp
|
---
|
---
|
123
|
130
|
|
Outpost Camp
|
1:24
|
1:33
|
130
|
131
|
|
Lone Pine Lake
|
0:24
|
0:29
|
127
|
124
|
|
North fork junction
|
0:47
|
0:57
|
132
|
127
|
|
Whitney Portal
|
0:16
|
0:20
|
133
|
130
|
|
Total
|
2:51
|
3:19
|
129 (average)
|
128 (average)
|
Some options
Training for
descending is different from training to improve LT (Lactic Threshold). The priority is clearly to improve LT. Since this will be a big impact to improve ascending
pace and minimize the impact of high altitude sickness. For this purpose, some training in a gym
would be helpful. However the training
for descending might need to run or actual descending on the trail with some
load. Thus, it might not be very easy to
do if people are busy in weekdays.
Then the other
option is just slowing down the descending pace. It will help to reduce the stress to
leg. Obviously, I could not keep a
similar pace as last year. However once
I was slowing down, I did not feel any problem and only difference between this
year and the last year was 30 minutes.
This impact is very small over all hiking. One the other hand, ascending would be more
impact if we did not do aerobic training to improve LT.
My case was a kind
of a special case, because I had stress fracture on my leg and I could not run
for a long time. Actually, I tried to
avoid any impact to my leg during the training. However “impact” is what we get in descending. Therefore, my muscle was getting
weaker. As long as people can run, I
think it helps to train the muscle for descending. But this is very interesting data, what we
need to train for hiking.
Summary
This year, total
walking time for 2 days was about 15 hours +.
The first day is tough, but it was only 5 hours+ walking time and it was
not too bad. However the second day was
about 10 hours. It was still good plan
for this hiking. However, I started at
4am for the summit attempt and came back to the trail head around 2pm. Then I took 6 hours driving back. With my fitness situation, it was still not
too bad. However, more reasonable plan,
I would think 2 nights in the trail would be much easy plan for many
people. Especially, this case I did not
have enough training for descending, therefore, I felt it was a little tougher
than the other years since the majority is descending on the second day. One the other hand, ascending with heart rate
base pacing did great help even if my condition was not very good. I did not feel exhausted, it was reasonably
easy.
The key is really
having a reasonable training in advance to improve LT and understand a good
heart rate to manage the walking pace. For descending, if you feel you got tired,
just slow down the walking pace and it will help to minimize the impact to your
leg. Overall time for descending would
not much impact comparing ascending.
