Mt. Whitney Lottery 2017

East side from the switch-back

   As usual the Mt. Whitney Lottery application will be accepted from Feb 1 to March 15.

   For detail, you can visit Inyo National Forest Web site.

   I posted many times about hiking to Mt. Whitney.   To hike Mt. Whitney usually requires a permit, especially through the most popular rout Mt. Whitney Trail in a typical hiking season.   Most of weekends and around major holidays are very popular and probably hard to get the permit.  I think it is better to try the lottery to get permit for your expected dates. 

   I publish a book, to talk about Mt. Whitney hiking last year.  I described more detail for the process to get the permit.  Please also refer the book if you are interested in hiking over there.

Mt. Whitney Hiking Guide “Hiking the highest mountain in California”

·         Go to Amazon.com

Garmin fenix 5 is announced!

   CES 2017 is on-going in Las Vegas now.  From Garmin, a new model of "fenix" has just announced.  It improves the battery life, different bezel size and etc.  Those are a sort of minor improvement and major functions stay similar.

   According to Garmin website, it will be available within 5 to 8 weeks from now.  On the other hand, the price of fenix 3 HR is updated to lower price.  It is about USD $50 lower than the previous retail price.   I guess it might be a good deal if people who do not care those minor updates.  The basic feature is very similar.


   I do not plan to get it any time soon because I got fenix 3 HR late last year.  I really satisfy fenix 3 HR.  I already mention about this in my past posts.

Brewing Japanese Sake 2017

Sample from a batch last winter

   Recently, I try to post a similar article as what I post to my Japanese blog.  I am not sure how many people are interested in brewing Japanse sake.  But I will also try to post the progress of the brewing this winter.

   Since I live in California in the US, all imported product from Japan is expensive and Japanse sake is one of them.  Three years ago, I started brewing ale and it is really fun and it is not so difficult.  Some people I knew did brewing Japanese sake and I also tried it.   The past two winters, I did some try-and-error to establish a easy way to blew sake, which is using a regular rice with regular way to cook it.   In the traditional way, steamed rice is used instead of regular way to cook it.  However, when I search how we can brew sake on the internet, I found many similar articles about brewing sake.  Most of them are non-filtered sake, which is called "doburoku" in Japanese.  Technically, brewing sake without proper license is illegal in Japan.   Therefore, there are not many people doing it.  Brewing "doburoku" is easy way to make small amount of "sake like" beverage.

   Based on the easy method, I also started with "doburok" and finally I was trying to brew "filtered sake" with a regular rice.   I think I establish a process to brew Japanese sake at home.   However, I felt the taste is slightly different from one which is sold in the market.  I thought it is because of rice since rice which is used for brewing sake usually milled more than regular rice we usually eat.  But it is not easy to get it.  That is the primary reason, I use a regular rice from the grocery store.  However after 1 year storage, the taste is getting better and close enough to the commercial products.

   Anyway, this year, I have just ordered a special rice for sake on the internet and I will try the special rice if there is any significant difference or not.   The process to cook the rice will stay the same, I will use a regular rice cooker to cook it.  the only change this winter is just rice itself.

   I will keep posting the progress.  Let's see how it goes! 

Garmin fenix 3 HR ~ Stress Score

   It's been for almost 2 months since I got Garmin fenix 3 HR.   I probably tried most of function I need to use.  Overall, it is a good device more than what I expected comparing with my previous device Garmin Forerunner 910XT.

   Now, there is a feature I am interested in.  That is estimating "stress score".  This is basically estimate a stress score based on monitoring heart rate with standing for 3 minutes.   I started trying this feature since this morning.   One of the reason I pick to get a score in the morning is heart rate.  Since I usually do some training after work in the evening, therefore, my heart rate might be higher in the evening and it might impact the score.  So that, I would think it might be better to do in the morning.


   The first score this morning was "17" which indicates "low stress".  I think the sore is a sort of a relative number and I will get it every morning for a while.  Let's see what it goes!

Garmin fenix 3 HR ~ A feature to estimate Lactate Threshold

Lactate Threshold last 3 months

   Another new feature in Garmin fenix 3 HR is estimating the lactate threshold.  This feature only supported a several high-end device, such as fenix 3 series, Forerunner 735XT, 920XT and 630.   There are two modes to estimate the lactate threshold.  One is guided testing and auto mode.  I have not tried the guided testing, but as long as users do high intensity training which is close to the maximum heart rate, the device automatically estimates the lactate threshold.   If the activities are not high-intensity enough, then the device won’t do anything.   To estimate the lactate threshold, the device needs to know the VO2max value.

   Based on the past activities, as long as an activity is in heart rate zone 4 / 5, the device will estimate the lactate threshold after the activities.  The device shows the heart rate / pace at the lactate threshold for running activities.  This device also support lactate threshold for cycling independently.  However I have not tried cycling with this device yet.

   The plot showed in the beginning is my result last 6 months, actually last 3 mounts since I got fenix 3 HR.   The initial value was 154bpm@5’37”/km.  The last one is 160bpm@5’28”/km.   During the period, I have been following a training plan “Full marathon level 1” from Garmin connect since early September.   The plan has a threshold running which is high intensity training once a week.   It seems the LT (heart rate / pace) is improving.   I have never measured actual lactate threshold in a lab, therefore, I cannot tell the value the device estimated is close to the real value or not.   However, it is a god index to see the progress or the training.   At least I do see some improvement and it is a good motivation to realize the progress of a training other than the personal records for some distance.   Also the estimated value is probably close to my real value based on the past training and hiking records.

   This feature is only available some selected devices from Garmin and most of models which support this feature is typically expensive.   However, this is a nice feature to see the progress some other parameter other than the pace / time.   Overall, I am happy to upgrade my running device and having some nice feature from the recent technology.

Garmin fenix 3 HR ~ VO2max estimation

 I have not posted for a while.  I've been busy after thanks giving this year......  Today, I am writing about VO2max estimation on fenix 3 HR.

Display for VO2max on Garmin Connect Mobile

   Recent running watch (GPS watch) from Garmin has a new function to estimate VO2max.  This feature is available Forerunner 235 or higher model.  It is not available on vivosmart HR and vivoactive HR.  It is not available a low end model Forerunner 35.

VO2max

   VO2max is one of good index to show the endurance performance.  Before I got fenix 3 HR, I tried to do “cooper test (12-minutes running)” to get indirect estimate to see my training progress.  However it requires very high intensity running which is almost “all out” to get the number.   Especially right after the injury, it is not easy to do.  Sometime it was a cause of another minor injury in the past.  Now fenix 3 HR has a feature to estimate the VO2max number from daily activates even if not very high intensity training.

Overall result for my case

    I have been using fenix 3 HR around a month and I consistently ran 3 or 4 times a week.  My number is around 38 ~ 42 [ml/min * kg] range, which is probably very similar result from “cooper testing”.   Only one exception is one LSD (Long Slow Distance) training and the result was 36 which is very low comparing the other recent numbers.

    Based on the result, the device probably use “cooper testing and a formula” to estimate the number.  However, “cooper test” requires very high intensity running and it might do some adjustment based on heart rate number during an activity and some past data.   As long as activity is relatively high intensity, my number is somewhere in 40~42 range.  However, if the activity is low intensity, the number becomes somewhere 38 ~ 40 range, slightly lower than the high intensity numbers. 

   I have never measured the actual VO2max number in a lab in the past, therefore I cannot tell what my real VO2max is.  However, if I assume the estimated value by “cooper testing” is reasonably close to the real value, this estimate is very close to the cooper test result.   So as long as the activity is reasonably close to the high intensity (all out), then the estimated value is probably close to my real number.   If the intensity is low, then the accuracy of the estimated number by the device might have bigger offset from the real value. 

   My average value now is 41 [ml/min * kg] which is categorized as "good" in my age group.  I thought my value would be much better something like in "Very Good" category.  But this is what it estimate.  Overall, the value is stable for my recent training result.

Useful?

 VOmax trend last 4 weeks

    I do not see obvious improvement of the number because I only have data for a month.  But I would think this would be useful to see some improvement after some training.   We do not have to have “cooper testing” regular bases and we can collect the data with the daily training.   As long as the intensity is reasonably high, for the heart rate zone 3 ~4, then the number is probably close to the real VO2max value.  I will continue to collect more data to see if it can show some improvement or not.