Mt. Whitney Permit 2018 ~ still available in Early / Late season

Mt. Whitney Trail in June

It seems that all available dates are gone except early / late season, in May, June and October.  The first 2 days, I still see some available date in July, August and September.  But after May 3rd, almost all summer time dates were booked.  Now the choice is either early or late season.  Or people may continue to check the reservation site to find out any cancellations.   If people do not mind to go to the visitor center to find out any permit in the last minutes cancellations.

Personally, early season is not too bad if people have a skill set to travel on snow.   I went there in June once, it was not bad at all.  The parking lot had enough space and the trail is relatively quiet.  During summer time, the parking lot is usually full and need to park on the road for most of times.  I also went there in October.  It was not too bad, either.   However that was before snowing.  I probably prefer early season since snow is probably stable and it might be easy to hike in my opinion.

Anyway, I made reservation for different weekends and I will going to cancel them later.  I only need one, but I am not sure which date is better for me.   I will make decision within a months and I will announce in my blog before cancel, probably a few days in advance.  I am not sure when the reservation is back to the site.  Last year, I canceled on of reservations, but I cannot see it was on the site.   It might be gone right away or might be back a couple days after....

Mt. Whitney Permit 2018 ~ It is not too late!

Night at Trail Camp

As I posted yesterday, there are many available dates on the reservation site.  I frequently checked site yesterday, it seemed many dates kept showing up including many weekend slots in July, August and September.   I reserved one of them yesterday.

As of this morning, 9:30am (PDT) on May 2,  I still see many available dates.  They are day permits and overnight permits.   I think there are more day permits than overnight permits.  Only problem I can see is that it is hard to book consecutive days especially on weekends.  Otherwise, there are still many open dates.

I am not sure how many dates are remain, but it is worth to watch the reservation site to find a good date for you.   Once you find out one, it is better to book right away.  They will be gone in a very short time especially weekends in summer time.

At least I got a permit for this season!

Mt. Whitney Permit ~ Unconfirmed reservations are back to the reservation site!

Chance to find out a permit!

Today is May 1st, all unconfirmed reservations from Mt. Whitney Lottery were canceled and back to the reservation site randomly today.   I watched the reservation site and showed some dates.  However they disappeared in a short time.

Since it is random, it is probably better to check the site frequently if you still looking for a permit to hike Mt. Whitney this summer.

The reservation site is  http://www.recreation.gov/

I think it is probably the best period to find out the permit.

Diet Project (weight loss project) (2) ~ past trend

Weight trend last 12 months

Here is trend of my weight last 12 months.  Whenever I stopped running more than a month due to injury, my weight was increased.   This year I also got injured and stopped running about 4 weeks.  After that my weight is around 76~77kg.   As long as I am running regular basis, my weight could be somewhere 75kg.  So it is obvious, that I cannot reduce my weight to 70kg with the current pattern.

I may be able to reduce somewhere around 75kg if I keep running what I am doing now.   So I just want to see some reduction next 2 weeks, I expect my weight would be decreeing a little.

However to reach 70kg, I might need to do some extra effort, either reduce what I eat or increase activities.  That is probably the direction.

Diet Project

Diet

I am getting older and I sometimes feel something wrong in my body.  Especially, I have some "strange feeling", not a pain, on my left chest.   Therefore, I saw a doctor starting from March and did some diagnostics.  So far nothing is found.   Since I run regular basis, I thought I was all right.   However, my weight is increased.   That is reason I decided to do diet.

Current situation?

My height is about 170cm (about 5 feet 8 inches).  My weight was about 60kg (132lb)when I was 20's / 30's.  However the current weight is about 80kg (176lb).  So I set my goal as 70kg (154lb).  I usually eat 3 meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner).  I do not eat any snack between meals.  I also run every other day about 5-10km (3~6 miles)
 

Direction

I have an idea about this diet.  I will explain in future postings.  The initial step is to collect current data habit next a few weeks.  Without changing my basic life style and measure weight with some other information such as, rough amount of meals, exercise, duration of sleep and steps in a day.  To get a similar condition of weight measurement, I will measure my weight after taking shower in the evening everyday.

I will report the progress once a week!

Recent VO2max trend

VO2max Trend (last 6 months)

VO2max Trend last 6 months

    In February, I got a little pain on my left leg and it seemed be a symptom of shin splint.  Therefore I stopped running about a months and just walking and indoor biking (station bike).  It was a middle of a full marathon training (level 1 from Garmin Connect).

   In march I resumed running 7 km every other days.   I have not started any training menu yet and I have not done any high intensity training like "interval training" last 2 months.   Since I was monitoring VO2max and lactate threshold as a factor of training effort.   Here is the recent trend of my VO2max.   (I have not hit to detect lactate threshold last 2 months since no high intensity training).

   Since there is no running in February, my VO2max was dropped in February.   Once I resume running, it is improved month by month.  February value is 40 [ml/kg/min] and the last value is 45 [ml/kg/min].   I just run 7 km every other day (build-up) and I can see a better improvement.  The average pace is improved.  Overall heart rate zone during the training is staying zone 2.

   At least, just running in zoon 2, even I just run 7km with out really high intensity effort, VO2max value is improved.   It shows the key is running regular basis.  I am not sure what my lactate threshold looks like since there is no recent data.  So the next step is to resume some high intensity training once a week.

SDRplay ~ Software-Defined Radio

SDRplay RSP2

   I usually post a similar contents both in Japanese version and English version.   However, I post different contents here.   Since the post in Japanese is just talking about amateur radio life here in Dublin / California comparing with my old amateur radio life in Japan about 40 years ago.

   It's been for 3 months since I got a license in the US.   Since it might be hard to have HF antenna and radio in a short time.   I just bought a cheap transceiver BAOFENG.   Originally, I thought there might be many stations in V/UHF bands because it is very limited usage in HF for Technician class.   However, I watch 2m / 70cm bands daily, I cannot hear a lot of activities.   I guess very limited stations on some specific repeater are talking daily.

   Anyway, therefore, I really want to see what the other amateur bands look like.  Also I am interested in SDR (Software-Defined Radio).   Based on my research on the internet, SDRplay might be one I try to get.   There are some different model and I have not decided which one I will buy.  But I am thinking this might be my next project to get it and report what it looks like.   In a short time, I will try to get it and try to have a simple antenna for HF.