9 Days to my KTM Departure: My gear for me head, hands, and body.

Yes, I am inside double digit days until my flight takes me to Kathmandu (KTM).  Things are starting to get real.  Yeah, they were always real but I now feel the time pressure.  Today, I provide the last details about my gear - the stuff that covers my head, hands, and body.  First, my hands....

Hand Gear

Each person must decide how to combat the cold and where to focus their attention in the effort.  I find that my hands are the least affected by the cold.  Well, actually, that is not true.  My hands sweat almost constantly when I climb - even at high altitude.  Sweating is deadly because wet hands lead to frozen gloves which, in turn, lead to frostbitten hands/fingers.  Today, there is no excuse to have frostbitten hands because the gear technology is so advanced that we can eliminate most risks.  The best way to eliminate frostbite risk is to have plenty of gloves/mittens so you never need to climb with wet ones.  Here is my hand gear:

From the bottom right going clockwise, I displayed my hand gear according to weight.  My trusted Mountain Hardwear light-duty gloves (bottom right) are my most versatile piece of gear.  I cannot recall the model but they are no longer manufactured.  After I wore my first pair, I went to the store and purchased 3 more pairs.  Each pair lasts me about 3 seasons and I am on my last pair - tells you how long I have been using them.  These gloves are light enough to keep my hands warm until about 20F (-7C) provided I am moving.  I love these gloves, wear them for all winter climbs, and rely upon them to keep my hands from getting sopping wet with sweat.  My guess is that I will wear these gloves from Chinese Basecamp (CBC) until probably Camp 1 - weather permitting.  Next, I have my Helstra Heli Ski Gloves.  These beasts are great for colder weather (for me at least).  They keep my hands toasty warm from about 20F (-7C) to about 0F (-18C) and allow me to use my fingers.  I can climb and ski with these in the most challenging conditions without much fear of my hands getting cold.  When the air temperature warms up though, my hands tend to sweat a ton in these gloves.  Thus, I probably will alternate early on between these gloves and my lighter Mountain Hardwear gloves.  My Helstra gloves would be my cold weather hand gear - probably used between Advanced Base Camp (ABC) until at least the North Col (Camp 1) or even Camp 2.  I prefer to have my fingers available while I climb so gloves are a priority for as long as possible.  Once I get up higher than Camp 2, I intend to switch to my mitts.  The first mitt (top row to the left) is my lightest mitts - the Norrona trollveggen dri PrimaLoft 400 long mittens.  I love these mittens because they keep my hands dry and warm but do so without sacrificing too much in my hand dexterity.  Typically, I wear these mitts when I finally get going on a long, high climb.  I can easily maneuver my jumar and access all my gear without taking my mitts off when I wear these.  My best guess - although I don't keep track of this detail - is that I would wear these mitts after I get a full head of steam past Camp 3.  Before I put these on, I probably will wear my warm mitts - either my North Face Himalayan Mitt (center top row) or my beastly Outdoor Research Alti Mitt.  The North Face mittens are decent for colder climes where I do not need much hand dexterity.  I tend to favor slightly smaller mittens for the Himalayan mitts - I wear a medium in these whereas all my other hand gear is a large.  The cold killer is definitely my OR Altis.  These mittens keep my hands warm for all temperatures at or below -20F (-28C).  I feel absolutely nothing but warm, coziness inside these mittens but they offer me almost no dexterity with my fingers; even my thumb feels somewhat restricted in these mittens.  

As you can see, I have a hand protection progression with some redundancy.  If a pair of my lighter gloves get wet, I must move to mittens while my gloves dry.  Drying gear on the mountain can be a challenge but we have ways to hang our gear inside the tent while we sleep.  With the heat coming from our bodies, we can dry most anything.  Still, wet hand gear is a huge drag.  I intend to dry all my gear almost daily - especially my hand gear.

Head Gear

A popular saying is "Cold hands, cold feet?  Put a hat on."  I abide by this saying without hesitation.  Alan Arnette asked me what piece of equipment is my favorite and I knew exactly what to say: my watch cap (center top in picture below).  

I wear this cap almost every minute I am on the mountain - even when sleeping.  When it is warm, I wear my trusty visor (with wind leash to keep it attached to me at all times).  Unless it is dark outside, I wear my Nativ glasses (with interchangeable lenses) as eye protection or if the weather really turns sour, I wear my Julbo Explorer Mountain Sunglasses.  These glasses are great when the weather is uncooperative.  I find that these glasses tend to fog in the heat so I only use them in windy, inclement weather.  Yes, I do wear goggles too - Oakleys (not pictured) - but I find they fog up when I climb and I end up spending more time trying to clear them rather than focusing on the climb.  The final pieces of my head gear are my buffs.  On the left (picture above) is my daily light buff that serves two purposes: 1) keeps the sun off my face and offers some warmth and 2) keeps the dust from getting into my lungs during the approach.  I intend to use this buff almost daily to keep my skin from getting too much sun and my lungs clear from the dust.  The right most buff is my heavy duty one that replaced my balaclava.  In years past, I would wear a mask during climbs that kept my face warm, however, the balaclava mask was unwieldy and often caused my glasses/goggles to constantly fog.  I now use my thicker buff and find it almost never fogs my eye protection.  Plus, the buff extends down to my chest to keep the cold from entering through my neck area in my summit suit or parka.  

Full Body Gear

I have two pieces that cover my entire body.  The first piece is a mid-layer (bottom in picture below) that goes between my base layer and my summit suit (top in picture below).  

These two pieces are critical for my success.  The summit suit is basically a down sleeping bag with legs and arms.  When I put it on at home, I start sweating immediately and don't stop sweating until about an hour after I take it off.  Seriously, this suit is HOT!  The suit fits very well, has tons of pockets, and will keep me toasty warm from Camp 3 and higher.  I even plan on sleeping in the suit when I reach the highest camp.  No need for a sleeping bag when I wear it.  What really seals the warm deal here is the mid-layer, farmer john suit that clings to my body like a second skin.  That layer offers me just a little bit of added warmth and stops and "leaks" of air from hitting my skin and causing a chill.  

Keeping warm when high up on a mountain requires this type of equipment.  It is not the cold that really affects us but rather the altitude.  When we are struggling to acclimatize to the low oxygen environment, our bodies shunt blood from our periphery to our core - hence, we tend to get frostbite in our hands and toes.  The purpose of the equipment is to keep our hands and toes warm in spite of the poor, peripheral blood circulation.  Additionally, a slow, gradual exposure to high altitude (and low oxygen) alleviates the blood restriction in our periphery.  So preparation from both the gear and the acclimatization process protects us from frostbite.

There you have it!  My gear list is now complete.  Time to start packing.  I will show you how all this gear goes into my two expedition bags.  Pictures of packing come shortly.  In the meantime, I have two other posts to share.  My next post shows you the before and after of my training.  I began training for this climb in mid-July after I returned from Cork Distance Week (a wonderful open-water swimming event held in Kinsale, Ireland).  At the time, I weighed 198 lbs (90 kg) and now I weigh 176 lbs (80 kg).  Yep, I lost a ton of weight.  Moreover, I also gained a fair bit of muscle mass in my legs.  Come see for yourself in my next post.  After that post, I intend to test my Garmin InReach device by posting several tests on my blog.  Feel free to check out the maps and such; don't hesitate to ask me questions.  I intend to update everyone so that you can follow Brendan and me during our climb.  

Thanks for following.  Hope you found this material interesting.  Be sure to note from the pictures we post how I use the gear I detailed in these post.  Oh, one other thing.  For those of you interested in learning about my sleep shift, I am doing well.  Tonight (ahem, perhaps tomorrow is more appropriate) I go to sleep at 4am and wake at noon.  If you are wondering how I am faring, I feel great.  Nothing quite like starting a workout at midnight to really keep the spirits up!  Thanks again for your interest and support.  See you soon....

13 Days until I fly to Kathmandu: Heroes, rest and sleep

I am putting my best foot forward to rest; it doesn't come easy for me.  My preference is to be on the go all the time.  Now, I need to fully recover and be as strong and healthy as I can be before taking off.  Thank you so much for following my preparation and eventual expedition.  Here are a few things that occupy my mind these days.

1.  A search for heroes.  The popular media wants to make everyone normal.  I'm normal - that much I know.  But even some of those that have superior skills and devote themselves to amazing feats of endurance get belittled to the level of mediocrity.  For some reason, we refuse to admit heroes into our lives.  I have a few who inspire me to keep going when the going gets really tough.  Hopefully you have a few too.  Here are mine:

Dag Aabye.  You probably never heard of him.  I'm sure he would find that fact quite comforting.  Dag is a young Canadian man (76 years old according to some) who lives in the Canadian wilderness and lives off the grid in the most marginal of ways.  To most, he would be seen as an eccentric old man.  I see him as a leader.  He lives how he wishes to live.  Not only that, he runs every day and is as fit as a person one third his age.  Do yourself a favor and watch this amazing short movie on Dag.  He doesn't know me and I don't know him - other than what I have read and watched about this man.  To me, a hero exists in our minds and not in the media.  Learn a little about Dag if you care to.  Heroes live their lives according to their own values.  Dag does precisely that and he obviously prospers.  Oh, if you want to know about his accomplishments in running, watch the movie.  As a teaser, he is the oldest person to ever finish the 80-mile ultramarathon often referred to as the "death race."

Sarah Thomas.  Heroes come in all forms and Sarah is one of my heroes.  She doesn't know it despite the fact that we are "friends" on Facebook.  I never met Sarah in person but read about her swimming feats for the past few years.  Sarah currently holds the longest known nonstop, solo swim (in a current-neutral body of water) - not that the last parenthetical bit makes one lick of difference.  She swam non-stop for 56and a half hours er...67 hours!  (Thanks Evan for the fact checking)  If that doesn't deserve some level of hero status, I have no idea what does.  I admired her tenacity for swimming for sure but my admiration grew steadily with her current missing.  Bad news befell her and her family; Sarah had a cancerous growth and is currently undergoing chemotherapy.  All the while, she remains optimistic about the outcome and longs to get back into the water.  Heroes come from not just sporting events but also emerge from life struggles.  A hero is someone who overcomes great odds and faces the dangers with a positive outlook.  Sarah matches all my criteria and I wish her well.  Hopefully one day our paths cross.

Aleksander Doba.  One of my students just emailed me a NY Times magazine article about a guy I never heard of before reading the piece.  He is one of my new-found heroes.  Why?  He - like Dag and Sarah - endures huge challenges with an openness to accept what comes.  I loved his self-deprecating statement "Nobody cares if you cross the Atlantic in a kayak."  He focuses on objectives that he desires - not just ones that others set.  I admire his focus and self-determination.  Moreover, he and I share the same attitude about aging where he said "I don't want to be a little gray man."  Heroism comes in many forms but Doba captures so much of what I admire in people that I could not resist putting him on my short list today. 

There are countless others who I omitted from this list.  Today, I am just full of appreciation for those who provided me some guidance and many of you know your influence in and on my life.  I can only thank you today but later I will provide greater detail about those of you who supported me through thick and thin.

2.  Rest.  I am in full recovery mode right now.  No training...just rest.  I found over the years that short bouts of rest restores my interest in hard slogs.  As March approached, I started feeling burned out from hours and hours of indoor training.  I knew I was fit but I kept pushing to squeeze out any last bit of endurance gains left in my body.  At some point, however, those pushes did not provide much and I keep pushing to realize anything.  That point is when I stop.  Well, the truth of the matter is that I don't always stop; I push for a little bit more until my sleeping, eating, and working patterns change for the worse.  I try to avoid that bad outcome now by resting more often and gaining as much as I can when I feel fresh.  Rest is the only way I know to solidify my gains so rest is what I do now.  I intend to rest for one or two more days and then resume my tapering down of workout intensity, load, and duration.   

3.  Circadian Rhythm Shift.  As I got older, I found it increasingly more difficult to overcome jet lag.  If you think a cross-country trip gives you jet lag, then try a 12 hour time shift - the same time shift that comes with a trip from the east coast of the US to Tibet.  The 12 hour time difference often leads me to getting sick and feeling really lethargic.  To prevent these untoward outcomes, I decided this year to slowly shift my time zones by 30 minutes each day.  My typical sleep-wake cycle during training puts me in bed by 9pm and up at 5am (and then out of my hypoxic tent at 6am after some breathing exercises).  Last night, I went to bed at 1:30am  and tonight I crash at 2am.  When I say crash, I mean crash.  My eyes barely stay open during the last 15 to 30 minutes of my day.  By the time I am ready to leave Virginia for Kathmandu, I will be going to bed at 8am and waking at 5pm.  The truth of the matter is that my day will be completely wonky when I travel but I have been known to sleep just about anywhere.  Once, while flying to Australia, I slept almost 12 hours without interruption in the center seat in the center aisle.  Yep, I can sleep standing up.  So this shift in my sleep-wake cycle will help me adjust to the time difference right away with the real aim to reduce the stress on my body.  Stay tuned to hear how it works out.

Thanks for following along.  I have two more posts about my gear and intend to submit them no later than by Sunday.  Time is growing dearer by the day.  Stay tuned for a few more insights as I pack my bags, eat my favorite foods, and prepare myself mentally for the challenges ahead.

Under a month to go (27 days)! A few minor hiccups during the final stretch but ready

I left off promising more climbing gear descriptions but I got bogged down in work, preparation, and recovery.  Here is what is happening....

1.  Getting sick again.  Over the past few days, I came down with another ear/sinus infection so that I have that wonderful experience - sleeping in a hypoxic tent with a clogged head and a blasting headache.  Oh the fun!  

2.  Climbing plans remain unsettled.  We are still working on getting Brendan's Tibet visa; mine apparently has not run into any problems (I hope).  Brendan works in China and apparently he must give up his Chinese work visa if he obtains his Tibet climbing visa in Kathmandu.  Yeah, I know, it sounds very odd but nothing is surprising when it comes to Everest.  Every little problem just costs a little extra - often US$1000 here and there to make things right.  Brendan and I still have no firm plans on how to meet in Tibet before we climb.  We might just end up meeting at Advanced Base Camp after about 2 weeks of climbing.  I sure hope not.  My preference would be to meet way earlier - perhaps in Kathmandu - and enjoy the entire experience together.  Regardless, these hiccups are hardly a major concern.  We just need to sort them out.

3.  Recovering means NOT training.  I reached a point where my body and brain said ENOUGH!  My body and mind are ready to climb and more training will only serve to make me sick or lead me to lose more weight (more on that point later).  I am at a perfect climbing weight (176 lbs or 80 kg) and I do not want to lose any more weight.  Recovery entails weight training, running, and some additional weight training using a weight vest on the elliptical.  I don't plan to workout any longer than 2 hours each day and most days will be easy - around 90 minutes.  That workout time includes stretching, breathing, and warming up so don't think I am going crazy here.  

4.  Last second purchases are done!  There are always little things that I need to purchase at the last second.  The timing often is important because what I purchase expires (e.g., sunscreen) or I don't know I need it until I finalize my packing.  Based upon a rather thorough gear sort, I purchased the final pieces to my entire climbing kit.  I checked and re-checked all my gear to ensure it is in fully functional order.  I'm ready to pack...but not so fast.

5.  Communications still need to be sorted out.  I plan to use a Garmin InReach for communications while we are climbing.  The InReach is quite a nifty device.  I can send texts and updates along with links to a map where you can locate us.  The only problem with technology is that you need to set it all up at home before you depart or else it simply will not work.  I think there must be some rendition of Murphy's Law that governs the operation of technology but the only way to prevent mishaps is to get things sorted out.  Over the next few weeks, I plan to post several "tests" that you can either ignore or become familiar with the system while I familiarize myself with it.  Every day (weather and time permitting), I plan to send a message indicating where we are and how we are doing.  Usually, these will be in the form of a map link and a simple "Doing fine, will send a more elaborate update when possible" message.  Expect these tests to start in the next few days.  

I finally have pictures of all my gear so once I get the time I intend to piece together my gear sort - resuming with my legs and working up my body.  

Thanks for following.  Hope you are enjoying the beginning of a fine week.  Expect another update in a few days.  

51 Days Remain: Rest days are not always restful

As promised, today's post includes multimedia amusement.  I recorded some video (unedited but brief) documenting what I do on a regular rest day.  Some of what I documented is my usual routine (movement prep, core, and stretching) whereas other bits are typical of my rest days.  Since today is a rest day, you now have a good idea about what I do during my 74 minutes of training.  On these rest days, I don't run, lift, or do any strenuous cardio training.  Instead, I focus on recovery and do a little hypoxic training so my brain is ready for the strange sensation of exerting an effort with little oxygen.  So, let me walk you through the videos.

First, I begin my day - every day in fact - with movement prep(aration).  The objective with these exercises is to warm up my body and get ready for the real deal.  Movement prep is every bit as important as any other aspect of my training.  Here I am demonstrating a typical movement prep routine:

Once my body is ready for more strenuous activity, I do my core exercise routine.  My back is rather fragile.  Too many years of skiing and training without proper care left my back susceptible to all sorts of nasty things...including sciatica (not recommended at all).  So my core routine varies from day-to-day but this one is a typical one when I just need to do it!

On a typical workout day, I follow up the core workout with a strength or resistance training routine.  I use the same tabata timer as I used in the video above but I do legs on the 1st and 3rd days of my 3 days on, 1 day off cycles; on the middle or 2nd day of the 3 day on cycle, I lift with my upper body.  Since today is a rest day, I didn't lift.  Later, I intend to take some video of my lifting routines but today I don't lift.  Also, once I am done with movement prep, core, and lifting, I typically run outdoors.  My runs are short but often high intensity so I can feel a little discomfort but also spare my knees of the added pain and suffering they don't deserve.

My rest day includes hypoxic training.  I provide a quick overview of my approach during the following video:

That elliptical workout often ends with me gasping for breath.  See...

Oh, but wait; there is more!  Once I finish my huge 10 minute workout on the elliptical, I then make a quick transition (note, I don't put on cycling shorts when I move from the elliptical to the bike - too long for too little gain).  

Finishing off the bike workout (again, another whopping 10 minutes), I stumble off the bike....

Now that I am done with the bulk of my day off, I finally get to stretch my muscles and gear up for the rest of my day....of work.  Ah, but first, I stretch:

My rest days do not consist solely of rest.  These are active rest days.  Some people do not take rest days when they are training for endurance events.  Many people find that rest days leave them flat.  Complete rest days make me feel flat and unmotivated.  I found that if I skipped the rest days to fully recover, I soon burned out and lost interest in training.  Striking a balance between too restful and not restful enough requires fine tuning on every athlete's part.  

Thanks again for following me during my preparation.  I realize you have plenty of other distractions on the internet and appreciate the fact that you distract yourself with my ramblings.  My next post will take you for a tour of my sleeping setup so you can see how my hypoxic sleep training unfolds every night.  See you in 4 days....

55 days to go: Three random and recurrent thoughts

Well...actually 54 days now.  Time sure is flying by.  I am chomping at the bit to head off but a few more things remain for me to sort out.  Below are three randomly recurring thoughts from the past few days.

1.  No matter how fit or prepare I am for these expeditions, there is always something that sneaks up and bites me.  That something is likely to be my sinuses.  I get sinus infections about 3 to 4 times each year.  The only year I successfully avoided them was when I prepared for my marathon swims.  For some odd reason, I seem to be able to fight them off when I am swimming every day for many hours.  Right now, I have a raging sinus infection.  Hopefully this one is the last infection I get before I leave.

2.  Training my brain is probably more important than training my body.  I spent the past 208 days training hard for this climb.  What I gained from it was more than just physical fitness; I gained mental fitness to help me overcome those points in the climb when I really need to dig deep.  My recent training days consist more of higher intensity training and less long, moderate slogs.  These higher intensity days test my mental resolve but no more so than the long "Summit Saturdays" I spent over the past few months.  I am ready mentally and know I am fit physically for any challenge.  The only problem...I have 53 more days until I depart.  My objective now is to stay healthy and refine any training to be ready for most if not all the mountain has to offer.

3.  Days off are just as important as days of training.  I am learning in my 5th decade that rest is just as important as exercise (and diet).  Combined, these facets of training offer me the most in preparation for this climb.  I take the rest when I schedule it and when my body seems to need more.  My recent sinus infection could be traced back almost two weeks ago (65 days remaining or 11 days ago) when my HRV readings started to indicate that my body was not fully recovering. Had I rested fully then, I might not be fighting this infection today.  Perhaps.  Maybe I am not that disciplined but I do plan to be more judicious about my rest moving forward.

I leave you once again with just a few tidbits of what inhabits my head these days.  All is well - despite feeling exhausted from this infection.  Over the next few weeks, I plan to do more strength training and maintaining my already strong aerobic base.  Next update (on Friday) will include some video of what I actually do on most of my workout days; come back and check them out.  Remember....

Work + Rest = Success!

Thanks for following.

59 days left: Listening to my HRV and resting when necessary

Well, the Super Bowl ended with great fanfare.  We enjoyed both the game and the outcome.  Sorry to you Patriot fans but those Eagles fans needed the taste of victory - for once.  I sit here on Tuesday evening nursing my weary body after another unplanned rest day.  Why unplanned?  I decided to stick closely to the recommendations my body makes as I continue to prepare for this climb.  The training routine I planned to implement was both ambitious and flexible.  Thus, I continually strive to push myself with built-in regular rest time every 4th day.  Throughout the entire training cycle, I monitor my recovery by checking my heart rate variability (HRV) every morning.  

How do I measure HRV?

Every morning, before I do anything, I don a chest strap heart rate monitor (transmitter) and record my heart rate via two apps.  Why two?  I use two to corroborate this important measure to ensure that no oddity in either the software or in the algorithm interferes with my recovery or training.  These days I use hrv4training and EliteHRV.  Both produce fairly dependable results but there are some slight differences.  For one, the EliteHRV app provides guidance on breathing rate and alerts me when there are too many artifacts for the reading to be useful - something I wish the hrv4training app provided.  Despite these differences, I found the ratings to correlate highly (r > .95) and most mornings they offer me similar suggestions with respect to training (to train, to go hard, to cut back, or to rest).  So, once I take these recordings, what do I make of the numbers?  Well....read on!

HRV in a nutshell

The basic idea behind HRV is that our hearts beat from two mechanisms - the sympathetic (when you exercise, your heart rate increases due to stress load) and the parasympathetic (when you rest, your heart beats in the background to supply your body with needed oxygen).  These two mechanisms often indicate some level of continued stress your body must accommodate before it recovers.  Let's look at heart rate to give you a better idea of what I am talking about.  Thanks to the internet, we have tons of images that display the effect.  The image below came from the ithlete website (one of many HRV programs available for download and used on phones and tablets).  Each heart beat takes place at a certain time:

The heart rate "trace" above shows the different electrocardiogram or ECG signal patterns represented by the P, Q, R, S, and T signals in the overall heart beat wave.  We are interested in the R or peak waves and more specifically in the time between each R signal.  A beating heart that is stressed will have a consistent R-R interval or a low variability for the time between R signals.  That low variability is a sign that either 1) you are under stress and your sympathetic nervous system control of your heart is high or 2) you are in a state of active recovery and your parasympathetic nervous system is not contributing much to your overall heart rhythm.  Either of these two outcomes is not good.  Low HRV predicts mortality - among other things - and often is an early warning sign for overtraining.  "Cardiovascular autonomic balance as measured by HRV may be considered as a valid sign of short-term but not long-term fatigue."  Thus, we want our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems to be in balance while we recover and, as a result, our HRV should be relatively high.  

How high do we want HRV?

HRV is a relative measure that must be "calibrated" to every person.  One person's values do not relate at all to another person's values.  Each of us needs to record several days to get an idea of trends between days and over time.  High values or rather relatively high values are what we wish to see to ensure that we have that balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity - all indicative of proper recovery.  So high is a relative term.  Over the past month, my HRV average was 75 (a standardized value obtained from the natural log of the Root Mean Square of Successive Differences in R-R intervals - yes, very technical but the numbers range from 0 to 100 with higher being "better").  Today, my HRV was 78 and both apps indicated that I was "good to go" even though today is my planned rest day.  Below is a graph of my R-R intervals this morning:

And the figure below shows my weekly "Readiness" trend.  As you can see, the bars tell me that I needed to rest and I did.  I'm being a good boy.

Not all days are great.  Yesterday, my HRV was 84 and was strongly influenced by more parasympathetic activity than sympathetic activity - an imbalance.  Both apps told me to rest yesterday and I did rest to a degree.  I worked out "lightly" compared to the 5 hour day I had planned.  Thus, high is not always the best.  Balance is what we aim for and often that balance results in higher HRV scores.

Does HRV work when sleeping at simulated altitude?

We don't know.  I certainly don't know.  There are no systematic studies on the use of HRV with hypoxic sleep training.  I found to date that HRV corresponds well to my overall fatigue (perceived level of fatigue in the morning) and often my HRV scores are affected by two things - my rate of respiration and any abrupt changes in simulated sleep altitude.  Let me address each in turn.

Respiration rate greatly influences HRV scores.  If I pant heavily when I wake up, I will have abnormally altered HRV scores - sometimes elevated but often suppressed.  Calm, regulated breathing at about 6-8 breaths per minute result in optimal HRV scores.  Thus, if I have a huge change in my simulated sleep altitude, I often wake up breathing in more rapid, shallower breaths that result in lower HRV scores.  Breathing rate is extremely important to optimal HRV recordings.

Simulated altitude via the Hypoxico unit appears to alter my HRV moderately but not to the point where I can no longer use HRV to monitor my recovery.  If I have a huge increase in simulated altitude, I find that it is difficult for me to disentangle recovery from hypoxic stress.  One way around that conundrum is that I often increase my altitude on rest days where I know my body will not be stressed that day due to training and almost all the HRV changes would be attributable to oxygen changes.  I also need to take into consideration the combination of training stress (as measured by both intensity and duration) and hypoxic stress (as measured by relative oxygen saturation in the tent and morning spO2 levels upon waking) to fully appreciate the HRV changes on days when I do train and do sleep at very high altitudes (low oxygen levels).  

To give you a better idea of the complexity, consider today.  I woke up at 10.3% O2 or a simulated level of 18,500 feet or 5750m and I have been sleeping at this altitude setting for 5 days.  Usually, 5 days is enough for me to get "used" to the hypoxia and I increase the setting.  Since I had to take a few days off this week to fully recover, I decided to keep the level consistent and measure my HRV today after a relatively restful day - not complete rest mind you.  Once I post this material to my blog, I have about an hour of light training and then I'm off for rest of the day where I will sit in meetings, rest, and recover.  Tomorrow, I intend to wake up at about 9.7% or roughly 20,000 feet or 6200m (by increasing the Hypoxico unit from 6.5 to 7 with the high altitude adapter on full) and workout for about 4.5 hours.  That increase in simulated altitude alone will push my HRV lower but hopefully not enough to warrant a rest day after today's recovery day.  We shall see....

In short....

I use HRV now to monitor my rest and recovery.  The research to date shows some promise but I realize that the application of this tool cannot be done in isolation of other factors.  Hydration, nutrition, stress, breathing, and sleep affect HRV readings and often in ways that I cannot understand - at least not yet.  HRV helped me to rest when I normally would push through the fatigue.  Work + Rest = Success.  I have no problem with the "Work" part of the equation but the "Rest" part eluded me for some time; HRV seems to help so far.  

Expect more updates regarding my progress, recovery, and overall preparation.  Thanks for following.  Hope you found this material thought-provoking.

63 days left - Super Bowl Sunday and some thoughts about excellence

What makes a person excellent at their craft?  Countless articles, books, movies, and such try to convince consumers that there are simple rules to success.  Take one event as a microcosm for success - the Super Bowl.  Tonight, the New England Patriots take on the Philadelphia Eagles for one of the most watched events on television per capita (worldwide).  Don't believe me?  Here are the numbers (all rounded for simplicity):

Top Event:  Cricket World Cup match between India and Pakistan (2015) had 1 billion viewers.  If we assumed that only those two countries and the host country (Australia) were interested in the event, we have a 1.5 billion people.  Now that seems a bit of a stretch.  We know that 14 teams qualified and presumably people from those 14 nations would be interested in the outcome of that seemingly critical match leaving us with 1.9 billion or roughly 53% of the interested parties watching.  Cricket appears to be more popular than any American could ever imagine.

Runner Up:  World Cup Final in Rio de Janeiro (2014) had 3 billion viewers.  Assuming that the world was interested in this event (given that it is called the "World Cup"), we can assume that the 3 billion came from the world's 7.6 billion for an estimated 39% of the total world population.  Not a bad showing world!


Super Bowl (last year):  112 million people in the US watched the game last year and we have 324 million viewers available giving us a 35% viewership per capita.

I don't expect it to be a good game but there is plenty we can all learn from the game and the two teams' preparation/execution.  Specifically, what makes a winning organization different than a...well...an organization that fails to win?  Mountaineering expeditions share many of the same attributes as these professional organizations.  The players prepare, anticipate and plan for as much of the game as could be expected, and they rest prior to the game.  The coaches prepare the players but also make decisions during the game to help the players be their best while exploiting their opponents weaknesses.  We mountaineers do the same as these players and organizations but the game is slightly different; the player, the opponent, and the decision-makers are one in the same - me.  So, what can I learn from these organizations to make me more successful?

1.  Don't follow the leader - find out what works for you.  I learned this the hard way many years ago when I tried to emulate elite athletes and their training programs.  They had extreme routines that I simply could not adhere to and, as a result, often felt like a failure.  Slowly, throughout the process, I learned that I had to listen to my own body and build up gradually.  What those elite athletes didn't tell me (us) is that they were like me at one point too and they didn't start off with such extreme routines.

2.  Learn to rest.  Stress + Rest = Success.  It is important to develop a workout routine and stick to it to the best of your ability BUT it is vitally important to rest.  All the work you put into your body only results in success if you allow your body to recover.  Most endurance athletes over-train and eventually burn out.  If you learn to rest when you need it, you will be ready to take on the next workout and make even greater gains.

3.  Immerse yourself into your craft.  There is no shortage of tales where the "excellent" describe a life focused on their craft early on.  These peak performers read everything, they talk to others about their insights, they test these insights empirically without reliance on authority or weak evidence.  By immersing yourself, you learn what others may refuse to learn.  Be better by reading, thinking, and testing.

So if you are lucky enough to live in an area where the game can be watched with relative ease, I suggest you think of these three things.  My suspicion is that the team that creates their own formula for success, shows up rested and focused, and studied diligently well before game time will be the victor.  Oh yeah, I also suspect that the team with Tom Brady will win....a non-trivial factor.

Enjoy the day and see you on my next day off.  By the way, my friend Jane asked about my workouts.  If you care to see how I am faring, check out the Google Sheet where I store scheduled and actual workouts.  You'll see that I took the past two days off due to unreasonably low HRV scores.  See?  I listen to my own advice.  Thanks for following.