For this backpacking trip I wore the Firstbeat Bodyguard and ran the data through our Lifestyle Assessment (https://www.firstbeat.com/en/wellness-services/). Here are a few notes from the report.
First up is the fact that my HR numbers clearly show the effect of altitude, the first day's hike was longish and climbed a lot but wasn't that intense from a HR persepective:
Blue in the graph indicates physical activity, red is stress and green is recovery. My electrodes fell off about half way through the Day 1 hike (very sweaty, and the backpack straps were interfering).
Day 3 was a shorter hike but topped out at 10,300 feet (Lake Charlotte):
Day 4 we day hiked up to Glenn Pass at 12K feet, but I had a very light pack on (we stashed our gear at the base since we would be doubling back):
So even though I was carrying a light load, and going slow, my heart was really working to make up for the altitude. I actually think the Firstbeat Training Effect numbers (in the boxes above the graphs) under-represent the effect of these long endurance sessions, and my recent fitness bounce on the bike more or less confirms it. Once I got recovered from the backpacking trip, my cardio fitness took a nice bump up, which you will see in my ride data from Sunday when I post it.
I slept poorly on this trip, interestingly my night at Lake Charlotte was high and cold (some ice in the bottles in the morning) and I thought I slept like crap but the numbers looked decent and my HRV was solid:
Random notes: The missing blocks of data in the afternoon were lounging about camp after washing off in whatever lake or stream was nearby, so I did not have the device on. Sorry for the watermark on the images, I run my own reports as a Firstbeat coach so they are watermarked "Test Report" since I can do them all I want for free.
FWIW, although it only had battery for one night of data, my Oura ring gave me a nighttime HRV of 54ms for Friday night and the Firstbeat system said 56ms (RMSSD), so pretty darn good agreement. Battery life on that ring has really degraded in the year+ I've been wearing it. Motiv has gotta get on HRV!
If you are interested in this type of analysis for longer blocks of your life, where a long battery life heart rate monitor is needed, the Firstbeat system is the best out there. Find me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/karletzel/) if you want to learn more about it. It's really more of a service for corporate wellness programs but as you can see I like to analyze anything.
Finally I would be remiss if I didn't do some bragging on my sons - at 10 and 12 yrs old they damn near outhiked me on this trip, even on day 6. I was especially blown away with how well they handled the big steps on the way up to Glenn Pass, that trail is one of the steeper passes in the Sierras. They are studs. Must get it from their dad ;)
