Outdoor Week Ending 9/23/12

Though we had some rain, the weather this week was outstanding, with somewhat cooler early fall temps ending the week.  This was probably my biggest summer ever in terms of getting outdoors for trail running and hiking, and this was my 2nd 18 hour week in recent months. Though I've been in sharper condition for trail racing, overall my combined running and hiking fitness right now is very good, and I felt strong enough to go very hard at the end of my 2nd 3+ hour run on consecutive days.

I've been wearing the Garmin Forerunner 305 for most of September, but it's too time-consuming to parse the data every week. Since this is a bigger week time-wise I wanted to look at the data. Basically I try to press the lap button every time I switch to a run from a hike or a hike from a run. Since I normally start out every outing hiking easily to warm up, that makes every odd lap hiking and every even lap running. Of course I screw up the lap sometimes, so I have to look at the data. For me it's interesting this time because I've just been doing whatever I feel like at the time, running or hiking. Here's the data:

              Hike     Run     Total
Time    10:57     7:16     18:13   hh:mm
Dist      28.7     33.1       61.8   miles
Climb    7,998   2,168   10,166   feet   (looks like I hiked up most of the hills)
Desc     2,955   7,388   10,345   feet   (and mostly ran down)
HRavg    120.9   140.7     128.9   bpm
Speed     2.59     4.46      3.44   MPH

All my runs were on fairly slow technical rocky trails, because that's the kind of terrain I like.

Now some fun with numbers. If I was running on flat ground with good footing instead of on hilly rocky technical ground, how many miles would I have run?

The hiking effort of  HRavg  120.9  for  10:57, using the MPH/HR table below,
yields  4.54  MPH, for  49.7  virtual miles.

But since I was really hiking during that time, if I walked instead of running, the fastest I would walk is  4  MPH, so that gives  43.8  virtual miles instead.

For the running effort,  at  HRavg of  140.7  for  7:16  yields  6.75  MPH and  49  miles.

So that makes my virtual summary for the Week:       
  If Walk & Run     92.8      Miles
  If All Running     98.8      Miles
       
Basically the trails I run -- the technical terrain and climb mean almost 50% less distance is covered for the same heart rate effort, but though that's just fun with numbers, it illustrates why miles       
don't tell the story with trail running.       
       
For me it is what it is, and time and effort are all that matter. Terrain and climb for specificity       
also matter. Miles alone mean very little, so I basically ignore miles. But the truth is I'm not conditioned to run 98 miles a week, or even 92 miles. Flat terrain running causes overuse injuries, at least for me. Mixing running and hiking is the best, for me.


MPH/HR Table
Estimated Heart Rate at Given Speeds, on flat ground with moderate temps, based on past data points from flat runs:

Running       
7     150.00    
6     137.50    
5     125.00    
4     117.50    
Walking       
4     115.00    
3     102.50    
2     90.00