Comments on: Calibrating equipment for altitude

By: Yolandé

Yolandé — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 11:23:08 +0000

Hi Mark,
Polar monitors are outdated – You should get yourself a Garmin Forerunner 305 – It’s a very funky all in one watch mainly for runners, well which you don’t like doing..but..skiing will be fine too! Although there will be disadvantages as well of course, it’s the “forerunner” at the moment in every way. It’s very light and sexy, has the same functionalities as the polar monitor, but it has a GPS system as well. Check the garmin website. (haha – I sound like a sales agent!) I’m buying one at the moment. You can download your whole journey, and surely that info can be used to rework your true energy loss & heart rate. Sport Science Institute or the clever scientists replying should have some complicated formulae to do that – if they can!

By: wodnik92

wodnik92 — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 13:21:52 +0000

Hello Mr Mark!

One loses his health when beeing in space due to lack of gravity. You can’t change that even if you train a lot. One could say that you get older very, very fast. Anyway — this is not what I wanted to tell you.

Please consider free energy generators in our civilization. Imagine vacuum cleaner, cell phone, TV that you don’t have to plug into wall… Plase imagine magnetic engines that don’t have to be filled with fuel.

Here is the summary of free energy generators: http://www.jan-pajak.com/free_energy.htm
And here is about that magnetic engines: http://jan-pajak.com/oscillatory_chamber.htm

Thank you for reading.
wodnik92, totalizm supporter

By: Lesley Clayton

Lesley Clayton — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 07:13:48 +0000

I had the same experience of a higher heart rate and metabolism when I was in the Alps snowboarding recently. Extreme fear in the back of a taxi with a mad Italian driving at 170kph, altitude, exercise & adrenaline from snowboarding, temperature changes ( a week before I was the Kalahari desert) and a lot of visual stimulation in the form of gourgeous ski intructors! I still lost weight even though I was stuffing my face daily with pizza and pasta!

By: Inez

Inez — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 18:19:29 +0000

Alpine pulse:

I’d imagine that the fitter you become, and the more skilled at whatever it is you’re doing; your heart rate will correlate less and less with metabolic expenditure, as well as respond less briskly to moderate exercise. And the longer you stay at altitude, the more readily your expanding red cell mass will help you achieve effortless snowboarding and settle the tachycardia. However, the combination of wine and the little hot ski-suit will of course vasodilate the peripheries and may once again elevate the heart rate, without actually burning calories.

Which may be sufficient reason to stick to the basics of weight, surface area, and distance travelled to calculate work of snowboarding [I'm reaching into the Standard 9 physics cortex with limited success]. The truly scientific approach may require attachment of spirometer, ECG monitor, pulse oximetry, BP cuff and temperature probe; all well beyond the scope of the simple altitude / heart rate converter and a day in the life of the occasional snowboarder. Such dedication to absolute scientific measurement may well propell you into the realms of the ridiculous.

Console yourself with the possibility of leaving the Alps with the Haemoglobin to rival a Nepalese Sherpa.

By: A.G.

A.G. — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 00:14:42 +0000

Hey Mark,

Has Ubuntu reached a point where it can sustain itself? I mean, it can’t be cheap to develop such a wonderful O.S. and I would hate for all your funds to dry up working on Ubuntu (and I would hate for Ubuntu to end).

Are there any plans in progress to increase revenue/profit for Ubuntu or are we all just holding tight hoping for current plans to eventually kick-in?

Just a few questions from a happy Ubuntu user.
Ahmed.G

(Sorry This is a bit off topic, but oh well.)

By: Danny

Danny — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 22:18:16 +0000

Mark,
I use my heart rate monitor while hiking in higher altitudes. Being a Florida guy, I live pretty much at sea level. When I go up as much as 2500 feet, my heart rate will increase for about 3 days. When I hiked in the Grand Tetons, I used my monitor to tell when I’d acclimated to the altitude. When I’m first in a higher altitude, I notice with almost any effort, my heart rate will quickly jump up, sometimes to as high as 185. When I stop the activity, it will drop to 80 within 30 seconds. I know I’m fairly acclimated to the altitude when my heart no longer jumps up with effort.

The only way to make the caloric expenditure close to accurate, under any condition:
1. Get your current body composition analyzed.
2. Instead of entering your bodyweight in the Polar settings, enter your lean weight only.

The idea here is that your lean weight uses energy, your fat stores energy.

Now, if we could get some software for Polar in Ubuntu?

By: Danielle

Danielle — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 18:02:22 +0000

You could always go with one of these:
http://www.rei.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?storeId=8000&catalogId=40000008000&productId=48016518&parent_category_rn=4500567&vcat=REI_SEARCH

But this sounds more like what you’re looking for:
http://www.rei.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?storeId=8000&catalogId=40000008000&productId=47846895&parent_category_rn=4500567&vcat=REI_SEARCH

By: Johan ¨Klei Lat¨ de Vries

Johan ¨Klei Lat¨ de Vries — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 11:02:31 +0000

Hello Mark,

found your blog on the internet today, and have been reading most of the posts, and enjoying it.

Just moved over to Ubuntu as well, so I am rather new to it, but have installed and running it without ant probs so far.

We (myself and my daughter) make a Afrikaans podcast (wat n potgooi genoem word) from London every week, and if you around, (and have an hour or so to kill (I know they you are busy !) – would like to do an interview with you about Ubuntu.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 09:35:34 +0000

You make an interesting point, and you do get HR monitors which do measure altitude (Polar S625X, RS800 and numerous others) although I’m not sure they take altitude into account though. I’m sure Tim Noakes has some ideas on the effect of altitude on HR, let me go and dig out “Lore of Running” and I’ll get back to you.

By: Martijn Dekkers

Martijn Dekkers — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 08:06:29 +0000

Depends on the model of the Polar you have – some can be recalibrated. From http://www.ultrafitness.net/article_3.htm :

Word of Caution about Heart Rates
Many factors affect both your morning pulse and training pulse.
• Stress (work, emotional, etc.) will increase your HR.
• Nutrition, especially hydration levels, will also greatly influence your HR. Dehydration will skyrocket your HR.
• Heat will also increase HR until your body adapts to it; usually 7 to 12 days.
• Altitude will affect your HR as well. You will have a higher HR for the same level of intensity at higher elevations so give your body 3 weeks or so to adapt.

I guess you are going to have to stay a bit longer on the slopes to get accurate readings – all in the name of science, of course…