New and Experienced Climbers over 50 #40

A WHOOP is a plain wearable band with no face that tracks sleep, strain (exercise) and recovery 24/7 and transmits the data to your cellphone.  I’ve had mine through various upgrades for about 4 years.  Since there’s no face you can ignore it and not feel compelled to be constantly checking like an Apple watch.  

It has worked perfectly for my needs as I started paying closer attention to my sleep and exercise. I was struggling with fatigue a lot of my days and I couldn’t figure out why.  I thought I was sleeping just fine, but as the numbers started rolling in I saw that I was not getting enough hours and not getting a depth of sleep and predictably the following days I would be exhausted.  So I literally relearned sleep with the daily feedback from my WHOOP.  

It has been exceptionally helpful for me with climbing. If I have a long day on the rock and may have pushed a little too hard, my whoop score would definitely warn me and coach me on some recovery strategies. On my daily hikes and scrambles I can see how hard I went, how much Zone 2 or 3… disappointingly some days Zone Zero but it’s good learning.  

I still haven’t given it up which surprises me. I thought it would be a gadget that would quickly get set aside but it’s now just a daily part of my life, I give it five minutes in the morning.

This is definitely not for everyone. The same people who don’t want to count and measure their food/diet, are not going to be interested watching their VO2 max or hours of REM sleep.  So it might be a better choice for data nerds.  

It’s also good at picking up hidden heart problems and impending illness.  At the beginning of my most recent health issue it was my whoop that first alerted me, and as I have slowly worked my way back it’s surprising how quickly the numbers reflect improvement. So I have a lot of gratitude for this gadget.

——

I just want to share some excitement over the podcast universe.  This is so gratifying, having something to listen to other than cable “news“. I didn’t realize how much I was missing my job, school and engaging subjects. I have faithfully listened to Honnold’s climbing podcasts since the beginning and several other shows that have great interviews with good climbers. Reminds me that there is a new one with Randy Levitt.  There’s also such great content on health, diet, aging and exercise. Lately I’ve been working through the Acquired podcasts – – just finished a four hour interview with the original CEO of Starbucks. And now I moved onto a full documentary on Microsoft – – man, does that bring back memories of the PC/XT, the “Internet highway“, the competition with Apple.  Those were exciting times.   Maybe I just need the daily reminder that there have been brilliant minds and motivated people out there who are not wallowing in today’s toxic sludge.  

Brad Young wrote:

Thanks Buck for asking the completely obvious question on that other thread: "what is a 'whoop band?'"

The question came to my mind too, but not as politely as you posed it.

I think that I've reached a point of pride that I am so out of what is trendy these days.

Ha!

Always glad to "take one for the team"!

I've lost all sense of self-pride these days.  Of course, it doesn't help with my two high school kiddos that are still at home letting me know how old I am, how old my music is, and how out of date my fashion sense is on a daily basis!

Speaking of kiddos, my third kiddo who is at St Andrews had no idea of what all the commotion was last night when all of SCOTLAND exploded around her!

I've obviously failed to raise her right with her lack of Euro Football knowledge!

Go SCOTLAND!!!

Lori Milas wrote:

A WHOOP is a plain wearable band with no face that tracks sleep, strain (exercise) and recovery 24/7 and transmits the data to your cellphone.  I’ve had mine through various upgrades for about 4 years.  Since there’s no face you can ignore it and not feel compelled to be constantly checking like an Apple watch.  

It has worked perfectly for my needs as I started paying closer attention to my sleep and exercise. I was struggling with fatigue a lot of my days and I couldn’t figure out why.  I thought I was sleeping just fine, but as the numbers started rolling in I saw that I was not getting enough hours and not getting a depth of sleep and predictably the following days I would be exhausted.  So I literally relearned sleep with the daily feedback from my WHOOP.  

It has been exceptionally helpful for me with climbing. If I have a long day on the rock and may have pushed a little too hard, my whoop score would definitely warn me and coach me on some recovery strategies. On my daily hikes and scrambles I can see how hard I went, how much Zone 2 or 3… disappointingly some days Zone Zero but it’s good learning.  

I still haven’t given it up which surprises me. I thought it would be a gadget that would quickly get set aside but it’s now just a daily part of my life, I give it five minutes in the morning.

This is definitely not for everyone. The same people who don’t want to count and measure their food/diet, are not going to be interested watching their VO2 max or hours of REM sleep.  So it might be a better choice for data nerds.  

It’s also good at picking up hidden heart problems and impending illness.  At the beginning of my most recent health issue it was my whoop that first alerted me, and as I have slowly worked my way back it’s surprising how quickly the numbers reflect improvement. So I have a lot of gratitude for this gadget.

——

Jesus!  

That'd stress me out to no end and end up hurting my health!

;)

But good to know what it is.  Thanks!

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

BINTD I kept a climbing journal and my best year for volume was the year I quit the martial arts academy. teaching class on your days off really limits how big a climbing day you will have and where it will be...  that year that I quit I hit 190 days. I would be rather delinquent at work and bounce out of there with any excuse and drive from Killington ski area where I was a mountain photographer to bristol VT and solo a 280ft tall frozen waterfall... 

Nick, what years were you at Killington?  That was my ski area when I lived in the east.  One year a photo of me passing a race gate on DreamMaker was used as a promo and displayed in the Bear Mountain and K Base lodges.  Unfortunately I had my tongue sticking out and my friends started calling me "nice tongue Bob".

PS:  Did you know Jon Lamb when he was an instructor there  He passed recently.

I grew up in Killington so was there from 1964 through the early 2000s  I did Mtn photography from 97 to 2001 at Killington though I suspect Bob Perry took your photo.  I worked at the Back Behind saloon from about 1976 to  1997 with the exception of the summer of 81 and winter of 82 when I was line cook  at  Snow king and then Alpenhoff out in teton Village. Starting as dishwasher and finishing as Chef. 

As A former ski race photographer the toung sticking out thing is not uncommon. 

The clearing storm made for a beautiful morning walk. 

Lori, I got 6 laps on Betty today! I need 19 more pitches to beat my personal record for the year.
What a beautiful day! Couldn't ask for better weather at this time of the year.
I actually got hot while climbing!

And here's my WHOOP report during the session.
This includes the hike up and down the Stairmaster, before and after.

I take it with a grain of salt. I'm a mobile app developer, and that was partly why I got the device in 2023. I also like tracking and analyzing my stats.

However, I don't find the WHOOP on my wrist matches my Polar HR monitor on my chest, and my understanding is that the Polar chest strap is the gold standard.

I don't find the WHOOP's red/yellow/green recovery info to be helpful. It doesn't generally track how I feel. I may wake up feeling crap and it says I'm in the green and ready for a big effort, or I wake up feeling great and it says I should take a recovery day. It's also not actionable unless you're a pro athlete. Am I really going to wait for WHOOP to tell me I'm in the green before doing a heavy day of climbing? I climb when I can, not when I'm at peak performance according to some device!

I did find that WHOOP accurately detects when I'm ill. The few times I've been severely ill, it put me in the red. But it didn't tell me something I didn't already know.

Anyways, it's kind of interesting, but I don't take it very seriously. I'd like to see how my stats change as I age. They've changed their algorithms a couple times since I got the device, already, so I don't know whether any changes over time will be meaningful.

Nick Goldsmith wrote:

I grew up in Killington so was there from 1964 through the early 2000s  I did Mtn photography from 97 to 2001 at Killington though I suspect Bob Perry took your photo.  I worked at the Back Behind saloon from about 1976 to  1997 with the exception of the summer of 81 and winter of 82 when I was line cook  at  Snow king and then Alpenhoff out in teton Village. Starting as dishwasher and finishing as Chef. 

As A former ski race photographer the toung sticking out thing is not uncommon. 

My first visit to Killington was March 1958.  I was working as a part time ski instructor at Mohawk Mountain in Connecticut.  Frank Tarkington ran the ski school and did the weekly ski reports on ABC radio from NYC.  Back then the ski season at Mohawk lasted into mid-March on natural snow.  Frank, wrote a letter of introduction for myself and Gerry Woodard (still a good friend) to Pres Smith, founder and CEO of Killington and Gerry and I ventured north after Mohawk closed. We got free skiing but no instruction opportunities.  Remember the mid-station on the K-chair?  Gerry and I used to hop off there and tuck down the lift line as far as we dared.  Years later Sheree and I met in K Base before lift opening. Rode the chair together and after 32 years are still together.  Killington played a most important role in my life.

Nick, do you know Marc Adami?  BITD he owned the Forerunner Ski Shop on the access road.

Yury wrote:

I apologize for sharing definition by American Psychiatric Association with you.
Apparently asking "to trust the science" is too much for you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSM-5

Technically still a Pedophile.

That group was engaged in sex with 12 and 13 year old girls. That’s why some Republican states are trying to update age of consent to 12. That’s pretty bad no matter how you define it.

“A person who has a sexual attraction to young girls aged 12-13 is referred to by clinical terms such as a pedophile or hebephile, “

For practical purposes, such distinctions only matter to a prosecuting attorney, or to someone trying to rationalize their actions with a young person. Otherwise, how much does it really matter in the case of Epstein?

Just getting caught up with the goings on here. On this end it's springtime in Balcarce (taken on the 3rd of November): 

Li Hu wrote:

Technically still a Pedophile.

That group was engaged in sex with 12 and 13 year old girls. That’s why some Republican states are trying to update age of consent to 12. That’s pretty bad no matter how you define it.

“A person who has a sexual attraction to young girls aged 12-13 is referred to by clinical terms such as a pedophile or hebephile, “

There are a multitude of issues to criticize republicans for but implying that some states are trying to lower the age of consent to twelve is ludicrous. When I read this, I took a few minutes to try to verify this and if anything every state has raised the age of consent and strengthened existing laws. Also, I’m generally not a supporter of the death penalty, but I’ll gladly make exceptions for anyone who is found guilty of abusing children. 

I do not remember Mark.   I grew up In Mission Farm ( the red house next to the stone church) right across the valley from the base of the Killington Gondola. It was a real farm back then.  we watched them build the Gondola (orange death pumpkins) in 1969. My dad was pissed at Press Smith because the helicopter piolets were Viet Nam Vets and real hot dogs and when they buzzed our farm it scared the cows and horses.  I loved it!  <Me, my dad and my sister on the Killington summit chair late 60's.

me bouldering on the church as a young adult. My dad was the Episcopal priest at Mission Farm.

Daniel Shively wrote:

There are a multitude of issues to criticize republicans for but implying that some states are trying to lower the age of consent to twelve is ludicrous. When I read this, I took a few minutes to try to verify this and if anything every state has raised the age of consent and strengthened existing laws. Also, I’m generally not a supporter of the death penalty, but I’ll gladly make exceptions for anyone who is found guilty of abusing children. 

True, the ages were amended in 2018 from 14 to 16. It was never 12 in this century.

Li Hu wrote:

True, the ages were amended in 2018 from 14 to 16. It was never 12 in this century.

Don't want to carry this discussion much further, but want to clarify that the age of consent varies from state to state, but usually ( maybe everywhere now) in the 16-18 range. Though some states--don't remember which ones, allow marriage at even younger ages with parental consent---and sometimes that can cross the line into pedophilia. Look what was going on in some of those 'Mormon fundamentalist' communities that Krakauer wrote about in Under the Banner of Heaven.

One other factor in the definition of a pedophile, is the age differentiatial--which also is a factor in some state's laws. For instance, a 17 year old 'interested in' a 15 year old, wouldn't normally be considered to be a pedophile, but a 30 year old, for instance...... No question about significant age differentials when looking at the proclivities of Epstein and his cronies!!!

Two days in a row I got skunked by too much snow and not enough ice.. yesterday I skied up the mountain 

And wallowed through chest deep snow to find this 

Didn't bother swimming through the last 50ft of neck deep snow to try to get to a little bit of ice. Today I skied up again 

At first glance the ice looked good 

And I was stoked but once I got 50ft up past a move I didn't want to reverse the ice turned to Total crap.

The kid that went up ahead of me had kicked most of it off..  so for the 3rd time this season I bailed..  should have bought my telle gear and just gone skiing like a smart person...

James Harvey wrote:

Sunset before some local NHL action last night.

No better way to thin the herd on a great thread about climbing than constant futile bickering over pedophilia..

Please choose a forum other than one for climbing.

You’re absolutely correct Mr. Harvey. I apologize for getting off topic. 

My neighborhood is back in full zoo mode. 

I’ve been using a motion activated camera to get some lion photos. Etienne finds the fresh deer kills and we set up the camera hoping that the lion returns. Last spring we walked to within 10 feet of a lion on a fresh kill. Fortunately the cats are still timid around dogs and humans. It’s cool knowing that they are all around us when we are out running around . 

James Harvey wrote:

Sunset before some local NHL action last night.

Beautiful!

Sorry, agreed about the bad stuff.

On the climbing front, finally starting to lead 5.12a/b at the gym. One 5.11d is on my todo list for tomorrow. My 25 year old climbing partner fell off the 5.11c that I had nearly finished two days ago, and he fell lower down twice. This was the one that he claimed that if I had made it up he’d somewhat respect me.

I didn’t know whether to empathise with him or to smile. That smile was an involuntary ear to ear smugly satisfying look, I’m sure…

I’m so immature, I know.   

Too bad, not an alien spacecraft nudges just over the “not alien life”  decision line…
Astrophotographer captures 3I/ATLAS passing by galaxy
https://share.google/l2F8CsZd70nWqSqeW

Your pictures are always great, Daniel, but those lion ones are really fantastic. You clearly had your remote camera placed in the ideal position.