[Paddlewise] Trip Report with Heart Rate and Callories Burned Data

I've often wondered about the "work out" benefits of kayaking...and the
callories burned.  One of my paddling buddies, Tim Hamilton, is a fitness
trainer and here is his trip report of our last paddle where he documented the
benefits as recorded on his heart monitor.

Sunday, August 14, 2005

We launched from the Corpus Christi Marina and headed out at about 7:15 am. I
zeroed my trip computer on the GPS, and punched the start button on my Polar
heart rate monitor. Winds were quite light at that point but I had a suspicion
that might change. According to Accuweather reports the winds were about 6 mph
as we launched. Ken Johnson and I headed across the inner harbor, sheltered
from the rougher wind and waves of Corpus Christi Bay by the stone breakwater.
We turned out into the bay and headed SE as usual, so as to have a tailwind on
our return leg. We decided to make for a platform 4.2 miles out. We usually
manage to reach that in about an hour, depending on conditions. I purposely
took it a bit easy and paced myself at first, knowing we might cover some
distance and do some surfing later. About 25 minutes into the trip I noted my
heart rate at 116bpm, moving into the gentle breeze and light chop at about 4
to 4.2 miles per hour. We reached the rig in exactly one hour and by now the
wind had increased to about 10 or so I thought. (According to Accuweather it
was now 16mph.)

We agreed to hop on a bit further to the next wellhead, which I judged to be
about a half-mile distant. The breeze had kicked up substantially and I
figured it was blowing about 15 mph. The waves also had come up a bit and were
now pretty solid 2-3 feet. (They always look bigger than that though.) The
kayaks handled beautifully as always, leaping and diving through one
wave after another. A check of my heart monitor after one hour showed that my
heart rate was drifting up and was now around 130 to 135bpm. I had misjudged
the distance to the second well head; it was actually a bit over a mile. We
were both ready to turn around and enjoy some surfing, and we both gulped down
some fluids and got pointed back toward the downtown skyline. We began surfing
the waves immediately and after a few minutes, a check of the heart rate
showed 150bpm, which surprised me. I guess I was too busy accelerating and
maneuvering to realize my exertion level. I caught some really decent waves
and began noting my max speed as much as possible. (My GPS does not record max
speed so yes I have to look down at it while surfing). I was hitting about
9mph on some of the faster waves. To make a long story short, during the final
hour of surfing my heart rate stayed above 150bpm and hit a max of 176.
According to the monitor, I also burned 1,627 calories, which I really found
amazing. Total trip time was 2:38, and that includes all water stops and even
Kens impromptu roll. I had an absolute blast along with a great workout. I was
really accelerating and working hard to catch waves and several times I caught
up 2 or 3 in succession, literally running right up over the backside of them
and dropping in. It was really exhilarating. My max speed was 10.9 mph, and it
felt like I was flying. To round out the data, I also consumed 70 oz of fluid,
48 oz of which was water and 22 oz of a product I like called Accelerade.
(Like Gatorade but with some better ingredients). Upon reaching the inner
harbor, Ken and I covered the last mile (back upwind) at a fairly easy pace. I
think if you exclude all our stops, our average speed was more like 5 to 5.5
mph. Another great day on Corpus Christi Bay!



Tim Hamilton
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