Honza's huge heart-rate variations

American competitor Honza Rejmanek has been busy trying to replicate the actual conditions he will face during the Red Bull X-Alps, sending coach Eddie Fletcher some fascinating log files.

"These two very interesting logs from Honza probably typify the sort of ‘ups and downs’ which will happen in the race." Says Eddie. "The mix of flying, hiking and running that will occur is not the best for even energy expenditure but reflects reality rather than the contrived training efforts which can be controlled for duration, intensity and speed.

"A few weeks ago, he hiked up to a launch spot to fly his new wing that he will be using in the Red Bull X-Alps, flew around for 1hr 20min and then ran back to his car.

"His heart-rate (HR) was as high as 175 and as low as 68.

"Similarly on May 8th he went to a different site, ran and hiked up to the launch (albeit without much altitude gain) flew a bit but was slowly sinking out.

"He therefore landed on the side of the hill and hiked up to launch again. He relaunched, but slowly sank again, and landed on the side of the hill a second time. Again, he hiked back up, launched and this time flew all the way into the valley. Once safely down, he packed up, took a dip in the river, and hiked back up to his car.

"Here again he recorded a wide HR range: 172 maximum and 83 minimum."