Foreword: A heartfelt invitation from equipment enthusiasts
The "Hong Kong Four-Track Super Challenge" held during the Lunar New Year came to a successful conclusion. Cross-country runner Liu Kole completed the challenge in the fourth fastest time in history in 52 hours, 02 minutes and 24 seconds. I believe many media have reported on "Leshen"'s journey of participating in the challenge. Therefore, as a running equipment enthusiast, I hope to understand his four-track journey from another perspective, so an idea emerged in my mind - —Watch the sports data of Liao Kele’s four-track challenge.
Liao Kele is a user and brand athlete of the Finnish sports watch brand SUUNTO . I invited SUUNTO Hong Kong to help contact Liao Kele to provide his sports records during the four-track challenge. Unexpectedly, "Leshen" would not only be willing to Provide data records and conduct an interview with me
The importance of sports watches
List of Liao Kele’s four-track challenge data
For this four-track challenge, Liao Kele wore SUUNTO's latest cross-country running watch RACE. In order for the watch to operate in "high-efficiency" mode throughout the entire process, he would charge the watch during the rest time between each track. In addition, the watch is turned on throughout the four-track challenge.
Photo Credit: ViolaAlan.photos
In addition to recording data, another important function of sports watches is navigation. Every second counts in the four-trail challenge. Even though Liao Kele is well prepared for this time and is very familiar with the four major mountain trails in Hong Kong, the MacLehose Trail, the Wilson Trail, the Island Trail and the Phoenix Trail, he still needs to rely on the navigation of his sports watch to ensure that nothing goes wrong. . Finally,the SUUNTO RACE in the hand of "Leshen" also performed its duties faithfully: "The offline map is very clear and really well done . The good thing about it is that even the small roads are clearly displayed. When I make a mistake, I can quickly figure it out." The ground shows it and responds quickly without straying too far.”
Feet faster than heartbeat
When I saw the data of Liao Kele’s challenge, what attracted my most attention was his heart rate distribution. During the 52 hours , 02 minutes and 24 seconds of the journey , 35 hours and 9 minutes of his heart rate was in Zone 1 , accounting for 67% of the entire journey ; Zone 2 has 6 hours and 4 minutes, accounting for 11% ; Zone 3 has 5 hours and 29 minutes, accounting for 10% ; Zone 4 has 3 hours and 35 minutes, accounting for 6% ; Zone 5 has 2 hours and 16 minutes, accounting for 4 % .
The four-track is a long-distance endurance challenge. Even the top experts cannot "explode" the entire distance. Therefore, the speed must be controlled in a planned way. As Liao Kele said: "The pace is indeed relatively conservative, even in You can run in places with a lot of road sections, and your heart rate should be as low as possible, around 150-160 beats per minute .”
The word "conservative" alone may not be able to show how much difference Liao Kele's pace on the four-track is from normal, so the following table has been compiled to show two data at once: Liao Kele's actual completion of this four-track challenge The time, as well as the estimated completion time of running one of the mountain trails alone, gave everyone a more quantitative concept.
| MacLehose Trail | Wei Yi Trail | Hong Kong Island Trail | Phoenix Trail | |
| Running time alone | 12:15-12:30 | <13:00 | <6:30 | 10:00 |
| real time | 13:45 | 15:46 | 07:41 | 12:42 |
Behind the execution
"Leshen" was in strong form from the beginning of this four-trail challenge and completed the MacLehose Trail in 13 hours and 45 minutes, which was exactly the time he had planned to complete. However, soon after he set foot on the Wilson Trail, he strained his right foot, and he had to deal with severe pain for the remaining 30 hours of the challenge. However, if we analyze it based on heart rate data, we can hardly see any drastic changes in Liao Kele's heart rate after the Weiyi Trail, and according to the data chart, his overall heart rate trend on the four mountain trails is very stable : although it will be different due to The terrain changes and there are highs and lows, but the overall macro trend is similar and does not rise or fall evenly. Despite the injuries, Liao Kele still completed the challenge as much as possible according to the original goal.
Supplies also need Plan B
In addition to the heart rate data, I also share some small data about Liao Kele’s four-track challenge: he walked 399,283 steps during the 298-kilometer journey and consumed 19,000 calories. "Le Shen" joked that he didn't weigh before and after the challenge, so he didn't know how much lighter he was during this four-track challenge.
Photo Credit: ViolaAlan.photos
To complete the four-trail challenge, a supply plan is of course essential. Liao Kele prepared two nutrition plans for this four-track challenge: "One normal (condition) and one backup. Under normal circumstances, I absorb 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour, which is about the amount of a pack of energy gel and an energy bar." Portion size. If I have an upset stomach, I will first soothe it with ginger juice and other products. If it still doesn’t work, my Plan B is to only eat energy gel, even if it’s a pack of gel, eat it separately.
Liao Kele said that in addition to stomach discomfort, the uncertainty of supply points is also a challenge for the supply plan: "We are in the city, but we can't find food. For example, Hengyishiduo is open on the first day of the new year, so I expect that on the second day of the new year They will also be open, but unexpectedly they are not. Also, the diversion taxis are not open at Phoenix Trail, so it is also a challenge to find food. "
Epilogue: Sports watches are not GPS recorders
A sudden whim, I didn't expect that my wish could come true to have a conversation with Liao Kele and disclose the data. I really want to thank SUUNTO Hong Kong for the help. The reason for conducting this interview is not only to bring different angles of information to the four-track challenge, but also as a running equipment enthusiast and reviewer, I hope that consumers can "get something useful" and spend thousands of dollars to buy one. Sports watches can use the data provided to review past performance and plan future training, rather than just being used as a GPS recorder.
SUUNTO Hong Kong stated that in order to help users become more familiar with watch operations, training classes will be held under the name SUUNTO Running Club, which will combine cross-country running training with watch function operation teaching. The training class will invite Liao Kele as coaches, allowing users to improve their cross-country running skills through a series of training, and at the same time have a deeper understanding of the functions of SUUNTO watches, apps and other functions, so that sports watches Not just a GPS logger.