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* '''Napping'''. I took a 30 minute and a 10 minute nap during the race, which helped keep the sleep deprivation in check. The 30 minute came at around mile 75, after Cerro Gordo and was a planned nap to keep me going. The 10 minute nap was at about mile 110 and was one I had to take to keep functioning.
* '''Clothing'''. I covered up completely to protect from the sun, wearing tights, long sleeved top, fingerless gloves and a hat with a neck and face cover.
* '''Shoes'''. I wore three different types of shoe for the race. I wore the [[Altra One2|Altra One<sup>2</sup>]] for the first 45 miles, and their light weight was great on the ascent and descent from Horseshoe Meadows. I then swapped to the [[Altra Olympus]] for 45 miles. They worked remarkably well, but at mile 90 my feet were hurting so much that I figured a change might help. I wore the [[Hoka Bondi]] for the next 32 miles, before reverting to the Olympus for the finish. After the race I realized that the heat of Badwater had worn down the Bondi dramatically. I had more wear in 32 miles of Badwater than I'd expect from 300 miles of normal use. The One<sup>2</sup>.had also worn, but not as badly as the Bondi. The Olympus still look new, probably because the Olympus has an outsole over most of its sole.
* '''Watch'''. I used [[Best Running Watch| Suunto Abmit2R]] and with GPS recording set to one minute intervals it was still going strong at the end of 37 hours. Knowing the distance and elevation helped me visualize were I was in the race and my progress. This proved to be far more valuable mentally than I expected.
=What Didn't Work=
I wore the [[Basis Activity Tracker]] during Badwater to see what it would record. As you can see below, my skin temperature stayed reasonably cool for most of the race, a reflection of the effectiveness of my cooling approach. I'm not sure how much I trust the perspiration rate as I was being sprayed off with water regularly, which may have confused things. You'll notice that the Basis detected my nap around 3 AM which is pretty cool.
[[File:BadwaterBasis.jpg|none|thumb|800px| This is the data that the [[Basis Activity Tracker]] recorded during Badwater. The Basis web site only displays one days data at a time, so this is two days stitched together. The orange balls are the number of steps taken, the purple line is skin temperature, and the blue line is perspiration rate. The temperature scale for skin temperature is on the right side of the graph in Fahrenheit.]]
=Heart Rate=
I also wore my [[Best Running Watch| Suunto Abmit2R]] for the race, and the Heart Rate data is shown below.
[[File:BW HR.jpg|none|thumb|800px|Heart Rate against time using an ECG chest strap.]]
=Recovery=
My legs were a little sore the next day, but were soon fine for short runs and normal use. It took another week or two for the endurance to return, which may be due to [[Glycogen]] depletion.
==Sleep Monitoring with Basis==
My biggest problem was insomnia that lasted for nearly a week. It was not until the Sunday following the race that I started to feel sleepy; up to that point I was exhausted, but without the desire to sleep, and I felt like I was not sleeping well. If you look at the sleep report from the [[Basis Activity Tracker| Basis]] you can see that I did not sleep much the night after the race, which is normal for me after an ultra. However, I did not sleep much the Wednesday or the Thursday and my sleep was distinctly interrupted. It was not until Friday that I start sleeping more and I didn't feel the benefit of the increased sleep until Sunday.
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|[[File:Badwater_Basis_Tue.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|Tuesday, the night after the race finishes. Only 6 hours sleep and 5 major interruptions (4 the Basis identified as interrupted sleep, and one gap where the Basis decided I was actually awake and up.)]]
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|[[File:Badwater_Basis_Wed.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|Wednesday. Another crappy night's sleep with three major interruptions.]]
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|[[File:Badwater_Basis_Thur.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|Thursday. Only two interruptions and slightly more sleep, but still not enough. (It says Friday due because I flew home and the Basis did not update the time zone until Friday morning.)]]
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|[[File:Badwater_Basis_Fri.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|Friday. Far more sleep, but awoke feeling like I'd been up all night. ]]
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|[[File:Badwater_Basis_Sat.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|Saturday. Again more sleep, but without feeling either rested or sleepy.]]
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|[[File:Badwater_Basis_Sun.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|Sunday. Things start to return to normal.]]
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==Heart Rate Variability==
I've been monitoring my [[Heart Rate Variability]] (HRV) for a while, so I was curious about how Badwater would impact it. HRV is generally believed to reflect training stress, and is a candidate for detecting the dreaded [[Overtraining Syndrome]].
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|[[File:BW HRV ithlete.PNG|none|thumb|x300px| This is the data from the [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ithlete/id331348945?mt=8 ithlete] app, with the daily mileage as the bars, and the rolling average as a blue line. As you can see the individual daily readings have too much noise to be of much use. There is a slight rise in the average after Badwater, suggesting that the recovery from the race went well.]]
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|[[File:BW HRV4Training.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|This data comes from the [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hrv4training/id686923970?mt=8 HRV4Training] app, which has been postprocessed using my sports tracks plug-in. The vertical bars are [[TRIMP]] (effort) and the line is the seven day rolling average of HRV/HR. This data suggests the race didn't produce a much protracted stress. (Other data (not shown) indicates that the variation in HRV is not significant.]]
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=Gallery=
More pictures to follow.