I’ve just discovered something really interesting in my last few runs (from my Running Cold Experiment, see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4) that I may not have noticed had I not implemented BodyMedia’s suggested methodology. Check this out:
Here was Trial 9 (today from 7:20-7:30, at a WARM 62ºF) with a little extra data on either side. Notice how quickly the chart falls back down to under 2 calories per minute once I stopped running at 7:30.
Now look at Trial 7 (4/14 from 3:08-3:18, at a WARM 61ºF). Again, notice the similar results, especially the fast dropoff after 3:18pm when I stopped running:
BUT now check out Trial 8 (4/19 from 3:52-4:02, at a COLD 37ºF). I stopped running at 4:02:
The dropoff on Trial 8 was not nearly so steep. The calorie burn continued to be elevated well after I stopped running. So although my maximum burn was not affected that much DURING the run, afterward I continued to burn calories at an accelerated rate.
These are only 3 data points, but I found this to be very interesting. It’s also something that would not show up in my regular data chart because I’m not including the cooldown data for this particular experiment. Could be something interesting to explore in the future. I just hope I get more cold days!