Monitoring the effects of extreme sport on female athletes

Ever wondered how many calories Pip consumes while she’s at sea? Or what her average resting heart rate is? Well wonder no more. The team at Aparito will be tracking all of this and more as Pip spends the next three months sailing solo around the globe in some of the planet’s harshest conditions. 

Aparito uses technology to revolutionise the patient experience of healthcare, focusing on healthcare support, clinical trials and remote patient monitoring. Using their Atom5™ software the team will be collating real time data during the Vendee Globe and using the insights to not only help Pip’s performance but to help other female athletes competing in endurance sports in the future. Founder Dr Elin Haf Davies explains:

“There is very little research on the effects of extreme sport and adventures on female athletes and that’s something we want to explore in more detail. We’ll be tracking Pip as she travels around the globe, looking at the impact of intense physical exercise over a prolonged period of time.”

The team is collecting data in a number of ways. Firstly, Pip is wearing a Garmin Vivosmart4, which will be tracking minute-by-minute heart rate, variability and steps. They will also be monitoring her sleep patterns, using the first few weeks of the race to validate this and to calibrate for the vibrations within the boat. 

Pip’s daily meal plan has been designed by Resilient Nutrition, who will be tracking daily calorie intake through a food diary, with the aim of making sure Pip doesn’t fall into too much of a calorie deficit (watch out for the upcoming blog post on Pip’s onboard menu and nutrition). Her daily mood will also be monitored, and every three days she will complete a problem solving test and numerical challenge. Elin says: “These tests are based on the tests neurologists use to assess patients for dementia, the concept being that sleep deprivation impacts how alert you are and how quickly you can think things through. We will not only measure the accuracy of Pip’s answers, but also how long she takes to complete them, which will give us a real indication of how on her game she is.”

One of the key aspects the team will be focusing on is Pip’s heart rate, which has already provided some interesting insights after only a week or so of racing:

“We’ll be analysing how much of her time is spent in the higher heart rate zone and her resting heart rate will be quite critical; if it starts increasing over a long period of time it will mean she’s not recovering and repairing muscle as efficiently as she could be. In the first half of the first week we saw a higher heart rate for the first few days, probably as a result of all of the nerves, and now she is back down to an average of 52.1 as she has relaxed into it. But you can see on the chart below just how quickly this can change - this was her heart rate during the mast climb!”

So once the race is over, what will the team do with the data? “One of the things Pip was keen to understand was when is a good time to make a big decision, like changing the sails. During the race and after we will be able to look at the data on heart rate, calorie deficit and sleep to inform Pip of when she’s firing on all cylinders. We will also be analysing all of the data to help others; the more we learn about how women respond to stress for prolonged periods of time, the more we can support future female athletes with everything from the type of food and amounts they should be eating to what they need to do to keep pushing to the edge of their capabilities but without going too far.”