Sick, Tired, Warmer, Faster

Those are the words I’m using to describe my walk at Signal Hill with the Long Beach Area Walking Club on Saturday morning (April 28) where seven of us showed up if you count Tiger, a boxer dog.

 First – Sick. I have a developing cold and a very sore throat which started last Thursday. I predict it would become a hacking cough in a few days if I base it on my previous history with colds.

 Second – Tired. Because of my sore throat, I haven’t slept well the past three nights. I’ve been waking up between 1:30 and 4:30 a.m. and had been restless in bed unable to return to a fitful sleep.

 Third – Warmer. Saturday morning was a lot warmer than the previous times I’ve walked with the club. I usually wear a thicker fleece base layer underneath a nylon jacket, but on Saturday only a polyester base layer was necessary. If I didn’t have so many things in my jacket pockets, I wouldn’t have needed it, but since I didn’t bring a waist pack for my accessories (cell phone, keys, ID, cough drops, HD radio), I had to keep the jacket on.

 Fourth – Faster. Despite the three aforementioned disadvantages and even though my perceived effort belied it, I actually walked at a faster pace than I did a few weeks ago which I related in this post: http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2012/04/pushing-pace-at-signal-hill.html.

Like with my last walk with the club, I proceeded at my own pace. It seems like I finally figured out the route after all this time, since I didn’t have to wait too much for the rest of the group to guide me. I still had to do a few dipsy doodles on the course so they could catch up with me, hence I covered more distance. Because of the warm weather, I finally could feel perspiration dripping off my brow and couldn’t use the excuse of misty air like I did last time. On the uphills, it felt like I was doing intervals on the track again, though at a much slower stride rate. Man, was I out of breath. Four weeks ago, I mentioned that I passed an older woman running uphill. This week, a man running downhill passed me but when we turned a corner going uphill, I caught up with him, passed, and left him behind. By the time I reached the apex, he was about 50 yards behind me. Too bad though, because even though I can maintain a good cadence walking uphill, I seem to be unable to move my feet any faster downhill or on the flats.

 So here’s a comparison I’m going to make between running and brisk walking: if I felt sick, tired, and hot during a run, I would certainly slow down. With walking, I went faster. Go figure.

 Four weeks ago when I started walking at the beat of my own drummer, my pace was 14:38, on Saturday it was 14:30. It’s not like I do a lot of walking workouts much less on hills other than the treadmill, so for me, those results are quite good. It still shocks me when I pass runners going uphill. Still, I envy them because they are running.

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