Signal Hill Time Trial Walk

When I woke up early last Saturday morning (July 20^th), the question in my mind was: is it going to be a jog/walk with AREC (A Running Experience Club) for a mostly flat 6 to 10 miles, or with the Long Beach Area Walking Club for 6 miles up and down hills (5 major climbs)? With slightly sore thigh muscles from doing a short spinning workout the previous day, I decided it was going to be Signal Hill because I didn’t think I would be able to do a jog/walk workout. Believe me, my muscles get easily sore nowadays due to the cholesterol medication. Besides, since I’ve been using my GPS watch again, I wanted to find out how fast I could cover the course strictly by walking, and compare it to the flat walk with AREC a couple of months back in 13:05 minutes per mile pace over six miles. I’ve tried walking as fast as I can at Signal Hill before, but without the GPS watch, I wasn’t sure exactly what the distance was even though it was advertised as 6 miles. This time, equipped with the Garmin, I was all set to do a time trial. It was going to be one of those non-socializing days so I had to leave the rest of the group behind.

When I hit the first mile which included the steep Hill Street at 14:05, I knew it was going to be a fast walk if I could keep it up all the way. So I kept on pushing which made it feel  just as tough walking as fast as possible uphill as it was running. When I was gasping for breath during the steep climbs, I exhorted myself to push more and go faster. I don’t know if I actually went faster, but at least I put in the effort. And when I crested the hill, I tried my best to follow through and keep the pace up. So on it went on the roller coaster terrain of Signal Hill with me slowing slightly on the dirt trails for fear of slipping, then picking it up again on the pavement.

                

          At the pace I was going, I wondered  if I could catch up with the tail end of the walking group in one of the loops. Was I hoping to lap somebody? It was in the back of my mind but wasn't expecting it, however with 1 mile to go for me, I caught up with 3 people and a dog who had 2 miles to go and passed them. When I was almost at the 6 mile point, instead of turning right towards where the finish was, I turned left merely because I was curious to see where a certain street (Combellack) led to before turning back. Thus I was able to extend my walk another mile. When I hit 7 miles, I clicked off the GPS watch and checked my average pace. It was 13:34 minutes per mile. My goodness, that’s only a difference of 29 seconds per mile compared to my fastest pace on a flat course! How exhilarating to be able to walk that fast on a hilly course. My time for the 7 mile distance was exactly 1 hour and 35 minutes.

Since this was a time trial, does that mean I’m going to do it again in a few weeks to see if my walking fitness level has improved? Frankly, I don’t know if I can walk any faster than that, but I guess we shall see down the line if the spirit moves me again to try it.

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Signal Hill Walk/Jog – June 29, 2013

I had plenty of time to kill before going to my Uncle’s 75^th birthday party so I joined the Long Beach Walking Club for their Signal Hill 900 calorie burn walk on Saturday. It doesn’t even come close to that calorie burn of course. Last time I used my GPS watch, it estimated my calorie burn to be only in the 400 range, while another walker’s Runkeeper app, estimated expenditure to be about 600, but then she was taller and heavier.

I woke up with a weight of 115.8 pounds so there was no need for me to workout too hard especially with the heat wave that day. I thought I might just walk with the group easily throughout the 6 mile course. That didn’t go as planned because as soon as we hit the first hill just 100 meters from the start, I felt the need to huff and puff so I could get high. A young kid of about 15 ahead of me was bounding up Hill Street while I shuffled along keeping as steady a pace as possible that would bring me over the top. It worked! I’ll leave the bounding to the young whipper snapper. As I mentioned before, I had time to kill since the party wasn’t until 1 p.m. so I backtracked to the group and walked uphill with them. Oh, I forgot to mention that the group was larger than usual – there were at least 10 of us. That was the most people I’ve walked with at Signal Hill ever since I joined them 3 years ago. There was this one lady who asked me if I was Filipino, then she mentioned that her kids are half Filipino. She also asked me why I was walking so fast and I told her that I was pre-burning my calories in anticipation of the overeating of Filipino food later at the party. She asked me if I was planning on eating a whole lechon (roast pork). Due to my cholesterol problems, I couldn’t do that anymore (not that I can eat a whole pig).

So back to the walk. I did what I usually do with the group which is walk ahead of them, then do short jogs on the uphills, then walk back to the group, which increased my distance more than the measured 6 miles, my workout time, and of course the calorie burn. Because it was a hot day, it was the first time ever that I wore a tanktop while working out with this group. On one of the slight downhill portions, I was walking at my fastest pace and almost caught up with a man who was jogging. If he didn’t make a right turn, I would have. At another flat portion, I convinced a couple of the women to jog with me for a couple of minutes and then one of them on an uphill portion. And so it went until the group arrived at the end of 6 miles having covered the distance in about 2 hours. In that same amount of time, I covered about 8 ½ miles walking and jogging with all the back and forth I did.

Remember I said I woke up with a weight of 115.8 pounds? When I rechecked it post workout, I was down to 111.8 pounds. Whoa, that’s a little too much fluid loss. It must have been the hot day that caused that 4 pound loss. I hydrated and replenished my lost fluids over the next couple of hours.

Still, I had about 3 more hours to kill before the party so aside from rehyhdrating, I also lifted some weights while I finished reading the day’s newspaper. After pre-burning the calories and starving myself for so long, it was time to go to the party and commit the sin of gluttony. Oops, I meant so I can replenish my glycogen and protein stores.The fare: palabok, sisig, empanada, lumpia shanghai, crabs in coconut milk, chicken salad, beefsteak, baked Alaska, kulma, pizza, leche flan, cheesecake, and ube birthday cake. I confess to almighty God that I committed gluttony. I hope the 2 hour walk/jog beforehand was enough for my penance.

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Long Beach Walking Club Pre and Post Zamboanga

Stanley Avenue hill with 13% incline

The week before I left for the Philippines, I joined the Long Beach Walking Club workout in Signal Hill. If you have followed this blog, you would know that I have walked with this group a few times before. There were a few more participants than usual and that was a pleasant surprise. As I was wont to do, I went ahead of everybody going up hills then returned to the pack afterwards. In the last couple of flat miles, I noticed this woman who was walking as fast as I was. I haven't met anyone in that club who could match my pace until that day. Since the walk was almost ending, we were only able to talk briefly, and this included learning that she originally came from Guyana. I know, I know, the only thing most people know about Guyana is that that's where Jim Jones killed his religious followers decades ago. I don't care to go into details so you could just please Google or Bing Jim Jones and Guyana, if you are interested to know about that infamous incident.

Fast forward to October 13, 2012 which I showed up for the walk again after having been gone for several weeks. Since the last time, I had been to the Philippines, seen my mother in her last days, buried her, came back to the U.S., only to be assaulted at work by a patient. Anyway, I seem to have digressed.

There were the usual walkers plus a couple of new ones I never met before. Also present was Cheryl, the one from Guyana who had a similar walking pace as I did. Wonderful! Now I'm really going to get a good workout with added company. We left the pack before the first mile except for Laura and her dog. She happens to be an AREC member but we didn't know each other. I've only seen her name mentioned before at AREC. So I quickly introduced myself and kept on walking. When we hit the first major hill, Cheryl told me go ahead and she would catch up with me on the downhills and flats. Not willing to lose her company, I rejoined her after cresting the hill. She did not go up on what we call Bonus Hill but she waited for me at the base. I was so thankful for that because that was the part of the course which I still haven't burned in my memory. We resumed walking together after I descended Bonus Hill. By this time Laura and her dog had gone ahead since she didn't do the extra hill either. And so it went - Cheryl would let me go ahead on the uphill portions then I would pace with her on the flats, which I estimated to be about 14:30 per mile pace. Cheryl and I talked about my recent trip to the Philippines and she told me about how her mother died a few years ago in Guyana. She moved to California recently after living in Maryland for a few years. We joked about her not responding to a jury summons from Maryland and that she may now be considered a fugitive, never able to return to that state again because U.S. Marshalls may be waiting for her at the airport. From what I gathered and I hope I'm not mistaken, she is a representative of a nutritional products company.

Anyway, we finished the walk way ahead of the pack and exchanged email addresses. She wanted to send me a You Tube link about high cholesterol and other alternative health information. While she waited for the others, I walked a few hundred feet to the very well known Rossmoor Bakery to check out their goodies. Nothing caught my fancy so I didn't buy anything. When I returned to my car and drove away, Cheryl was still waiting for the other walkers. My goodness, we must have set a really fast pace compared to the rest. Cheryl mentioned in an email later that she must have waited another 15 minutes or so before the others finished. She didn't have a choice because she hitched a ride from one of the other walkers and needed a ride back home.

By the way folks, the purported 900 calorie burn advertised for this Meet Up workout is grossly overblown so please refrain from overdoing the calorie replacement afterwards. Also, it's a wee bit short of the supposed 6 miles, but not by much. Maybe not more than a quarter mile lesser.

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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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Pushing The Pace At Signal Hill

Another view from the top on a cloudy and misty day. Yes folks, there are still oil derricks in Signal Hill.

          Oh my, I just lost what I was typing because the Polaris word processor on my Asus tablet PC crashed :(  Oh well, I'll have to start all over.
          Last Saturday morning, even though my ankles were still sore from the 30 minute treadmill run I did three days before, I showed up for the 6 mile Signal Hill walk led by Donna of the Long Beach Walking Club. There were 12 people signed up on their website. Five of those cancelled ahead of time, one at the last minute, and there we three no shows. I was too ashamed to be a no show regardless of my ankle problems. I was slightly disappointed when only four of us showed up because I wanted to walk with more people, especially when one of them indicated that she could run at a pace of 10 minutes per mile. I was hoping maybe we could walk together at a faster pace. Well, so much for that hope.
          Before we started, Donna asked me if I had been running more because she had seen me running up the hills in our previous walks. I told her that those few minutes at a time were all that my ankles could tolerate. Little did she know that it takes several days up to more than a week for my ankle tendons to recover after those short attempts at running. Heck, even just walking long distances make my ankles hurt.
          Last Saturday, I was determined to walk the whole route at my own pace and not run a single step. As in previous walks with this group, I would walk ahead then come back to them but this time, I didn't hang around to chitchat but kept my pace up. Donna altered the course a little bit at the start and I wasn't familiar with the first half mile that was added. Once we were past that and into familiar territory, I took the lead. I was really working the uphills hard but even with the effort I didn't feel a hint of sweat on my forehead until close to three miles due to the cold morning air which started in the 50's. It was also misty. On a second thought, maybe it wasn't sweat on my forehead but mist from the air. At three miles, I was still slightly over 15 minutes per mile. I was surprised at having hunger pangs during that walk because that hardly ever happens when I'm working out. A couple of times, my ankles were really hurting especially on the downhills,  which was like adding insult to injury. Thankfully, it worked itself out. I was actually walking faster on the uphills and even passed a woman who was running up one of them. I'm sure she would have spanked or chicked me on the downhills. But you know what? I would seriously trade places with her if only I could run again.
          And so it went - up and down hills on my own terms and at my own pace (which felt darn good). By the time we reached the end, I had covered 8.2 miles to my companions' 6.5 miles in two hours. My pace was 14:38 per mile on the hilly course - not bad for someone who doesn't do too many walking workouts. I just wish that I could find someone to walk my pace. That's the difference between the running club and the walking club. In the running club, it's easier to find someone to pace with from 6 minutes per mile all the way to 13 minutes per mile (not that I ever ran 6 minutes per mile).
          Upon arriving home, I Motrinized myself, applied capsaicin ointment on the ankles, then put on some supportive braces. I very, very seldom take Motrin or any other pain reliever. It seemed to work well this time. Pretty soon after that, I finally got relief from the hunger pangs with lunch.

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The Unplanned Signal Hill Workout

Last Saturday morning, I hadn’t planned on working out with the Long Beach Area Walking Club. I had set my alarm for 7 a.m. as usual but was already awake at 5:15, so instead of trying to go back to sleep, I thought I might just show up for the Signal Hill 6 mile walk even though I didn’t RSVP for it. The usual company was there: Donna, Michelle, Paul, Tiger (the boxer dog), Jennifer and her Malaysian roommate, Evelyn. Upon approaching the first long hill, I stepped up my pace and Donna cajoled me saying “this is not a running club!”. She had anticipated that I was going to run up the hills again and she was right. Paul yelled “show off”, and I responded that I was cold and needed to get warm. Michelle then said “that’s because you don’t have any body fat”. I could have started laughing then, but I could only hear myself gasping for breath. Believe me, it doesn’t take very much for me to go anaerobic while running nowadays. Of course even when you are running very slowly up hills, you could still easily go anaerobic. About three quarters of the way up that hill, I wanted to walk the rest of the way, but because I didn’t want to shame myself to the rest of the group, I let muscle memory and previously learned tenacity take over and pushed on till I reached the top. That hill felt longer but when I checked my watch, it only lasted about 3 ½ minutes. Well, ok, technically I don’t really run anymore, but short distances like that, I am still able to do even on tough hills. And so it went for the whole 6 mile workout. Run up all the hills and walk the downhills with the rest of the group. By the way, this was a faster group than the one I walked with a few weeks ago because we finished in about 1:45 instead of 2 hours. My goodness, that’s about 2 ½ minutes per mile faster!

Well, 6 miles might have been the official end to the workout (which ended up 6 ½ for me because of the running and going back to the group to walk with them), but not for me. When they turned left to go back to their cars, I turned right and started jogging up the steepest (but fortunately short) incline of Signal Hill and kept my walk/run going for another 2 ½ miles. I certainly didn’t expect to cover 9 miles that day but when it was all said and done, I was happy that I was still able to do it. Heck, I haven’t walked or ran more than 6 miles since last summer.

I want to apologize again to my co-walkers for running a little bit during our workout. I do appreciate your company very much and that’s why I joined your meet up club. I cannot run with a running group because they run continuously for miles and miles which I couldn’t do anymore. Short bursts is all I can now and I needed those short efforts to trigger my endorphins. Besides, I had to burn the calories from the extra meal that I ate the previous night.

Other notes about that walk -There were stairs on some of the trails of Signal Hill but it was difficult running up and down them because they were too long for one stride and too short for two strides.

-I love the feeling of gasping and being out of breath and running up those hills took care of that. God, I miss that feeling which used to sustain me mentally every day for years! With cycling, I have to be content with a lower level of sustenance.

- The aftermath of the infrequent hill running - my back has been hurting from leaning into the hill while climbing.

-2:13:12 for 9 miles of mostly walking interspersed with uphill running. I’ve walked faster than that on flat terrain.

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Rejoining The Long Beach Walking Club Meet-up Group

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After too many days of indoor workouts, I figured it was time to get out the door early Saturday morning to catch some sunshine and boost my vitamin D. I had signed up for the Long Beach Walking Club Meet-Up group for the Signal Hill Challenge, which I had walked with four times before. Five of the six people who RSVP’d showed up. As is often the case, I was the only male. There were a couple of newbies who were apprehensive of the hills and distance so the pace seemed slower than usual. I felt the need to work harder so I could at least break a sweat. Even though it was warmer than usual, there was a slight cold breeze blowing. So I powered up the first uphill, walking as fast as I could. The 13% grade had me breathing hard within a minute and I could almost feel an endorphin buzz. Unfortunately, that hill lasted for only about 5 minutes. I walked back downhill to the rear of the pack so I could rejoin the other walkers. After all I signed up so I can have some company. We engaged in short conversations between uphill climbs and I learned that the newbies were nurses from Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Los Alamitos Medical Center, while the other two ladies were ex army and ex air force. As we approached the second uphill, I decided to jog up, and upon reaching the top, I again jogged back down to rejoin the others. And so it went on the subsequent uphill climbs. I just hope that I wasn't going against walking club etiquette while doing the jogging part. I just felt the need for a little bit more effort on my part so I could get a decent workout.

By the way, this club has a meet up planned for the Long Beach half marathon - the same one that I missed last year due to work obligations. Well I tracked my work schedule for this year and I'm working on the day of the race again. The only difference is that I'm not yet signed up for it and have no plan on doing so. So why do I bring up this topic? Because when I asked about what they were going to do about training, no one seemed to know how to go on about it even though a website link was sent out to the group which included a training plan. Lord, help them for they know not what they do about increasing the distance of long walks every couple of weeks! I may send the organizer the courses and distances that my running club has for marathon training.

As the walk continued on the 6 mile route, I kept on jogging up the hills and walking the downhills and the flats. By doing this then going back to the pack, I covered a total of 6.91 miles by the time we were done. It was my longest distance in months and on a hilly course to boot. Easy peasy.

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Rejoining the Long Beach Walking Club at Signal Hill

This post is a week late and all because of procrastination. I was checking out the Meet Up group (http://www.meetup.com/LBWalks/) for the Long Beach Walking Club two Fridays ago and noticed that more people than usual had signed up for the next day’s 6 mile walk at Signal Hill. Usually only two or three people plus a dog signs up but on that day there were eight of us. Okay, let me change that. The dog named Tiger didn’t sign up. Even though I haven’t walked in four weeks I decided to join them. It was early May since I last walked with them because I went to my running club’s workouts most of the summer. Oops, another mistake. It was last April when I joined and walked with this club (http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2011/04/april-foolishness-after-march-madness.html).

Now that the Long Beach marathon training program is over for the year, I may workout with the walking club more. This Meet Up group has walks just about every day of the week and sometimes more than once a day, but I’ve only walked with the Saturday morning Signal Hill group so far because of the more challenging course. When I walked with them twice in May, I found the pace a little too slow to achieve a good workout. The other Saturday, I decided to push the pace up the hills then going back to the last walker, which enabled me to stay with the group. On the flats, I just kept pace with them. Pushing the pace uphill made the breathing feel like running, and those few minutes of climbing triggered some endorphins. I wish they had included more uphills on their route. Of course if I wanted to, I could go solo after the 6 miles was done. I just hope my fellow walkers didn’t take offense and think I was showing them up for going faster uphill. Since I haven’t walked for 4 weeks my thighs were sore the next day. The shinsplints also came back which surprisingly doesn’t happen when I run. I mean, when I was still running. I wasn't able to join them the following week because I had to attend a CPR renewal class as a job requirement. All that procrastinating for a post that’s blah. Even the photo above is recycled.

Running uphill at any pace = tough, walking as hard as you can uphill = no so.

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