Birthday Walk – 2015 Edition (and 2014)

The Statue of Liberty in Signal Hill

          Well I did my annual long walk to commemorate my birthday this year. Just as a refresher, I had been doing 2 hour long runs on my birthday when I was still able to run but in the past 4 years or so, I have had to modify it to long walks instead. I’ve tried to achieve the same mileage I would have done with 2 hours of running, but it has been hard mentally to walk that long. I didn’t even write about my long walk last year because my mind got lazy and I gave up after what I thought was an hour and 45 minutes. Checking back on my exercise log, I was surprised to see that I actually completed two and a half hours, but since my goal was 3 hours, I didn’t consider it a success. That walk was done in the Virginia Country Club area at around noon time on my actual birthday. I completed 10.17 miles at a pace of 14:45 minutes per mile.

          Will I have to reconsider the 3 hour goal and do just 2 hours instead – the amount of time I used to run for my birthday celebration? Sounds like a plan, so that’s what I tried to do this year.

          I wasn’t able to do the walk on my birthday but did it on June 7^th instead due to my work schedule. I drove to Signal Hill with the intention of not doing the usual Long Beach Walking Club course which was 6 miles, but walking around the perimeter of the hill and up and down the streets from Pacific Coast Highway to the top of Signal Hill whatever distance it took me for 2 hours. I only wanted to walk at what I considered a cruising pace which meant no vigorous arm swings and no pushing it like I tried to do last year on flat terrain.

          Starting at the corner of Redondo and Hill Streets, I headed west and turned right on Temple Ave., then left on Willow St., left on Cherry Ave. towards Pacific Coast Highway. This is when I first saw the Statue of Liberty atop the aptly named Liberty Hotel (well it looked more like a roach motel). Who would have thunk it – a Statue of Liberty in these parts? No mistaking this place for Staten Island. I didn’t take a photo, but found it later on the streetview of Google Maps. From PCH, I climbed Stanley St. hill, and kept going and going and going around Signal Hill, descended and climbed several more hills, walked by Community Hospital of Long Beach where I work, and towards the traffic circle, then back again to Signal Hill.

          When I reached my goal of 2 hours, I kept on going with no idea when I was going to finish. My mind began to tire at about 10.5 miles so I thought I may just reach 11 miles and get it over with. By the time my GPS hit the 11 mile mark, I had walked for 2 hours, 40 minutes, and 46 seconds, which was a pace of 14:37 minutes per mile. What?! That was a cruising pace for uphill, downhill, and flats? Strange how that turned out. I was pushing the pace last year on the flats and I ended up walking faster this year when I wasn't pushing the pace and there were long hills.

          Just for comparison reasons, my 1 hour time trial pace nowadays is about 13 minutes and 21 seconds per mile. Heck, I may be able to finish a half marathon comfortably at my cruising pace if I wanted to.

          Well, at least I accomplished the 2015 edition of my long birthday walk with only a modest goal. Next year’s goal will still be 2 hours and we shall have to see if I make it after I take the first step.

Saturday’s 12.1 Mile Walk and Schedule SNAFU

Well folks, I did my last long walk last Saturday morning, three weeks before the Long Beach Marathon. I know three weeks is a long time to taper for just a half marathon but it may take that long for my ankle tendons to recover, not to mention  left leg shin splints. I was finally able to summon the energy to wake up early Saturday morning so I could join our AREC running club. The marathoners were doing their second 20 miler while the halfers were doing 10. I wasn’t sure if I was going to start earlier than 7 a.m. or start with the whole group on time. Fortunately I saw Deb and asked her if I could walk with her. She was planning on doing 6 miles. We started with the whole group and by the first quarter mile we were trailing everybody. I haven’t talked extensively with Deb since she got a new job a few months ago, so that’s what we chatted about mostly, and also about the eating disorder - anorexia nervosa because she knew somebody who was having that problem. Her partner was out of town and was doing her 20 miler on trail in Maryland. Other than the first year of AREC training, Deb and Kate have been training with the group for 6 years now. Deb had already done 8 miles in prior weeks so she decided to cover the same distance on this day. We separated ways upon reaching 6 miles, she on the way to the finish and me on the way to the 10 mile turnaround point. Oh, boy, was I ever appreciative of her company because the 6 miles with her didn’t feel that long. So I continued on, turning around at Ocean Boulevard and 60^th Street. When I reached the finish, I decided to extend the walk one more mile out and a subsequent mile back with another 1/10^th tacked on. That way if I ever make it to the starting line three weeks hence, I know I could do 12.1 miles, and all I had to do was one more mile to finish.

There is however one glitch to this plan. Even though I’m already signed up for the race, I didn’t realize till last week that I’m scheduled to work that weekend. Last year the event happened to be on my weekend off and I mistakenly thought it was the same this year. I’ve been asking coworkers to work for me but so far none have been available. My only recourse may be to call in sick on Saturday night so I can do the race on Sunday morning. That would mean that the nursing supervisor would have to put me in to work the following weekend.

Given how bad my ankles have become in the past year (they are aching as I type this), I had planned this race as my last hurrah because dealing with the pain after long walks isn’t worth it any more. I can’t even do a walking workout more than twice a week. That’s why I really need to be at that starting line in three weeks. I’m still hoping that someone can cover my shift otherwise it would be an expensive race t-shirt for me with no finisher’s medal if I don’t make it to the race.

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Power Outage, Long Walk, Electronic Medical Records, and UPS

          Well, so much for being away from home during the scheduled blackout. On Thursday, the  electric company was in our neighborhood to upgrade their facilities so there was an 8 ½ hour window from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. when the power was supposed to be off. On the same day I was supposed to be attending an electronic medical records class at work from 8 a.m. till 4:30 p.m. So that should taken care of  the problem, right? You know, the problem of having nothing to do for 8 or so hours. Did I mention that I was also expecting a delivery from UPS that same day? Of course I would have missed that if I was at the EMR class and UPS would have had to redeliver the next day. Not a problem because I could have waited another day for this computer I’m writing on. More on that some other time.

          The previous day, I received a call from my supervisor telling me that the EMR class was cancelled because ironically, the electronic program crashed. That spared me from having to wake up at 5 a.m. so I could workout before leaving for work. I try not to get out of bed before 7 o’clock on my days off. So now I had to readjust my schedule to try to fill the time while without electricity and while waiting for UPS to arrive. I started walking on my treadmill until the power went out, which took me halfway to my goal time, then continued walking outdoors around the block (so I don’t miss UPS) until I finished 2 ½ hours. Incidentally while circling the block I encountered a barking dog inside the fence of one of the houses. The first time, he was barking ferociously at me. The second time, by the time I passed him, he stopped barking. On my third go-around, the dog just boringly laid on the ground not even acknowledging my presence. That made me chuckle.
The power outage started about 10 o’clock and when I got home from my walk at about 12, still no electricity. That meant no TV, no internet, not even good old radio. Oh my! I would actually have to read something on paper if I can find a book or magazine. I considered digging up a book I haven’t read since the early 80’s : Dr. George Sheehan’s “Running and Being”, because one of my Facebook friends quoted him the previous day. Well, it didn’t have to come to that because at 2 p.m. the power went back on. I did have to rediscover my oven to cook my lunch though (baked tilapia) and the stove to heat water for coffee. I even heated precooked rice in the oven by sticking the metal container inside while the fish was cooking. That made me realize how much we have taken something like electricity for granted because it’s usually there on demand. I even had to hurry and take a quick shower before all the hot water from the heater ran out. Thankfully, even though the power was out for 4 hours, I only had to endure 2 hours of it.
After the power came back on, the rest of the day was spent watching videos and waiting for UPS to deliver. The package didn’t arrive until about 6 p.m. Rereading Dr. George Sheehan will have to come another day.

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