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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San Gabriel River Bike Path Time Trial

On Friday morning, I loaded my bike in the car and drove a few miles down the street to Liberty Park in Cerritos so I can ride it on the San Gabriel River bike path. I’m still trying to avoid riding on the streets. It was an unusually cool morning for a summer day so I wore a long sleeved technical running shirt (since I don’t have a cycling jersey), and it still felt cold going out. The headwind didn’t help any.

 I haven’t ridden a bike on that path since the 80’s when I was still living in Bellflower but I’m still very familiar with the course. I set out going south towards Long Beach not knowing how long it will take me to reach the end of the path at the border of Seal Beach. The course, from where I started in Cerritos, goes through Lakewood, then El Dorado Park in Long Beach, towards Seal Beach, was mostly flat other than going under bridges, but riding back up from under those bridges required more effort though not enough for stand ups on the bike. I don’t know why, but I was going on what I thought was a pretty good clip because my breathing was labored. It felt like a 10K run effort most of the way except for the coasting part. Towards the end of the path in Seal Beach, I saw Diane from AREC, whom I ran with in December of 2008 (http://noeldlp.blogspot.com/2009/01/tale-of-two-gimps-originally-written.html), and talked to her for a couple of minutes. She was out for a long run before leaving for a South American country later that evening for missionary work. I don’t think she recognized me with my helmet on though.

Back to the ride, I went south for 29 minutes and was faster coming back north by a couple of minutes despite the time spent talking with Diane. Maybe the slight tailwind helped but there was also a crosswind to contend with. In any case, because of the hard effort I put into the ride, I think I would consider that an unintended one hour time trial. I finally wore my GPS watch this time and saw that I covered 16.54 miles in 1 hour. Not quite Tour De France proportions, but nevertheless a good workout for me.

Just as I finished the ride, the battery on my mp3 player died. Good timing, wasn’t it? What are the chances of that happening? Derriere update: it has been feeling better with the combination of the new padded shorts, gel saddle, and just plain adjusting to riding a bike again.      
Four weeks of no running… but you know what? With the hard effort I was able to put in, I think I might have gotten endorphinated by that ride!

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