Walk in the Park

Today was simply a walk in the park. Yes it was. Bidwell Park to be exact. And I spent 98 minutes going 7 miles, which averages out to 14 minute miles. Pretty good!

I started about 9 and was immediately worried as to whether or not I could finish a full circuit. The temperatures weren’t bad, but the humidity was quite high. And I knew the problem would only get worse as the miles went by.

But, about halfway through I noticed that I was holding to a 4.3 mph average and felt that I could make it to the finish. (6 ½ miles)

In fact, when I came to where I had parked my truck, I decided to walk on…and I went another half mile just for fun. So my goal to become more fit and increase endurance is already showing some rewards. I knew at the time I passed my truck that I could have made another circuit of the park if I had wanted to.

I did get off to a bumpy start as I couldn’t seem to come up with the correct gait to use. I kept sliding out of a speed walkers gait and into a racewalkers form. Back and forth it went as I tried to settle into one or the other gaits. After about a mile I was into speed walking and left it there.

As Planned

I took yesterday off. Just worked around the house. Today we were going to go into Chico anyway, so the plan was to walk with Laurae for an hour and then switch to the racewalk mode for another hour or more while Laurae went shopping. Didn't happen. We did the one hour, 3+ miles, but by the time we had finished, the heat was becoming a threat. And my supply of Bodyglide hasn't arrived yet and chafing is a real problem in the heat. So tomorrow will be my time to head into town early and see how far I can go before the heat drives me home.

Not that heat contributes to a bad training environment, on the contrary...the 2001 Portland marathon was a scorcher! But it started out cool...and that's how I want to do it tomorrow.

Way to Go!

A very good walk.

1:56
8:45
4.4
13.73

Those are the numbers and I’m pretty happy with them. I walked 8:45 miles in 116 minutes. I can see that the little bit of speed training I did on Sunday helped quite a bit, as I was able to maintain a 4.4 mph average for the entire distance. Well, not quite all of the way; as between the 6 mile and 7 mile points, I found myself down to 4.3 and had to get back in gear to make the 4.4 average.

And as I was walking back on Walker Street, a truck driver honked and gave me a thumb up! Yes, it was his thumb.

Speed

Today was the day for a speed walk and I did as well as I hoped I could. 1.2 miles at an average of 5 mph. I did the mile in 12.15 minutes and that made me happy to see that I could still get down there. I’m going to be looking for an 11 minute mile sometime before October and the marathon.

2 fer 1

Another one of those days. I decided to get in a couple of walks, starting with a long one at 6:20 this morning. Using my GPS, I did 6.49 miles into Orland and back. Timing was everything as I was able to maintain a 4.4 mph average for the entire 88 minutes. Another hour and I'm sure that the heat would have slowed me down to a little over 4.

After coming home and getting some breakfast, we headed into town and I walked a 3.26 miles with Laurae at a more leisurely pace of 3.2 mph. A good time! Bidwell was still cool at that hour and Laurae was keeping up a good pace for us.

Let's see...9.75 miles for the day.

More Miles

8.89 miles

That is my combined number for 2 walks today. The first one, 2.81 miles, I did with Laurae. We walked through Bidwell Park at a leisurely (for me) pace of about 3 mph. When we returned to the car it was about 11:30 and the humidity was climbing. I was determined to get in a few more miles and so I told Laurae that I would meet her at Little Red Hen Nursery at about 1o’clock.

I reset my GPS unit and took off, hoping to see that MPH average quickly rise to 4 mph or higher. Little did I know that it would take almost 2 ½ miles before I could get it to 3.9 mph. At the end of 4 miles I had my 4.1 average and I was pretty happy with it, considering that it was midday, the temperature was right at 90° and the humidity was quite high in the park. The end result was 6.08 miles at an average of 4 mph.

Dreams

When I woke up this morning I was already debating the merits of my current exercise plans; even before I rolled out of bed. As you can tell, I’m not a dedicated fan of exercise, yet once I begin, I’m quite good at it. It’s the “beginning” that is so darn difficult.

I’m sure it’s my personality type that dictates this behavior. You see, I’m a very impatient person at heart. I want things to happen right now; because I have other things to do…even if those other things are simply thinking about things to do. Also, I really dislike constraint of any kind, and exercise is certainly that.

Jill told me the other day that a friend of hers, a Boston Marathon runner, had expressed some concern about her doing a walking marathon, “How can you stand to walk that long? Running it is bad enough.” In her mind, a runners mind, it’s the time spent in the activity, not the activity itself that is important.

I have a runner’s mind and a walker’s body. Simple. What I mean by a walker’s body is that I have more of the slow twitch muscle fibers than fast twitch muscle fibers. I understand that this is genetic and although you can work on muscle development, some things won’t change. If you weren’t born a sprinter…it’s very difficult to become one!

Fast Twitch Muscles. The purpose of this type of muscle is to provide rapid movement for short periods of time. Fast twitch muscles do not use oxygen - they use glycogen. Reactions using glycogen require anaerobic enzymes to produce power. Glycogen is stored in the muscles and liver and is synthesized by the body using carbohydrates. There are also two types of fast twitch muscles. These two types of fast twitch muscles will function during moderate and maximum muscle effort. Fast twitch muscles provide you strength and speed.

Slow Twitch Muscles. As their name indicates, these fibers have a slower contraction time. Slow twitch muscles use oxygen for power and have a predominance of aerobic enzymes. These types of muscles are large muscles found in the legs, thigh, trunk, back, hips and are used for holding posture.

Muscles change and develop with regular exercise but the effects differ, depending on whether you engage in strength, speed, or endurance training.

Strength and burst training cause the muscle fibers to enlarge. Individual muscle fibers increase in diameter as a result of an increase in intracellular protein fibrils.

Endurance training causes more blood vessel formation than does speed or strength training, which produces an increased capacity for aerobic metabolism within the muscle cell. This change is seen after a few weeks of training and is maximized in about three months. The aerobic enzymes that metabolize carbohydrates, fats, and proteins double.
It is important to develop your strength and speed systems, but if you want to continue past about two minutes of high intensity workouts, you need to have your aerobic systems developed.

In high school I was on the track team for awhile, until asthma took me out. And I tried out for various events, hoping to find the perfect one for me. In my mind, I could see myself leading the pack in a dash. Breaking the tape while adoring fans screamed. In actuality, I was dead last in a dash. As it turned out, my event was the 440, and the coach recommended that I try out for the cross-country team. Slow twitch muscles had done it to me; ruining my dreams of fame and glory as the sprinter of the century.

Where was I? Oh, yes…debating my exercise plan. I guess it will be the park today, and at midday. I will need some water for sure!

Undecided

I don't feel as bad as I thought I would after my fall, yesterday. The scrapes and bruises are already healing. But...will I walk today? My inclination is to skip a day, but I know another day of walking equals more endurance in the final hours of the marathon.

Let's see...I have to go to the store, so maybe I could squeeze in a short walk at Bidwell. Just an hour or so and enough to get my heart rate where it belongs.

The Portland Marathon

The Portland Marathon - Portland, Oregon
Here it is, the official countdown to our event. And it's almost time to register. Great website! And it sure brings back the memories of 2001...

Bad News

So, why did all of this happen? I started out with great expectations this morning, hoping to travel all throughout Orland and do a much longer walk than usual. I had my new GPS unit strapped on my wrist and was feeling good! And I did walk a much longer route, up and down streets, through the Library Park, back and forth through downtown Orland. All of this time I kept checking my pace and it was consistently in the 4.4 mph range. Finally, it was time to head home. It was just as I was passing the new building on Hwy 32 that disaster struck.

The builders have been working on the new sidewalk and it was there that I tripped on the edge of the sawcut asphalt and fell, cutting my knee and getting some dramatic looking gravel burns on my hands and elbow. Two workers, looked up briefly, asked if I were alright? and then returned to what they were doing as it seemed that I was going to be OK.

I continued on my way, trying to assess my condition by using the effected joints. There didn't seem to be any lasting damage, so I continued on; that's when the lens fell out of my glasses.

With the lens restored and my water bottle in hand, I was off once again...and I made it home to discover that my GPS had only kept track of my elapsed time and had added all of the other trip information to yesterday's data.

OK, it was 1 hour and 45 minutes and I am going to estimate that it was 7.24 miles

Now I have to read the direction book for my GPS unit again.

A Long Day

It has been a productive day, but wearing! I started out with a fast walk up to 99W. That was done in 88 minutes, a very good time for the 6 miles. (14.7 minute miles)

And to top it off...a 12 mile bicycle ride through Bidwell Park. And I got a chance to try out my new Garmin Foretrex 201 Personal Navigator, a very smart GPS unit that straps to my wrist and keeps track of me, something my wife has never been able to do. So now I can walk or ride anywhere and I can always find my way home!

It's The Law!

When I am out walking, I usually don’t use a Walkman or other media device to listen to. I listen to my thoughts. And here is one from a recent walk. We (Laurae and I) are from a generation that was taught from early childhood that spitting was unsanitary and impolite. That’s how we were raised. We make no apologies for it.

But it’s a different world today! And that made me think of Singapore. Did you know that there is a country where spitting is illegal? Yes, it’s Singapore and they make you pay plenty if they catch you spitting in public.

Now there is a law that I would support!

http://www.sars.gov.sg/archive/Spit%20And%20Spank%20(ST).html

Believe it or not...There were cities and towns in the USA that had similar laws in the past.

Good one...

I missed a day yesterday because of the weather and so I knew I needed to get out and get with it today, no matter what. The weather looked "iffy" and so I brought along some pants and a jacket for covering up with after the walk. I also decided to do Bidwell once more, as that would let Laurae go and do some shopping while I was walking.

Well, it was cooler today and that seemed to make the biggest difference in my times. I did the 6.55 miles in 93 minutes. That's a 14.2 minute per mile average. And...I felt as if I could have gone for another half hour easily.

That tells me that it's time for me to up the ante to 2 hours and see how far I can go.

Blah!

This is not exactly the day I had hoped for. It's raining pretty good and has been for the past 5 hours. And it's cold as well...I think it's in the low 60's.

As you can imagine, I'm not walking today. No where, no how. But I did go to Chico and had my bicycle repaired. That will give me one more venue for exercise and I have lots of open space to explore here in Orland.

Are We Having Fun Yet?

That was a tough walk. 6.55 miles at Bidwell and I did it in 98 minutes. Yes, it's just under 15 minute miles (14.96) and that's OK. What surprised me was the humidity.

I shouldn't have been surprised, I was walking in a dense forest with a stream running through the center of it. Of course it's humid! But that moisture really takes the energy out of you and I was dragging when I got around to Caper Acres. Less than a mile to go...

Let me see now; high humidity at Bidwell vs. diesel exhaust on Hwy. 32. No good choices, but I will probably try to do more at Bidwell...it is safer.

Undecided

It's a perfect morning for a long walk...should I head out right now and walk to 99W and back? Or should I wait and go into town, walking all of the way around Bidwell before picking up my granddaughter? 6 miles or 6 1/2?

I hope I'm not this indecisive in a few weeks when I have to decide on 10 mile walks!

A note regarding training for walking a marathon; you don't need to actually walk the full 26+ miles in practice before race day. 20 miles is enough. You will have built up enough endurance to make the last 6 miles easily. In fact, that's part of my own secret for success. You walk the race in manageable segments. I used to use 5 miles as mine. After 5 miles, I would ask myself; can you go another 5? And I would...and when you make it to 20 miles, the answer is even easier. "I didn't walk all this way to stop now!"

OK, I guess it's time for a decision. Bidwell and 6 1/2 miles.

One more time

Yes, I did it again. I walked up to the intersection of 32 and 99W. According to Jill's GPS unit, that is 3.04 miles.Only this time I did the complete 6.08 miles, 2 minutes faster than I did on Sunday. That's a 14.47 average and I'm feeling pretty good about it. Maybe it was faster because of a lack of wind? Or the fact that I started at 6 in the morning, beating the heat.

I did notice the same thing I have observed all over this country...when you greet people while walking, you will be ignored quite often. I don't take it personally (Yes...I do) but I do wonder about it.

If you know me at all, you know that I'm an introvert, with a Myers-Briggs type indicator of INFP. I'm the one who shoudn't even be talking to strangers, but I do.

And another hazard of walking is the fact that people can't see you. Other pedestrians ignore you and drivers are blind to your presence. Twice, I had to stop, jump up and down, just to get a driver to see me as he was exiting a driveway. He looked right at me...but through me.

Paul Richard Smith

I received some sad news on Saturday...my newsletter from the Sierra Racewalkers revealed that Paul had died after a long battle with cancer. He was the coach for the Sierra Racewalkers and one of the founders of the club. Paul was also a most memorable man. Selfless and always of good cheer, he was always promoting racewalking. He encouraged everyone he met and will be certainly be missed.

When I first started racewalking, Paul was quick to tell me that he was certain that I would be able to do a 10 minute mile...and he was right. He just kept telling me until I believed it myself.

I also remember a Volksmarch event that I talked Laurae into attending. a 7 mile hike up and down mountains in the area of Carson Pass. We were at 7,000 feet most of the day and Laurae was having a difficult time. But, then Paul came along and walked with us...encouraging her. We finished the hike. We weren't the fastest by any means. But we had accomplished something.

Progress

Since we were going to be doing a lot of walking on Satuday, albeit slow walking, I decided to skip the Saturday morning long walk. I'm sure that our walking all around Turtle Bay had some fitness value as I was certainly tired at the end of that day.

But Sunday was a new day and it was time to get back to the longer walk. Jill and I took off at 7 AM and headed into Orland. We did a little over 6 miles, going through town and out to the intersection of 32 and 99W. Total time was 90 minutes, so it was still in the 14-15 minute mile range.

The most difficulty came from the wind as we could not escape it. The wind was blowing out of the north at about 20 mph and that gave us a little resistance to overcome. All in the name of "fitness" of course...

Into Town

Just got back from a long walk into town...I went all the way to 3rd Street before turning around. I'm not sure of the distance yet, but it did take me 1 hour, 24 minutes and 40 seconds. I'm going to estimate the distance at 5.7 miles.

It was fairly early, so the heat wasn't a problem at first. I can see that I will need to start earlier in the days to come, as the heat was becoming a factor on the return leg. What a dilemna! The park, filled with dogs and cyclists...but cooler! Or the trip to Orland, surrounded by traffic and asphalt. I'm leaning towards more park time. But the Orland route doesn't require a 30 minute 1-way drive to Chico. As I said, a dilemna.

A Walk in the Park

OK, I did half of a half...marathon that is. 6.55 miles which is once around Bidwell Park and one short walk up and back the path where "Victory Lane" is located on race day. I kept it under 15 minute miles and that is a good thing. But the best part was doing the distance and building some endurance. The day was quite cool and so I didn't break a sweat until almost 25 minutes had passed. And there were very few walkers/runners/cyclists out today. I can understand the cyclists not wanting to be there; the wet road puts a dirty black stripe right down the back of their best shirts.

It really is a great park when the crowds are not present. I only saw one dog person with a problem...she had 3 huskies on leashes and she had a look of terror on her face as she was being dragged down the path. She smiled bravely as she passed me...

4.16 MPH

That's my speed for today...or 14.42 minute miles. Certainly not my best. I was doing 11 minute miles every day back in 2002. But it's a start.

The highway walk is definitely different than my walks in Bidwell Park. To be truthful, it's safer and less stressful. The last time I was in the park I was confronted twice by people who were having a terrible time trying to control their dogs. Why do people own dogs like that? And then I was constantly being passed by cyclists who ignore the polite method of letting you know they are about to pass you..."On your right" is the preferred method of hailing a walker who is on the path. But no, these cyclists never say a word and flash past you, causing you to be startled. Very good for your heart!

The highway walk does have it's drawbacks as there is no sidewalk to give you a little safety from approaching traffic. And that traffic is going about 60 mph. And you have those exhaust fumes to deal with as well. You also get a closeup view of all of the detritus that society flings out the windows of their cars, cigarette butts, cans, bottles and the occasional "road kill".

The good part is the fact that I feel stronger today and my attitude is more positve...Now I guess I better weigh myself and see what this does for my weight control. When I did the 2001 Portland Marathon I weighed 200 pounds, with a low weight while training of 197. Can I do that again?

I'm Back

OK, I did it...two days in a row now and without injury. I just finished a one hour and 15 minute walk to Orland and back. I walked to the first signal, close to Holiday Market, and then turned around and came back. Now I will drive into town and see how far that is. Yesterday I walked for one hour in Bidwell Park while Laurae was getting her hair cut.

Tomorrow I will see if I can't go a few blocks further...

I also kept my tape recorder with me and made observations as I went. Now I will have to transcribe those into something intelligible.

Disaster

What a disaster! My foot is still messed up and I have a blister on my right heel...all because I was trying to prove something. Now I have lost 2 more days of training. I will try it again tomorrow; slowly!

Ooops!

I forgot and had anonymous Comments turned off...they are back on.