Old?

I just finished reading some posts on the MarathonWalkers board and noted that during the past few weeks there has been some discussion about older walkers...those over 50. It was all positive and encouraging for those new members who might have thought life was over at 50.

I'm headed towards the 66th year of my life and I am enjoying a great year of walking...October of 2005, I did my second marathon; I had a time of 5:57 and a few weeks ago I had a 5K time of 37:49, after a winter training break of 8 weeks. I will be doing the Bidwell Classic 1/2 marathon in another week and then I am signed up for 3 more marathons this year. Is 50 old? Not! Nor is 60 or 70. I'm not sure about 80...I'll let you know when I get there.

Rain

The storm has arrived with not much fanfare and a nice gentle rain. The good news is that we saw no rain at all when we did our ten mile walk this morning. It was a slow walk for us. We're certainly able to do faster ones, but since Jill had new gel arch supports, we kept it down to a nice cardio walk while she figured out whether the supports were doing any good...they weren't.

It was nice to see that we could do 10 miles without faltering, and we both agreed that we could have done an additional 3 if we had been so inclined. And it's 13 miles that we need to do next weekend.

Faster yet

The good times continue as Jill and I were able to do a good, fast paced circuit of the park yesterday morning. The cloud cover had kept the temperatures moderate and that certainly helped. And we’re going to do another, a longer walk this morning in preparation for next weekends Bidwell Classic. If we can get in 10 miles this morning, at a moderate pace, we will be good to go for the race.

The weather for the race is sort of “iffy”…forecasts now call for rain on Friday, partly cloudy on race day (30% chance of rain) and rain again on Sunday.

A New Day

What a difference a day makes...or a degree or two. I was becoming frustrated with my inability to gain any speed. I had a feeling that it was simply the temperature that was holding me back. This morning I went around the course in 81 minutes, a 12.96 minute/mile average. At one point (4 miles) I was up to 4.9 mph. And the day? It was grand! It was warm and sunny...and that made the difference. Here's some pictures of the park as it appeared this morning...

Smile!

Another day in the park.
Yesterday, I got in just a little over 6 miles in the cold. At least 3 miles went by before I could feel any warmth returning to my cramped muscles. I have to admit that training and cold don’t go well together for me. I love the heat!

This morning I decided to go for a long walk. A long slow walk. So I dressed in jeans, t-shirt and sweatshirt. I needed the sweatshirt for the pockets, as I planned on taking some photographs and I knew I would go through some batteries.

Off I went; doing a good 4.3 mph. That is considered brisk walking and will certainly raise the heart rate and build muscle. Then, seeing something scenic, I stopped to take a picture. Darn! Batteries died in the act of extending the lens. So I put the camera away and hurried on. After awhile I saw another great image and decided to change batteries. I raised the camera and that set of batteries died as well. Now my pockets contained 8 dead batteries and one useless camera.

I decided to make the circuit and then go across the street to the drugstore and buy 4 batteries. And off I went again, doing the 6.25 miles in 87 minutes. That’s a 13.92 minute per mile average and pretty good for my long and slow walk.

Then I headed to the drugstore and got the batteries. I turned the camera on again and then saw the message “No Card”. What? Where had I left the memory card? I headed back to the car, hoping that the card was sitting on the back seat. No such luck. That was when I decided to cut my long walk to a short one…7.25 miles…and go home. Where I see my memory card sitting in the holder next to my monitor.

Winner

I got a call from my #1 daughter the other day. She was calling to tell me that I had won something at the Almond Blossom 5K…I had left right after the race as I had to get back to Orland to pursue my “artistic” career. Our watercolor class had already started and I was late!

Granddaughter Meghan and son-in-law David were at the awards ceremony and heard my name being called as the winner of the 5K Men’s Walking division. Meghan was kind enough to accept my award for me.

We went into town yesterday and picked up the award (Denise had brought it to work with her) and I must say it is quite nice! A dark green enameled plaque with the name of the race on it and the date. It has been a long time since I had last received an award of any kind…was it the pie eating contest in Manhattan Beach, back when I was about 9 years old? I think I placed first in that memorable contest.

Obviously, the Almond Blossom is now my favorite race and I must prepare to defend my title next year, as I’m certain that many will want to topple me from my throne. I’m going to have to do better than 37:49 for the 5K, that’s for sure!

Almond Blossom Results Just in...

The first race of the season, a 5K is over and I did well enough to please myself. I’m only doing for me anyway, so that is all I really need in the way of encouragement. The race started on time, and just before the gun, a gentleman asked me if I was going to walk it? He had been watching my practice sprints and had figured out that I was certainly not a runner. He told me that he had injured himself and would have to walk this race, though he certainly wished he could run it. We wished each other well and the gun sounded…off to the races!

I quickly maneuvered past the recreational walkers and settled into a good racing pace, one that I knew I could maintain for the full distance. I could see the crippled runner up ahead of me and noted that he was staying just about the same distance in front of me and not pulling away. At the 1.6K mark I was starting to close in on him. When we reached a point about ¼ mile from the turnaround, I had caught up and we began to talk. He was a former track coach and had been running marathons for quite awhile. He was exploring the possibility of changing over to racewalking if his injuries didn’t heal as expected.

We enjoyed the conversation and it kept us moving along without any strain. I still maintained the pace I started with and I think I helped him to keep up as well. When we got to the parking lot and close to the finish line, he indicated that I should make a dash for it as he wasn’t going to…I accelerated away and crossed the finish line in an ET of 37:49, which would be about a 12.09 minute per mile average for me. And I liked that!

I wasn’t tired and I knew I could have gone faster, but I had enjoyed the talk of races, past, present and future and that was better.

The cold? I decided to go with short sleeved shirt and running shorts, expecting that the walk would have me heated up pretty fast and I was right. I never did sweat, though I was right at the verge most of the time.

And afterwards I was really pumped...so on the way home I turned the radio up, real loud, and listened to arias from the opera "Aida". Perfect!

Not the best of days

I arrived at the park with the best of intentions. It all went downhill from there. Figuratively. Here's a photo of the parking area where I start.Not many people here at 7:30 I started out fine, but then noticed that my right heel was being rubbed, so I stopped and adjusted my laces. After a few more minutes, my foot felt cramped by the laces so I loosened them a little. That only started the heel rubbing syndrome again. What was the matter? I wore these shoes yesterday without a problem? Well, I persevered and finally ended up doing about 4 miles total before I decided it was too close to race time (tomorrow) for me to be fooling around with a possible blister. I headed back to the car and then took the time to shoot a few more photos...here's the swimming pool at 1-Mile. No one seems to be taking advantage of it?
And here's a shot of the creek as it enters the swimming pool...

A little better

I have just returned from the park, where I was able to get in a decent walk. Not the fastest, but it was certainly better than yesterday’s fiasco. I did the 6.25 miles in 84 minutes; then I took a minute off of that number because of stopping a few times to blow my nose and make adjustments to my clothing. Make that 83 minutes and that puts me at 13.28 minute miles. And that’s OK.

The walk started off OK, but it took almost 2 miles for my body to get used to the cold. Breathing that chilly air was almost painful! At the 4 mile point I took off my ear warmers and gloves and never needed them again.

Ugly!

Ugly was the right word for it. I couldn’t get going this morning. First, I was a little slow getting on the road this morning and then once I arrived at the park and hit the pathway…I slowed down even more. Was it because it was cold and I decided to leave the long pants on? Or was it the sweatshirt? My ears were warm and at one point, it felt as if that was the only warm part of me, no matter how hard I tried to gain some speed. I finally told myself to hang on for 2.3 miles out and 2.3 back. Which I did in 65 minutes. And that equals 14.13 minute miles. Oh, terrible!

Tomorrow is supposed to be even colder, 29 degrees, but I’m going to avoid the sweatshirt. I think that was the culprit.

Once Around the Park

Ah, very good! I did the circular route around Bidwell in 83 minutes. (13.3) It was a good time to see how much faster I could go, as the temperature was in the 40’s and it will be quite a bit cooler in the days to come. There was nothing special about the walk today, although I did stop briefly to introduce myself to the “other” Chico racewalker. We kind of shuffled in place as we shook hands, made a polite comment or two and then took off again. I might have lost 10 seconds in the exchange…

Faster?

Well, not much...I did the circuit in just under 84 minutes and that is an improvement. (13.44)

I had to begin the walk with my hands tucked into my sleeves, but my ears were toasty warm...Thanks Kitty & Dean! In fact, I had to pull the ear warmers off after a few miles and let my ears flap in the breeze to cool off.

And I ran into one of those dogs who shouldn't allow his master in the park. One man was leading two dogs on leashes and the other man's dog (no leash) began to circle the trio. The clueless gentleman kept calling his dog, who now had the trio all tied up in leashes...but the dog was ignoring him. You might have thought that the clueless one would walk over and separate the dog from the mess he had created, but no...he simply continued to call the dog, "Here Howie!" "Please, Howie!"

Faster

12.6 minutes per mile…
That was the score for today. I didn’t do the full 6+ miles, deciding at the last minute to do a faster 5 mile walk instead. The sore muscles played a small, but powerful part in that decision.

And it was a beautiful day for a walk. Chilly, but clear and sunny. And I love the fact that walking expands your brain as well as doing good things for your body. Walking just makes you feel more alive!

All of the way around

Another good, but somewhat painful morning. I got in a full 6.25 circuit of the park and did it in 85 minutes. (13.6 minutes per mile) I’ve done it before in 78 minutes without a problem but that isn’t going to happen for a week or two. The muscles I stretched yesterday were complaining a bit this morning, but I had to ignore them if I were to get in a full practice. And then, just to make certain that I was on the right track; I got rid of the warm-up pants and did another 2 miles. A little slower, but still in the 14 minute range.

Tuesday

Tuesday is here and all seems to be well. My body didn’t fall apart after a good workout yesterday and so I will do it again this morning. It’s a little less than 3 weeks to the running of the Bidwell Classic ½ Marathon and I hope to be in shape for it. I won’t embarrass myself; that I know. But I want to make myself proud as well.

Yesterday, I spent a few hours at the Orland Library conducting a survey of the patrons. Boring! I had to ask each person coming in the door whether or not they lived in the city of Orland, or did they live in the county? Perhaps out of the county? Since the day was nice, I did most of my interviewing in the vestibule…it was cooler. And while I was there, I spotted a notice for the 24th running of the Almond Blossom 10 & 5k races in Durham on the 18th of February. T-shirts and medals for age divisions…sounds good to me and the timing is perfect; just two weeks before the Classic. Let’s see now, 5k is ??? OK, one kilometer is .62137 of a mile so I multiply that by 5 to get 3.10685 miles. And I should be able to racewalk that distance in about 40 minutes. I know I should be faster, so I will aim for 36 minutes.

Been There, Done That...

Mission accomplished. I got in my training time this morning. It started off well as I quickly found my way up to 4.8 mph. It’s so great to feel your body responding to the demands. Even though it has been a few months since my last training day, the rhythm was easily found again.

After about 2.5 miles, I decided it was time to tone it down. I was getting overheated because of the hat and gloves so I put those into my pack and dropped my speed down to 4.6 mph.

After about 5 miles, I decided to cut it short as I was getting some chafing that I hadn’t anticipated. Overall, I went close to 6 miles (5.8) and had maintained a 4.6 mph average. I’m happy with that.

Odd: Walking east, a couple with a dog approached and as they went by, the man looked at me and said, “You look curious.” Startled, I turned toward him and he repeated himself. I tried to figure it out. Did I look curious to him? Or did I look as if I were curious? I would have to say that afterwards I looked…baffled!