Run to Huntington Beach Pier
This week we’ve had the largest wild fire in Los Angeles County in the past 100 years with over 150,000 acres burnt. The fire caused the entire L.A. basin to be smoky.
The unhealthful air mixed with high humidity and 100 degree weather convinced me to skip my Tuesday run.
On Wednesday I checked the AQMD (Air Quality Management District) website, yes, we have that in L.A.!
Below is the map from Sunday Sept. 6th. 
The Green area is good air quality, yellow is moderate and orange is BAD! That’s where the fire is still roaring.
The interesting thing is that on Wednesday the only Green area was a swathe of area from Seal Beach up to Cerritos. We do get a nice ocean breeze here and I guess it really pays off for air quality.
With knowledge that I wouldn’t die from smoke inhalation, I was willing to brave the heat and get running.
I still kept the Wednesday run short but went a bit further Thursday logging 10 miles for my mid-week runs.
Saturday morning I upped my long run mileage and headed for Huntington Beach Pier. I knew that the Pier was 18 miles + so to end up with 20 miles I added a lap around Regional Park. I hit 20.50 miles when I finished at the pier. Perfect!
But this run was much tougher than the 15 mile run to Bolsa Chica last week. I simply felt tired and that resulted in many more short walks. If I stop running I don’t come to a full stop but walk for 30-45 seconds and then start up again.
Last week at 15 miles I felt I could have kept going. This week I had to keep pushing myself or I would have walked the last 5 miles!
Even with the extra walking periods I made it to the pier in exactly 4 hours. Not bad I suppose but I should be able to cut 15-20 minutes off that time once I’m back to running non-stop.
I know it’s all about conditioning and building up my endurance levels. I just need to keep logging the miles. I got in 30 miles this week so I’m staying pretty consistent.
This coming week I travel to Oregon for my nieces wedding. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to get in some runs while in the great Northwest.
September 8th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Hi Mike!
It’s Sharon and Quin from the Garey’s Labor day bash! HOw are you? I tried to find you on facebook but you did not come up. Perhaps your security parameters don’t allow just anybody to look you up
Anyway, would like to see the pics you took yesterday, if you’d like please ‘friend’ me on Facebook under Sharon Trimbo. It was great meeting up again. Hope to see you at the LB Marathon.