Blading to Scenery Makes Exercise Roll Right Along

What I wanted was a light workout--with scenery. The beach, I thought, would be a good place to start, since it is the very essence of Southern California scenery. And then I settled on in-line skating because it seemed like a good way to cruise the beach and exercise at the same time.

The first thing I needed was a pair of skates. I have old ones somewhere in the garage, but my teenage daughter, who is now taller than I am, borrowed them a while back and broke a strap. So I scouted the Internet and came across Perry’s Cafe and Sports Rentals, one of several rental places near the Santa Monica Pier.

And there I met Gal Paz, who besides fitting renters runs a skate school and gives both private and group lessons in the fine art of blading. Paz, who immigrated from Israel eight years ago, teaches 21 different skating techniques that range from simply standing on wheeled feet to doing figure-eights. Skates these days, he said, can climb to $250, even higher for five-wheeled speed versions that are the dragsters of the in-line world, which numbers 24 million people in this country alone, according to the National Sporting Goods Assn.

“The more expensive ones give you a better frame and better fit,” he said. “You pay for comfort and speed.”

He said, though, that the average blader can buy a perfectly acceptable pair of skates for about $100, the purchase price of the skates he was renting me for the next two hours. And what about other equipment? I asked.

“The biggest mistake is not having protective gear,” he said. “A lot of people fall down, and it’s easy to break a wrist. The most important thing to have are the wrist guards.”

I’d brought my own wrist guards along and put them on after strapping on my skates. But not anticipating any serious hills, I left the rest of my padding in the car, which in retrospect was probably ill advised for a 50-something guy. Standing, I could feel the effects of not having skated in a while. I wobbled slightly as I pushed off and started to pick up speed. Years back, one of my favorite forms of exercise was to skate along the bike path that paralleled the Truckee River in the Sierra, keeping up with my kids, who rode their bikes. I knew I could not maintain that kind of pace and, in fact, did not want to.

For this exercise, the goal was not to cruise at top speed but to try to stay within my heart rate zone, which is a maximum of 142 beats per minute. I had noticed in two recent adventures in exercise (ocean kayaking off Catalina and cycling in the San Gabriel Mountains) that my heart rate had exceeded that maximum almost the entire time. As I headed south for the Santa Monica Pier, I watched my heart rate and, of course, the small army of bikers and skaters that makes this place a people-watcher’s paradise.

As I reached the pier, I noticed that my rate already was past 150. I slowed down, and presently the heart rate dipped back within the zone. With some experimentation, it became clear that any real exertion was going to shoot it back up. So I took it easy, enjoying the cool breeze and the wide sidewalk that leads to Venice. When I got there, about 15 minutes into my skate, I was taken aback by the sea change in the street life.

As it happens, I hadn’t been to Venice in more than 20 years, so I slowed to take in the scene as well as to avoid various dogs, street preachers and comedians, jewelry hawkers, wannabe artists and other peddlers. And then, once through it all, the path ended abruptly at a parking lot.

I took to the street, cruising along Pacific Avenue until I found the spot where the sidewalk picked up again on the sand. That ended as well when I came upon the entrance to Marina del Rey. Consulting my watch, I decided to head back along a slightly different route.

I took a street that paralleled the marina, then doubled back to the boardwalk. I was crossing a street when I felt myself losing balance and had to do some serious arm-flailing to keep from landing on my back. A woman turning onto the street looked alarmed even after I’d regained balance and most of my composure.

I headed back through Venice, which was even more crowded in the late afternoon. My only incident of note was being passed by a speedskater decked out in expensive racing gear who looked at me almost sympathetically before zipping down the sidewalk.

By the time I returned to Perry’s, I had been skating for an hour and 39 minutes. Unfortunately, my best efforts to stay in my heart rate zone had not been as successful as I had hoped. I was in it for only 40 minutes. The good news was that my heart rate averaged 143, only a beat higher than my maximum.

As I peeled off my skates, Paz asked me how it had gone.

Couldn’t be better, I replied, glancing at the dozens of skaters and bikers who glided by on the sidewalk, with sand and ocean as the backdrop.

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J. Michael Kennedy can be reached by e-mail at j.michael.kennedy@latimes.com.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Snapshot:

In-Line

Skating

Duration of activity: 1 hour, 39 minutes

Calories burned: 1,333

Heart rate*: Average, 143 beats per minute; high, 165

Time in target zone*: 40 minutes

Where to go: To get to the Santa Monica Pier, take Interstate 10 to Santa Monica. After passing through the tunnel, take Pacific Coast Highway north. Turn left into the parking lot just north of the pier.

* This information was obtained using a heart rate monitor. The time in the target heart rate zone is a measure of the intensity of a workout. The target zone varies based on one’s age and individual heart rate.