Take care of yourself

Began running the stairs in my office building in earnest this week and last. Thirty stories, four laps up them. Holy shit does that make the legs scream. Got to the top in 5 minutes, 20 seconds in my best run. The dream is to be pushing sub-4s by the event in early March, right before I turn 40.

 

Did my 12-mile run at an overall 7:36 pace this morning. Last mile at 6:54. The goal is to be doing 15 miles at 7:15 by early March, this positioning myself for a serious run at Boston.

I know you all wanted to know.

 

Have a friend who is currently training for Boston. He qualified by running Chicago in under 3 hours. When I ran it the year before, I topped out at about 4:10. I do not like him as much anymore.

I actually just ran my 15th half marathon and it was my worst one yet. The training for it was horrible. I developed a knee injury the week before and a sore throat two nights before. I haven't run since. I have been training for one run or another consistently for about six years and I think I'm burnt out. I probably won't run seriously again until the new year.

I've been doing a lot more strength and resistance training in the mean time, mixing in some different work outs like HIIT and yoga that my girlfriend recommends. I still refuse to do barre. Just not going to happen.

Anybody else have any workouts they recommend. I'm up for anything. Except barre.

 

I've been having a "fun" time running stairs, if you can call it that. I don't know if you consider that too close to running right now, but it's definitely a different kind of challenge. I'm fortunate working in a skyscraper in that I have access to 30-plus stories that I can climb, and I've been trying to nudge my time down doing four climbs a couple times a week right now. Of course, I eat like a horse all day after doing a stairs working because it's so grueling, so I probably cancel out any possible benefit attained. But it's still kind of fun in a most-people-aren't-crazy-enough-to-put-themselves-through-this kind of way.

 

Four cities ago, I lived by a park with a giant hill in it. Not sure how big - not 30 stories. But had stairs that went all the way up it. For a while I ran those.
1) It was legit fun.
2) I was a non-zero amount of terrified I'd fall and break my neck every time I ran back down.
3) After a while my legs were f-ing amazing. Undoubtedly the most muscular they've ever been.
4) Randomly, I remember I was listening to a lot of Metallica - Garage Inc. at the time. Specifically, I associate that hill/staircase with Whiskey in the Jar. Apropos to nothing - just a trip down memory lane.

 

I take the elevator down, for the precise reason you mention.

At the stair climb I do in March, there's some guy who wins it every year with an insane time. I'd love to know his training routine.

 

You mentioning someone else just made me remember - I started running stairs at the time because I was talking to my dermatologist who mentioned that he ran up and down the stairs at his house for 2 hours every day. I thought that doing it at your own house for two hours straight sounded like the worst thing ever - but that running stairs in general sounding like a good idea.

 

In my old apartment complex, I used to run stairs while training for my first marathon, just to break up the monotony. It wasn't that tall, only six floors, but there were about 15 stairwells, so I would try to hit all of them. It was always one hell of a workout. It was also good because I could do it regardless of weather. I like the idea of picking that up again. My office has some pretty lengthy stairwells, not skyscraper tall, but enough to get the blood pumping.

When I did it in my apartment I would get strange looks from my neighbors. I can't wait to see what co-workers think.

 

I know, I'm self-conscious about that, too. I get in early enough to scale them without running into too many people. The dressing room is about 12 floors down from my floor, which is somewhat helpful.

I've been trying to plumb the Internet for training tips to prepare for a race, but it's nearly impossible. You can get to-the-second training plans on how to prepare for a marathon or a 5K, but stair climb race training "tips" are along the lines of, "Use the stairs at work if you have to go up a story or two. This will get you ready for the big day!"

 

I wasn't even aware that stair races were a thing. I had heard that there was one up the Empire State Building every year, but that's it.

Are the races only up, or are they up and down?

 

Just up. The one I do is four towers, but you take the elevator down. That portion is untimed. It's fun, because unlike at a marathon or even a 5K, 90 percent of the people have no business on those stairs, or had no idea what they were getting into. There are some serious huffers and puffers.

 

Damn you guys are studs. I've never liked cardio, too much ADHD I guess. Now if there's a ball involved, I'd play from sun up to sun down. I play sorta full court (elementary school gym, 4 on 4) hoops on Sunday Nights for 90 mins, with a group I've personally cultivated and its my cardio for the week. I know I need more.