Spring in My Steps

Posted on March 3, 2012

Step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, turn.
Step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, turn.
Step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, turn.
And people complain about treadmills being boring.

‘Tis the season for stairs. Lots of them. Like a relationship you just can’t end, the stair climb rears its head to welcome Spring until you can no longer ignore its lure. You can tell by the cadence at irregular intervals in the stairwells every day. By the extra water bottles piled up in the recycle bins and stop watches replacing neckties. I’m thinking about adopting  the every other  step method, but for now my foot lands on each stair…double the fun!  I mostly use the right hand rail. I stare at the floor. I swear at the 18th floor landing…and yes, I do wear headphones.

I’m sure I have lousy form. I am far too comfortable in relaxed fit jeans and have a few too many years to be very fast in real life (vs. in my own mind – where I conquer the well o’ stairs with blazing speed). And I just learned I have good endurance and poor stamina which just means I can climb stairs for a long time but can’t climb them quickly for a long time. I don’t care – anymore. But I DID care two weeks ago when I made a monumental training mistake. I ignored every bit of good sense and good strategy I learned and did too much-too soon. Let’s just say for the first time out I should not have climbed from the lobby to boiler room four times. Actually, it wasn’t the climb up that did me in, it was the runs down. Like clockwork, delayed muscle soreness syndrome kicked in and 48 hours later I was walking around with fiery knots in my calves and a big L on my forehead.

So if the training is so awful, why is it so popular?
We can give credit to the Lung Association Fight for Air Climb event scheduled for Monarch Place next month. Nothing like a good cause, a conveniently located event and some well-established workplace rivalry to get the blood flowing.

Sometime in the morning of March 3, 2012, I’ll take my place in a lineup of athletes of assorted skill levels and talk myself into walking up to the starting line and actually starting when my turn comes. Like the others I’ll have a specific time to begin…every 30 seconds another brave soul will start their ascent up 48 flights (24 floors).

This will be stair climb #3 for me. I’ve used it as an excuse to stay fit in the winter. The thought of those flights ahead of me keep me honest. And, stair climbing is great cross training for running, so it’s a fantastic way to get ready for the ever-popular Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day 10k. But there is no mistaking that stair climbing is just that – stair climbing. No amount of running, spinning, squats or lunges will take the place of actually hauling your body up those flights. With luck (actually, with lots and lots of practice) my finish time will be around four and a half minutes. (a lifetime, really) The good news is that it’s only a few minutes. The bad news is that it is the longest darned few minutes ever. Minutes full of monotony, drudgery, agony, sweat, pain, mental anguish – and suddenly you are at the top. These climbs are relentless, endless — then, suddenly, they’re over. They’re hard work, they’re paralyzing, they’re inspirational. It’s “life in a stairwell” – one step at a time, keep moving in the right direction…you get the idea) and at the top you cross the finish line. (whoo hoo! We LOVE goal-meeting and we REALLY love GOAL-CRUSHING!!) In my case I rush to the nearest trash can, just to be safe, and after a minute of recovery it’s safe to high five the finishers crowded around the water table.

And, with cough drops aplenty, we take the elevator down.
It’s so obvious how hard the climb up is…As in life, the descent is completely effortless.

Categories: Goals and Motivation, Uncategorized