Stair Climbing 101

My first stair climbing practice took place yesterday, and since I did not know what I was doing, I just walked up the stairs 3 and a half times i.e. up 18 floors with 19 steps on each floor.  It took me half an hour and left me feeling wrecked.  I also decided to send out the fundraising email that came with registering process.  For $35 you sign up for a place in the race and then you also commit to raising $65 in order to do the race on the day.  I thought this was a rather reasonable amount, and decided to go for it.  I wanted my friends to know that I was going to do this and wanted their support for the American Lung Association.  I sent out a rather awkward email, but yay, got my first sponsor this morning!  Now it's really official, so I suppose I'd better try and sort out some kind of training programme for this event.

My second practice was also a half hour session.  I still did not have a clear idea of what I was doing, so walked the first lap at a normal pace.  The second lap I ran a flight and walked a flight.  The third lap I ran up 6 flights and then walked briskly.  The fourth lap I also just walked at a normal pace.  I spent the night worrying that I may not have enough stairs to practice on, then Stuart suggested I implement the same running schedule I have for the stair climbs: easy, interval, hills and long.

I know I have only been doing this for 2 days now, but it's very exciting and I am going to write down the process - in case there are any runners who are looking for a brief interlude in their running lives.  This is a simple and easy activity to implement, and I would be interested to see how this benefits my running.