Stair Tales

This has been a busy week.  It seemed to be composed mainly of running up stairs, running up hills and walking up hills!  Time is pressing and this week I am racking the stairs up to 1200.  I have also started mixing in some press ups and upper body strengthening as it is quite useful as I hold onto the bannisters on either side of the staircase to get up.

I have also been busy trying to get donations to the MMRF as I am committed to raising 2500 USD for them.  People have been really generous thus far, and the amount raised stands at 915 USD.  Also a big thank you to Christina from lazybonesrunning.blogspot.com, for her generous donation to my climb.  So if you are feeling the love, please visit my site at http://www.active.com/donate/2011MMRFRunUp/RUNUPNShunmu and make a donation.  My aim is to reach the fundraising goal by Christmas.  Talking of goals, I signed up for the Race Up Boston Place and registered as an....Elite!  The cut off time is 9:54 (my old time was 10:29), and that gives me a good goal to work towards - after all, the stairs are half those of the Empire State Building.
Nothing much else, except my Finnish Marimekko dress arrived, and I am very pleased with it.  I adore their fabrics, and the dress looks very sixties - a look that I am rather partial to!
Kruuna tunic

Progress

As I blogged this morning, my goal was to do a short stair climb after work today, as cross-training. Well, the day started off well. After my run I made a "Red Monster"for breakfast.

So a red monster has 3 tomatoes, 2 carrots, a stick of celery, a handful of spinach, a third of a raw beetroot and a chunk of fresh ginger.  Frullee' and you have a glass of joy.  I think I got the proportions a bit muddled in my enthusiasm this morning, and I ended up with a very thick concoction that I had to eat with a spoon!

Still, it was very good, and I will try changing the portion sizes next time.  Given my terrrible food day yesterday, I was organized, and made my lunch.  A big salad, and a protein sandwich with cheese.  So, since moving to the US, I  discovered a most wonderous thing - Ezekiel 4:9.  In fact, I call it holy bread, even though it's not really bread.

So this is flourless bread, and because it is made from spelt, barley, millet, lentils etc., it is pure protein.  I toasted 2 slices with a slice of cheese and had that with my salad.  It was the perfect lunch.  In fact I also had some for dinner with soup.  You will find it in the freezer at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's.
The stair climb was not exceptional.  I only did 60 flights of stairs in 20 minutes (walking, not running), and I did some strength training for another 20 or so minutes.  Then I tackled that which I most resist: abdominals.  Nothing fancy, just a few planks and bicycles which I don't dislike.  Tomorrow is a 3 mile run before work - I think I will go back to my usual green monster for breakfast though!

Race up Boston Place - a few pics

A video of Race up Boston Place......

Race Up Boston Place, 7th Feb 2009

I awoke with a sore throat and chest, with lungs feeling tightly squeezed. Following Liz Yelling's advice of a hot shower to loosen the muscles, I made the mistake of having a coffee rather than my usual expresso. Wearing capri tights and a t-shirt, I rushed out and Stuart drove me to 'my' building, aka the Mellon Financial Centre.
On entering the atrium, there was a tremendous atmosphere - great music, lots of people around, a few tables piled high with fruit and other goodies from one of the event sponsors, Whole Foods. After I picked up my bib and timing chip, I found a quiet (relatively!) spot and after putting the chip around my wrist, did a few lunges. The atmosphere was electric and the crowd was very different from the running types. There were some very fit, very well hard looking people with muscles in all the right places, who looked like they had actually been practising properly for this event.
Well, I barely had time to chat with a few people standing nearby, when they called for numbers 151-199 to line up. I was 151. Standing in the queue was surreal - I could no longer hear anything except the electronic beeps as the competitors in front of me swiped their chips on the table before they ran off and disappeared around a corner. Twenty seconds separate the chaser, the chasee and the new chaser (no pressure eh). I put in my earphones just as I was being counted down. "Go", the starter shouted, and I sprinted off, also disappearing around the corner and started on my first flight of stairs.
I managed to sprint up 20 floors to the words of Mortal Kombat: Choose your destiny, flawless victory! before my lungs caught alight. Luckily there was a rest stop on level 22, and after a drink of water I sprinted off again. This time the burn in my lungs became so intense I could hardly breathe. I switched off the ipod and just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, all the while listening for my chaser, whose footsteps I could hear getting closer. He caught me at the second water station, but I chased hard and caught him.
He kindly stepped aside and allowed me to pass, and after running up a few more flights I had to walk for a bit. At this point my mind collapsed and I kept thinking that I still had 50 more floors to do whereas in reality I only had 10. This made it seem like a Herculean task. Imagine my surprise when one of the volunteers said "you're almost there". And indeed, as I sprinted up the last flight, there was the finish. I had barely swiped my chip when my chaser caught me and swiped his too.
I managed to grab a bottle of water and get to a bin, when I started throwing up. Naturally this brought the paramedics over. I felt so embarrassed and explained that I had just been a bit ill recently, nothing more. After the third throwing up, they wanted to give me medical treatment - now feeling properly embarrassed, I decided to settle for the black bag they offered me.
As I walked towards the lift to go down, one woman was being administered oxygen, another was having her bp measured, and a guy was lying on the floor in the angel position, whilst another was being helped to a chair. OK, so although I felt bad for them, I was happy that I was not the only one with all the drama!
Arriving downstairs to pick up my t-shirt, there waiting to hand it to me, was Carrie!!!! Sweet Carrie had decided to surprise me, and signed up in the week to volunteer for the event! "I've been waiting for you", she said. I was so happy - it is a truly nice thing when your friends and family come and support you at these events. Whilst I was disappointed that Carrie had not managed to sign up in time to participate herself, I was so glad that she was there. And I look forward to supporting her at one of her events. We chatted for a bit, and made a few arrangements to go down to Hyannis together, as we are both doing the 10K, and hopefully Kathy managed to get a place too.
As I left to take the T home, I felt elated. I had done it! But nothing compared to my absolute joy and elation when the results were posted last night - 10:29. Yes, I had done it in 10:29!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I placed 25/43 in my age group, and 317 in a field of 558. I started thinking about what might have been if I had practised some more. The winner of my age division did it in 6:37. I immediately promised myself that next year, I would train to win it. I will certainly give it my best shot - as Derderian says, "Boldly train to go where you have never gone before". I have never consciously set out to win anything - but maybe it's time to up the ante a little bit. I should at least try!

So this is it

Tomorrow is the Race Up Boston Place stair climbing event, and I have mixed feelings about it. Usually I am quite positive about these things, but I have not run up any stairs in the past 3 or 4 weeks. My excuse has been the snow and that it is freezing in the stairwell of our building. My other excuse has been that I am knackered when I get home from work - yet I am never that knackered so as not to run.
Truth be told, I felt I was burning out a bit with all the running up stairs. I enjoyed it, but because I felt pressed for time, I did not follow a programme. I think the final blow came when I added on 5 minutes to my time rather than decreasing it! So, I do not know what tomorrow holds. This is one time I really am going in 'blind'.
I think my quads are in decent shape, and my arms are quite strong to use the railings for support. Furthermore, I had signed up to run the 82 flights of stairs, the alternatives being racing competitively or walking. I could not bring myself to change it, as I feel I have to give it a go and see what happens.
As things stand, I can run up 20 flights taking 2 steps at a time, before I need to stop. This I can do wearing a 1lb weight on each leg. Still, the thing to remember is that I got slower not faster and I seemed to need longer recovery periods. Well I will definitely know whether I did just enough or not even near enough tomorrow.
This past week has seen a horrid cold going around the office. Stuart had one all week too, and now I have it. I went to bed with a tickle, and woke up with a very dry and very scratchy throat. If it stays as is, I should be fine tomorrow. But hey, even if it does get worse, nothing will change for me anyway.
I start at 10h50 but have to be there an hour before the time. Since there is no place to store any stuff, the event organisers told us to come dressed for running as the event would get very hot! I was going to wear a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, but there is no way I can go out just like that on the tube. It is freezing! Today was -3C with the wind chill making it -9C. Tomorrow promises no better. So Stuart will drop me off and pick me up later.
I told him not to come as he would have to stand outside in the cold. Also, tomorrow is the start of the Six Nations Rugby Series, and at least he'll get to see some of it!
Do I wish I'd done more - yes of course, but that's not going to stop me from enjoying myself - however it goes. I think it's going to be a blast - it certainly looks like these people had a lot of fun last year when they were Winding up the Wachovia.

Stair Climbing Mix and Attitude

Do not underestimate the power of a good music mix to get your legs moving! I am music-free outdoors, but use an ipod on the treadmill. Therefore when I started training for the stair climb, I did it sans music. I thought it might be important to listen for people trying to pass me! Then I thought I might just try and climb at least once with music, and that certainly seems to get my flailing legs moving again. Here then is my list of 'must have' songs which I will take with me on 7th Feb.

- Take on Me - (my absolute fave of all time)
- MortalKombat (criminal not to include)
- Rocky (to finish in glory no?)
- Patt (simple lyrics, great beat)
- Bed of Nails (nothing like a bit of Alice Cooper)
- Lust for Life (brilliant, my theme for this year)
- Mission Impossible (nuff said)
- Club Foot (my 'go to' song)

Last year's race results show that the overall winner ran up 82 flights over 41 floors for a total of 750 stairs in 4:23. The winner of my age division did it in 6:04. Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is some record to beat. I don't usually like setting 'hard' goals - I mean I set them in my mind, but I usually tell everyone that my goal is just to finish. Well, there is an interesting article by Tom Derderian titled 'Glorious Losers' in the Jan/Feb issue of New England Runner. It's a fantastic article about having the courage to go for it - win or lose. I guess this struck me so much because one of my fears is that I actually run slowly. I don't like telling people what time I think I'll finish in and then be devastated when it's really awful. I don't like not being able to fulfill my prophecy. I prefer playing it safe, saying I shall finish and then run like a March hare when the gun goes off. At the end, I am pleasantly surprised (so far) and all is well. But Derderian's article talks about entering into a contract when you decide to race: to run as fast as you can, and to place as high as you can. I think I realised that although subconsiously I may have already decided to do this, I never consciously make this decision - because like everyone, I don't like losing. And I especially don't like losing a bet with myself.
But Derderian has made me think otherwise, so I shall nail my colours to the mast: on 7th Feb, my goal is to finish the stair climb in not more than 15 minutes. Some very wise and useful words conclude the article:

"So run for the glory, not the winning, boldly train to go where you have never gone before, set goals that you may or may not achieve. Fulfill the contract. Touch the madness. Blaze out. There is not glory in playing it safe, and maybe this day or another the spark will flare".

Stair Climbing 201

After my initial enthusiasm with the stair climbs last week, I got a bit caught up with the running, and this fell behind. This morning I went to downtown to see where the stair climbing event would take place, and got a shock to see the building up close and personal! It's...high.....so I'd better get with the programme.

A little research took me to Virgil Aponte's website which has loads of goodies, such as video clips.  After signing up for a free 15 page report on stair climbing, I received a pdf which gave lots of useful tips, and 5 free workouts.

The key workout I shall be using is his 'pressed for time' one:

- Walk up 20 flights of stairs (twice if you wish)

- Run up 10 flights at a medium pace

- Sprint up 10 flights at an all out pace.

- Take the lift down after each, to recover.

For those among us who are well hard, he recommends skipping before or after the workout, and for an extra challenge, run with a weighted vest.  If anyone is interested in the other workouts, let me know and I shall be happy to post them here, or you can sign up for the report on his website.

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.

Stairway to heaven

Yesterday I signed up for the Race up Boston Place which takes place on 7th February 2009 at the Mellon Financial Centre in Boston.  It is a stair climbing event - 82 flights of stairs over 41 floors.  There were 3 options: race competitively, running or walking.  To challenge myself a bit, I chose 'running'.  Then I went out and climbed some stairs.  Wow, talk about exploding lungs!  I am very excited at doing this and will post the training programme I am thinking about, as it might be useful to anyone thinking of doing a stair climbing event.