Make-up Stairs

In my last elevator related post I made it pretty clear that this was a fitness inspired thing, and I was working towards that end (hence my willingness to use the elevator to send the bike upstairs while I walked). In my first post I also mentioned how I would like to ascend the Carew Tower at some point during this whole process.

This week, when I had the chance to climb high on two skyscapers and had to pass, I felt pretty bad about the whole thing.

It started when my boss and I drove to Dayton to look at expanding our business to the north. We went to the 12 story administrative building on Third St, discussing our course of action as we passed through the above ground tunnel from the parking garage to the building lobby. I didn’t think twice as he called the elevator, and we continued our banter as we entered the cab. The doors closed and a look of panic washed over my face as I said “Oh shit!” My boss, realizing the situation, simply laughed as we rode up 3 stories.

I managed to walk between floors after that, still disappointed in myself for taking that first ride. When we hit the lobby again, my boss asked a question which could only be answered by someone on the 10th floor. I gazed at him with the why-are-we-just-thinking-about-this-now look, and he knew I was about to break for the stairs. He replied to my nonverbal communication with “You can’t be out of breath when we walk into that office, just make it up later.” Not worth the argument, or having to wait outside an office to catch my breath, I agreed, and we ascended ten floors with the push of a button.

At this point I owed myself 13 flights of stairs.

Then two days ago we were wrapping things up in the office and I had to take some things over to 3CDC, located on the 14th floor of the Kroger building. It was already past five o’clock, and I wasn’t sure anyone would be in their office. As I walked along court street I wrestled with the stairs vs. elevator argument. My delivery couldn’t wait until the next day, and I heard my boss’ voice in my head “Just make it up later.” I succumbed to the ‘vator.

Now I was up to 27 flights of stairs.

Last night I was thinking about the make-up stairs, and frankly 27 flights seemed like a lot. To make that up in my building was going to mean hiking top to bottom over four times. While there wasn’t going to be that much time involved in executing those stair climbs, the thought of simply walking up and down the steps wasn’t all that appealing. Instead I decided to mix it in with a workout routine. I went down to our “gym” (one room with a few machines and some free weights) and started on one of my weight training circuits I’ve put together. In between sets however, I ran up the steps to the top floor and jogged back down, all in an effort to knock out some of my make-up stairs.

It was actually a great feeling to be worn out from lifting weights only to will my body upwards in the building. It kept my heart rate up when I would normally be taking a sip of water and relaxing before my next set of weights. Instead my trip back down the stairs worked as my cool down, and I was still ready to go into my next circuit.

I’ve still missed all my opportunities to climb anything over six stories thus far. But I discovered another facet of training to work into my routine, and I think that’s well worth it. Not to mention I’ve still climbed almost 10,000 stairs so far this year.

And I still can’t wait to get back to my stadium workouts this summer.