Yeah, it was a nice try.

See, the thought in my head was to use all this stair climbing as a way to gain strength and recover from a rather annoying knee injury. Instead, a minimum 400-600 stairs a day was never allowing any rest for my knees, and it was aggravating the issue (I know there are people in NY [not that people in NY read this site] that are laughing at me because they live in an 8th story walk up…whatever, blow me). So I made it a month, and for the last 15 days I have used the elevator as I normally would.

And I’ll be damned if my knee doesn’t already feel better.

Will I give it another shot? Probably not, but I may get back to taking the steps up to my office. I will certainly be taking advantage of the open stadium policy UC has at Nippert, and I plan on hiking Carew Tower and QCS at least once. But in between those episodes of stair madness, I will just be another dude on the elevator.

Still, that much of a failure (<—-notice the “ure” at the end, that is how this word is normally used, I know many of you have forgotten this basic principle) is giving me a case of the monday’s this morning.

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.

ridn dwntwn if ur in.

When it’s 40 degrees and overcast on a January weekend in Ohio, it’s “nice weather”. I jumped at the chance to cruise downtown and northern Kentucky on my bike, half riding, half hopping around on various elevations of pavement. A few hours outside was just what I needed to follow a meal I gormandized (I like new words). What I didn’t consider however, was what I was going to do in regards to not taking the elevator while still getting my bike back into my apartment.

That thought struck me as I headed back home and rode the uphill along Eggleston Ave. I was really cranking, and just as I thought about how tired my legs were getting, I remembered I still had a hike ahead of me.

I’ve been known to run/walk briskly up steps with my bike. Last summer I would ride up Reading Rd from Central Pkwy and turn up towards Gilbert. I would run up the steps next to Channel 9 with my bike on my shoulders and hop back on at the top in Mt. Adams/Eden Park.

At the tail end of this ride however, I wasn’t feeling the need to drag my bike up 6 stories. Instead I put it in the elevator and ran up the steps. I actually made it upstairs right as the doors were closing–forget the fact that my chest was heaving as I searched for air. Frankly it was still better than lugging that thing up with me.

As I sat in my apartment catching my breath, I wondered whether or not that counted as cheating in my year without elevators quest. I came up with two reasons why it’s not.

1. I’m not out to rid my life of elevators (I’m still taking them down). I’m doing this whole thing for fitness (and to see if I can). The goal is to walk up every time I have to ascend to my apartment, so in that regard, mission accomplished.

2. As an extension of the previous thought, I’m not doing this to save energy/the environment. Yes, taking an elevator takes energy, and yes, I am saving the planet one trip at a time when I walk. However that is merely a side benefit, I’m doing this for ME. So I don’t feel one iota of guilt about using the elevator (and consequent energy) to get my bike up to the sixth floor. The guy who did the year without a car said that at times he would ride his bike to go purchase something large, and have a friend with a car actually transport the purchase. If that’s not cheating than I am definitely in the clear.

But I did get a nice taste of what the summer will be like when I ride 3-5 times a week.

]]> http://www.theboilover.com/2010/01/elevatorless-challenge-the-bike/feed/ 0 http://www.theboilover.com/2010/01/my-first-challenges-of-not-using-the-elevator/ http://www.theboilover.com/2010/01/my-first-challenges-of-not-using-the-elevator/#comments Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:56:58 +0000 theboilover http://www.theboilover.com/?p=662 Last Friday I embarked on a journey to rid my life of the use of elevators for ascension for the next year (I still take them down when I don’t feel like running down the steps). It seemed so easy at the time, it was just walking up the stairs right? Well, I forgot that I don’t always come upstairs empty handed.

Groceries

Luckily I only have to shop for one, otherwise I would probably have given in already. I came back from Findlay Market Saturday morning and instinctively went for the elevator call button on the first floor. I had bags in both hands as I stood patiently in the lobby. When the elevator arrived a young couple exited the cab, and the guy provided the obligatory hand-across-the-door move to let me inside without the door crushing me or my edibles. I literally walked in and said “Shit” and angrily stepped right back out. The well-meaning couple looked understandably perplexed, and I briefly explained my resolution as I turned to the stairwell. The guy laughed and wished me luck.

While I wasn’t too laden down with groceries this trip, I made a mental note that I should refrain from my usual once a month trip to Kroger, and perhaps break that up into two trips a month. You see, I do most of my shopping at Findlay, but I still need Kroger for my non-perishables. I normally end with 6-10 bags of not-so-light purchases. I’m not sure what would be worse, making two trips to Kroger a month, making two trips to my car back to back to carry all my groceries up, or trying to carry it all at once. I see the third option ending up in me spilling stuff down the stairwell and getting more pissed than had I just taken two trips. We’ll see how this plays out over the next few weeks….

Laundry

My apartment building is great, but most of the units don’t have washers and dryers in them. There are three sets on the floor below me, and three more two floors below that. I usually walk to the 5th floor laundry, but if I have to go to the 3rd floor you better believe I take the elevator down and back up. Most of the time it’s not an issue because the 5th floor machines are open.

Of course, for my first attempt at laundry sans elevator all three 5th floor washers AND dryers were in use–meaning it was going to be a while before I was going to get anything done there. So I trudged down two more flights–and what do you know, those were all taken also! So I dragged everything back upstairs in the hopes that later in the evening my 5th floor laundry haven would open up. Sure enough it did….at 10 pm. This has taught me two things 1) never do laundry on a weekend in an apartment building and 2) I need to stick with being a night owl when it comes to chores.

Getting Drunk and Bringing Home Pizza

Saturday night, like most weekend nights for a 20-something, brought an evening of alcoholic libations, lightening my mood to the point where I thought buying a whole Lucy Blue pizza was a good idea (side note: never a good idea. Via Vite all the way). Now, the problem here doesn’t lie in my ability to carry a pizza box upstairs. No, the problem is that like most late night pizza sessions, they begin on the journey home, not upon arrival. This is where the elevator facilitates things. It’s easy to walk up, push a button, and ride in the cab, all while stuffing your face with cheese and pepperoni on a grease-laden crust. It’s much harder however, to complete pizza inhalation while carrying the box and still managing to place one foot in front of the other onto seemingly endless elevated platforms. At some point you become to concerned with the pizza to lift your feet completely, and you begin tripping up the steps rather than walking them.

Another facet of all this is that I’m not out drinking by myself. For example, when I got home saturday, my buddy (who was the pizza carrier at the time) went straight for the elevator. I laughed and told him I would meet him at the top (I had warned him of my mission earlier in the evening). Begrudgingly he said he would join me on the hike up. I smiled and grabbed the pizza box, it was the least I could do (and naturally I was ready for another piece). Over the coming year it will be interesting to see which of my friends follow me up the steps vs. taking the lazy route.

All in all, if these are the hardest struggles I go through all year, I think I’ve got this in the bag. But the first weekend was a definite crash course in the ways of the 6 story walk-up.

I’m not crazy about them, but I don’t take new years resolutions that lightly–I try and pick something reasonable, something that I can stick too. The resolution doesn’t have to be a permanent thing for me either. I take a while to think about the year before, and what it all means to me (that post is coming for 2009) and then I try and think about something I want to accomplish.

For example, last year I was just starting to get back into shape. Working out was going well, but my diet was questionable. Still, I was losing weight, so I figured it couldn’t have been that bad. My resolution was to count calories as best I could for the month of January. For the first two weeks I didn’t change my diet, I simply counted calories to see what I had been eating. I bought a food scale, and while I still grabbed handfuls of peanuts, I weighed them first to see how many servings I was inhaling. Turns out, one big handful was about 1 oz–a serving size. Overall I was consuming 2900-3500 calories a day! It really got me to think about portion size and controlling my snack urges. I stopped counting when January was over, but to this day I’m much more mindful of what I’m eating (i.e. giving up putting mayonnaise on everything).

This year it has been tough to think of something. Sure I want to stop leaving such cryptic song lyrics as facebook statuses, but that’s not resolution worthy (just something I need to do). I’m still working out and eating better, so those weren’t options. There had to be something I could work on in my life. Then it hit me on my walk into work this morning.

You see, for about the last year my boss has given up using the elevator to get up to our 4th floor office. He’ll take it down, but he always takes the 67 stairs up. I started walking up with him if we were headed back to the office together. About a month ago I decided to try and it out full time, and I haven’t taken the elevator up yet.

As I walked up the steps today I wondered if I could carry over this habit to my home life. I live on the top floor of a 6 story building with 26 steps per floor. That’s 130 every time I go up to my place. I walk up the steps from the second floor workout room (I can’t call it a gym), but I still take the elevator every other time I head up to my apartment.

Yesterday I gave it a shot. Similar with my experience to quitting the office elevator, the hardest part is breaking the habit. When I got home from work, I grabbed my mail and called the elevator. I got right in and paged through envelopes as I ascended with no effort. The door opened on 6 and I realized that I had completely forgotten about the stairs. So I took it right back down and walked up. It feels pretty stupid doing that, and it gets you out of the habit fast. Sure enough, when I got home from racquetball–even as tired as I was–I walked up to the elevator, and as I was about to push the button I remembered the steps. By the end of next week I won’t even think twice about it, I’ll just head right over to the stairs.

I want to take this further than just my office and apartment building. I’m going to try and go for the remainder of 2010 without riding UP in an elevator. And I vow to go to the observation deck at Carew Tower at least once.

Hey at least it’s not A Year Without A Car.

I’m sure I’ll post throughout the year how it’s working out. It gives me an excuse to go through some tall buildings just to take the steps. And the more people that know about it, the more embarrassed I’ll be if I give in.