Making progress, got to make more!

It's been awhile since i've checked in!

My diet has been generally better.  I've been cutting out a lot of the processed food, and am relying much more on vegetables, fruit, and legumes.

I would think this would result in more weight loss, but in the past 6 weeks i've gone from 181 to 179. But i think i've put on a few pounds of muscle at the same time, so i guess there has been more than two pounds of fat loss.

I've been focusing more on intervals on the stairclimber focusing on making improvements at US bank and sears tower.  Most of my workouts have been flat out on the machine, for example 162 steps a minute for 2 minutes, 50 seconds of rest, flat out again for 2 minutes, 50 seconds rest, etc, until i have 12 minutes at 162 steps a minute. My dream goal is to keep reducing those rest intervals until i don't need them anymore.

My goal at US bank is 12 minutes, i could do that going 135 steps a minute.  The extra 28 steps a minute accounts for the added difficulty of real stairs and turning.

My goal at sears is 17, which is "only" 124 steps a minute.  But after US bank, i will add intervals so i'm doing 18 minutes, which will require lengthening my breaks.  But i will want to do 18 minutes of intervals at 162 S/M, then hold myself to 124 steps a minute once i get in the building.

The 5K in august feels like a distraction to me now, i'd rather be focusing 100% on stairclimbing, but i also know it's good cross training.

After i'm through with my current batch of fruit, i'm going to watch my carbs for awhile, focusing on lean veggie protein and vegetables, and do some longer workouts, making a concerted effort to push my weight down to at least 175, while maintaining my interval fitness.

Right now, i feel overworked. I ran 10 miles with Kristin and Brady, which was fun, but i'm not a distance runner, and this beat up my legs.  My 5k practice a few days later was incredibly slow ( 23:55 )

In summation, i'm making some progress, but need to work harder to realize my goals of cutting 10% off of my times.

Month plus recap: Holding pattern?

I missed this checkin by a bit!  Over a month has passed, and I must say, i'm glad i have this log to keep me focused.

My diet has been hit or miss, i've too easily let myself become distracted.  I also signed up for a 5k and so i've beeb running too.  I had 7 days hiking and vacationing, so no real HIT workouts and my diet was too much trail mix and too much alcohol.

Nonetheless, my weight is down a little bit ( 178.5 ) and i had some decent workouts after getting back.  I tried a HIT workout soon after i got back, and bonked a bit.  Trying to get back on my healthy diet.

So, feeling this blog has been a great help to me, i'm going to redouble my focus on it, and update it in three weeks, seeing if 21 days of intense refocus after vacation can make a real difference.

Goals:

* Super clean eating, no alcohol, sugar, excess fats.  Definitely work to increase my greens and vegetable intake even more.  Watch the grains.
* Focus on healthy fuel immediately after workouts. Green smoothie is best.
* Make sure every 4th day or so is some form of recovery day.
* Make sure i do at least 2 sculpt yoga classes a week for muscular development.

Summer plans

After the race season ended for me, i purposely gave myself a little break.  I was, frankly, burned out!  My last few races had been quite poor, no reason to keep pushing.  With my goal of improving 10%, my fitness plans from last year wouldn’t be good enough, so i spent a lot of time researching various aspects of fitness to devise a plan to bring my fitness to the next level.

One thing to keep in mind is that i am not only, or perhaps even primarily, a stair racing athlete.  I am primarily a Yogi, and if you want to get really bored one day, ask me how great i think yoga has been for me.   So aside from my planned improvements in stairclimbing, i plan to expand and deepen my yoga practice as well.  So my improvement plan must reflect that goal.  

Fortunately, these goals are not necessarily divergent.  Some of the things i am doing to help me become faster at the stairs will help me at yoga, and vice-versa.  

In general, cardiovascular fitness and strength will pay big dividends at yoga.  Cardiovascular fitness means i can do more classes and remain at an equanimous level. Strength and cardio means i can do a class, and keep my breathing smooth and even, and not be getting into a bad place with my pulse and breathing.  Losing weight will pay big dividends for yoga, as well as for stair racing, and will also help me to keep cool in both environments.  If i can be zen while torturing myself on the stairs, certainly i can be zen in yoga class as well.

Where these activities might be in conflict is mostly in time and flexibility and time.  I typically have spent a lot of time in the gym doing submaximal workouts to build a cardio base for the stair races.  These took away time i could have used for yoga, and also seemed to tighten me up more than my sprint workouts.

So, this leads to the “exercise” part of my big change from last year.  My basic stair training workout will be short, intense sessions.  Most of my races are going to be 10-15 minutes, a few of them should be under 10 minutes.  So most of my training sessions will be 10 minutes or so, and a long one might be 20 minutes.  The power hours did me no favors, and i can simply forget about them and focus on my speed/power in the shorter races.  Instead of hours on the stairmaster, i’ll do hours of yoga.  Better for my mind, better for my flexibility.

Several articles i read seem to indicate that the best sort of overall health/fitness routine is lots of easy activity ( gardening, walking, yoga ) with brief bouts of intense exercise. And, in particular, you can do fine with sprinting workouts  Here is an good article on sprinting, it can increase fitness and burn a lot of fat in a little time.

Part of the reason for the long workouts was to burn fat.  I’ve lost a lot of fat over the past few years, but there is still a bit to go, and it’s been increasingly stubborn. But i’ve come to the conclusion that the long workouts are just not the right approach, except maybe when there’s a football game i want to watch, and i can do it from the stairmaster.  That aside, an hour on the stairmaster is 1000 calories if i push it, and 1000 calories of high-calorie food can be ingested in a few seconds.  It’s more time efficient to just not eat that food.  

So i need to keep my calories down.  I’ve had the most success over the years doing so with various intermittent fasting protocols.  I know a lot of people are convinced that you need to eat often to keep your metabolism up, and that fasting will ruin your fat loss and muscle gains, but almost all the research shows the opposite.  Here is an excellent article by my friend PJ.  Martin berkhan has thoroughly debunked most fasting myths with links to lots of great research.

Two summers back i lost 10 pounds in eight weeks doing the warrior diet, which is essentially fasting during the day, working out, and having a big dinner.  I lost no muscle, and it was incredibly easy.  I gave it up for a few reasons.  One, because it was hard to get in the intensity of cardio i wanted.  Two, because it was often socially challenging--people think it’s weird when you skip meals.  Three, because it was hard to get in enough clean calories at that one big meal, even when i was trying to lose weight! I still do this on my solo vacations, and it’s great.  You can get in an extra hour of two of sightseeing when you’re skipping breakfast and lunch, and you are paying for one overpriced vacation meal instead of three.  

Now, i’m going with eat stop eat, in which you fast 1-2 times a week.  This is also called the 5/2 diet.  Basically 1-2 times a week, you have a normal/smallish dinner, then don’t eat again until the next dinner, so you go 24 hours without food.  Unlike the warrior diet, you have a full 24 hour fast, and you don’t go into the fast stuffed with food.  So autophagy ( the body’s clean-up and repair mechanism ) gets fully activated.  You are also forced to run on stored bodyfat for some period of time, especially if you are active during the fasting period.  

My basic plan is that i have a set weight ( for me 179 pounds ) and when i weigh over that on the scale in the morning, i fast that day, except if i fasted the previous day--this is unlikely to be a problem, as i am never “over” after a fasting day.  If i want to drop weight, i follow the same rules, and lower my set weight every 1-2 weeks, so i’ll be fasting more often.  Even if i am trying to GAIN i fast once a week, just for the health benefits.  

As for what i’m eating, my research has led to me adopting a much more vegan diet.  In particular, i am no longer that worried about my protein intake; i think it’s difficult to eat too little protein.  There are superb athletes ( such as Michael Arnstein ) eating the 80/10/10 diet, 80% carbohydrates, 10% protein, 10% fat.  I don’t know if i’ll get that extreme, but if people can perform superbly on that little fat and protein, i obviously don’t have to struggle to include it at every meal.  I also think that while diet may matter less for optimal athletics than many people think, plant-based eating is the right choice for both our health ( cancer & neurodegenerative risks ) as well as for the environment & ethics.  Meat, egg, and dairy farming creates more co2 than our transit systems, causes loss of countless acres of forest & wild land, and most food animals are suffering intensely.  So not more omelets for me when i am on the road, to make sure i get my protein.  I’ll be fine having salads, oatmeal, fruit, nuts, etc.  Here’s what i would think of as a perfect eating day. Not that i think i’m that disciplined in general...

So, the short of it, here’s my summer plan:

1) Fasting to maintain or reduce weight, and to protect against neurodegeneration and cancer.

2) Going entirely plant based, going low fat, moderate protein.  Perhaps 70% carb , 15% protein, 15% fat, and not worrying if i get closer to 80/10/10. A perfect day of food might look like this:

3) Short, intense stair workouts 2-3 times a week.  ( only on non-fasting days )

4) Lots of yoga, especially at the end of fasting days. Focus on skills and workout recovery.

5) Intense weight session ( design courtesy of Alex Workman ) about once a week--definitely not on a fasting day.

6) Easy cardio as recreation--bike ride, run, but just use it for pleasure.

As of this morning, i was 180 pounds, and my most recent hard workout was 151 steps/minute for 10 minutes, with one 25 second break at 80 steps/minute about 6:30. I'm going to really focus for this month, and reassess how this plan has affected my weight/climbing speed before a vacation to Tennessee. So i'll update this june 8. See you all then!

The 2012-2013 race season is over, and looking back on it, i’m pretty happy, though i think i definitely burned out towards the end, and didn’t put in a hard enough effort in some races.  In particular, i think my hancock, stratosphere, and big climb results were pretty lame.  

BUT i did hit my goal of increasing all my times generally by 10% which is pretty great.

Race	2011	2012	improvement
sears	21:02 ( 1262 seconds )	19:21 ( 1161 seconds )	8%
aon	14:45 ( 885 seconds )	12:55 (775 seconds)	14%
hancock	15:32 (932 seconds)	13:40 (820 seconds)	13%

Some observations:

1) I did better in the shorter races.  My improvement at sears was less than in other races, and i think i did relatively poorer yet in the power hour climbs.  

2) Even more so, it seems the races i did after the power hours, i did quite poorly.  Although i improved almost as much at hancock as at Aon, the year before at hancock i’d had the flu and had spent the night before throwing up, so the improvement there was not as drastic.

3) I didn’t hit the start of the season quite where i wanted to be, and trained during the season to improve my condition, which combined with races, travel, etc, left me pretty burned out and tired by the end of the season.  

4)  I definitely felt trashed by the power hours, especially when i did one six days after the other.  I definitely overestimated my ability to recover during race season.

5) I finished too many races fresh.   Late in the race, i was unwilling to pass someone even when i should have.  

So, with that mind, i am going to work all summer trying to hit the season in better shape, so i have less need to improve & lose weight during the season.  My goal is to take 10% off all of my times, which would mean:

race	2012-2013	2013-2014 (10% improvement goal)	Would have placed / what i got
US bank	13:20 (800 seconds)	12:00 (720 seconds)
Sears tower	19:20 (1160 seconds)	17:24 (1044 seconds)	21st / 69th
300 n LsSalle	9:45 ( 585 seconds)	8:46 (526 seconds)	5th / 13th
Aon Chicago	12:55 ( 775 seconds )	11:37 ( 697 seconds )	9th / 23rd
Hancock	13:40 ( 820 seconds )	12:19 ( 738 seconds )	22nd / 67th
Stratosphere	10:45 ( 645 seconds )	9:40 ( 580 seconds )	21st / 34th
presidential towers	20:43 ( 1243 seconds )	18:38 ( 1118 seconds )	10th  / 20th

What am i going to do differently?

1) Starting my high intensity workouts now, which will allow me to aim for a much slower increase in my high-intensity fitness.  Ease into the season fairly fresh

2) Work more on muscular development, and muscular endurance, My legs were used up before my cardio was.  Go way deeper in yoga poses, lift, climb stairs in a weighted vest.

3) Edge weight from 181 to 170.  Don’t attempt to lose weight during the season, even allow a pound or two to creep on during the season, if that’s what my body is asking for.

4) Focus more on between-workout recovery, eating super clean, anti-inflammatory recovery meals, lots of carbs & moderate protein right after workouts.  i had been too carb-phobic, and i think it hurt me, as i was not able to work out at a high enough intensity often enough.  

5) I need to do more tortuous workouts to build the mental fortitude to suffer and even pass someone at the late stages of a race.   With even a long race being under 20 minutes, it’s only a tiny blip in my day/week/month.  

2012-2013 end of the season retrospect

I really let this journal slide, so instead of writing up each race after it way happened, i’m going to wrap up the season with a few sentences of each:

Springfield hilton: another great event, it was awesome seeing justin and oz power up the stairs, flying past me repeatedly.  I started off slow and steady, but 40 minutes into the race, i began to feel really sick.  i slowed down a bit, and went hard on my second to last climb so could get into the stairs one more time.  I managed it, and got 9 climbs, a nice result for me.  

Hustle up the hancock: I was hoping to come in under 13 minutes, as the climb is actually a few feet shorter than Aon and i had some gas left after that race.  There was an accident on the highway so i was very late to the race, and i had a mad scramble to get to the starting line in time, but i made it just as people were starting to go.  I started off feeling OK, but 20 floors in, my legs felt heavy and stiff, and i moved into damage control mode.  I got passed by numerous people, so i felt i had not validated my elite start.  I finished with cardio gas in the tank, and my legs felt better too.  Somehow being so out of it mentally at the start ( as well as physically ) meant i had no finishing grit or sprint.  I began to wonder if the two power hours had used me up and i had not been able to recover.

Scale the strat: i got into vegas super late ( my plane was delayed ) and the check-in line was an hour.  Even though i had figured out the building splits, and many racers had used my spreadsheet, i didn’t figure out my own pace.  I went too slow, and close to the end realized i wasn’t tired enough.  I made a mad sprint, but it was too late to make up time.  Still, i was tired.  I was definitely feeling burned out, overtrained, whatever.

Presidential towers: I finished my first climb and felt pretty good, feeling relatively fresh even though i was much faster than the year before.  I stuck to my pacing track until the last 7-8 floors, then sprinted.  Tower 2, i hit my headphones,and stopped my audio track, though i ended up with almost the same time. #3 someone hit my ipod and reset my timing track, but again, i climbed hard and had a good time.  However, i began to feel really bad, sick, pukey. I took a long break after 3, but still felt really bad climbing #4.  I stuck to my pace until 20, then let myself fall slowly behind, but gutted out the last 10 floors, not letting myself fall anymore behind.  I was really happy to come in under 21 minutes ( 20:42 ) for 188 floors and ¼ mile run.  

Big climb ( seattle ) : I’d spent the previous few days hiking and running with kristin and brady in olympic park. I’m not sure if it impacted me, or i was just done with racing, but i failed to push myself very hard during this climb.  My time was not awful, ( 10:45 ) but i knew i should have been a minute faster, and i was out of the points.  

Looking back on the season, there were two sub-seasons, both of which i started out very strong, then fell off.  US bank and Aon chicago were the first races after months, and in both of those i did very well.  I managed to grind out presidential, but my last race, big climb, was just lame.  I think next season i either need to do fewer races, no power hours, figure out how to recover better, or some combination thereof.  

Overall i'm happy with the season, i learned a lot, but i know i can do better!!!

Oakbrook was something new for me, a power hour: One hour of all the climbs of a building that i could muster.  

My brother Alex came to town to see my event, which was really cool.  Saturday we visited family and saw a comedy show.  This wasn’t my usual pre-race day, as travelling and visiting, and didn’t eat the best food, and even spent a fair bit of time being hungry, but it was my first power hour and i decided to not worry about my results too terribly much. My hip got really stiff the day before, but i kneaded it a lot. I wasn't happy that I had to stand for 2 hours for the comedy show, but neither that nor the hip seemed to affect me during the race.

I woke up a bit earlier than i needed to; i always get nerves before a race!  I made a banana & dark cherry smoothie for some energy, and threw in a little coffee.  Nice mix, tasty!  Alex and i went to the race, checked in, i got dressed, and before too long we were lining up to climb!  

Oz and Kristin lined up at the front, as they should, being clearly the two strongest climbers there.  I was about 20 spots back.  Before too long, i was heading up the steps.  My strategy was to Do the first few climbs in about 6 minutes each to warm up, then pick up the pace to about 5:30 each, hopefully allowing me to get into the door at the base a 10th time.  I wasn’t sure this was realistic, but it seemed like a good goal to shoot for.  

A few people went past me, but i passed a few before the first climb was over. I looked at my iphone and saw i had done almost 6 on the dot.  One of my climbing friends ( Dave McGrath ) who had surged past me was in the elevator with me, and one of the other climbers said we would be exiting to the left, and Dave trusted him and ran down the wrong hallway entirely. I went after him so he wouldn’t lose too much time, and we started our second ascent.  ½ way through the ascent, oz passed me, meaning he was on his third lap while i was only ½ way through my second, amazing!  Near the top, Kristin passed me as well, and i stuck with her for a few floors, and she, oz, and i took the elevator down together.  

You can see all this ( the first two climbs ) here: Go Pro of the first two climbs

After that, i just focused on maintaining a steady pace.  After awhile, i lost track of how many climbs i had done, which i found annoying, and i also forgot to check my time when i started, so i had no idea what sort of lap times i was doing.  I did know the time, so i decided to “go” when it was 45 minutes in.  

I started the first lap after 45 minutes pretty fast, on a 5 or sub 5 minute pace, but after 10 floors, i developed a pretty significant side stitch.  It really hurt!  So i slowed back down to my previous pace after a few floors of going very slow to try to work the stitch out.  I was hopeful that maybe i could pick up the pace a little and get through the door with a minute left.  

Right around then, Kristin passed me again, so she was two laps ahead of me.  Amazing!  Later in that climb, Oz passed me again too.  So, she was ahead of him now, but i wasn’t sure if that translated to the standings of time in stairs counting as a tiebreak or if she might be able to get in an extra climb.  

I got downstairs for a climb when my timer said there were 3 minutes left, and i knew my last climb was coming.  I was pretty exhausted, and waited to go up for a minute by my brother and Oz’s wife Kristie.  Although i thought there were 3 minutes left, someone called out “One minute!” So i sprinted to the steps to make sure i could get in one more climb that would count.  I took the first 10-15 floors very easy, and stopped to thank the volunteers along the way for their support.  

At the bottom, we learned that Oz and Kristin had both completed 11 climbs each, with Kristin spending 12 fewer seconds in the stairs, so she was the overall winner!  Oz had clocked the fastest single lap between them a scorching 3:18, the second fastest climb of the day, even among people who had just done 1 climb.  Both amazing athletes!

I ended up completing 9 climbs, and these were my times:

5:59    5:45    5:54    5:57    6:02    6:01    5:52    6:04    6:37

I was pretty happy i was able to be so accurate with my goal of 6 minutes per climb with no external references.  #2 was where i chased kristin up the last few floors, so it was a few second faster than average.  #7 was where i started fast and got a stitch, and #9 was where i didn’t have another climb to sneak in and i took it easy and thanked volunteers.  

I was ok with this result, i was hoping for 10, but it was my first climb, and 10 may have been a tough goal in any case, as my friend Dave McGrath, who is quite a bit faster than me, “only” got 10, and pushed himself hard enough to throw up to do so.  Nonetheless, i learned a lot, one thing being that i need to perhaps have a better nutrition and hydration strategy to prevent another side stitch.  With another power hour coming up in only 6 days, i had something to prepare for!



Altering my diet and fitness goals:

Part of the reason i took up stairclimbing in the first place was to lose weight, and it definitely has been good for that. very steady, very slow but consistent weight loss.  Nonetheless, i have been frustrated at the slowing of my weight loss, having hovered between 175 and 180 for months.  

My weight loss until now has been mostly due to calorie counting.  It has been good for me and my health, but obviously, its efficacy has declined.  I think there are many reasons for that.  One is that i have gotten more resistant to weighing and estimating calories in my food.  it is just a hassle and an inconvenience.  Another is that as i have gotten more healthy and eaten less packaged food, it has become harder to estimate the calories in things like seeds, bulk nuts, produce, and the like.  I had a quandry: i didn’t want to eat packaged, processed food, but without doing so, my calorie estimation was bad enough to slow or stop my weight loss.  

Last year during race season i stopped counting calories, and instead of that, i just made the effort to eat healthy, and my weight stayed the same. So, i decided to make that  permanent. No more counting calories and grams of protein.  Instead, just eat healthier than ever, avoiding packaged food, eating lots of nutrient-dense, high-fiber, low calorie natural items.  It just no longer made sense to choose foods i knew to be less healthy so i could count calories better.  I am also making the effort to be much more vegan.  Since i am no longer counting calories or macros, i have much less need to eat eggs or protein bars or low fat cheese so i can hit some calorie/protein goal.  And, emperically, i feel better when i don’t eat those things.

What if i start to gain weight?  How would i be sure i’d lose weight?  Well, i have been playing with intermittent fasting, and really enjoying it.  To fast, i have a small dinner at 7-8PM, then eat nothing until a smallish dinner the next day, doing 1-2 hours of easy cardio in the evening before the dinner, or 1-2 yoga classes.  After the 22+ hour fast, your body is entirely in fat burning mode, so that cardio or yoga is completely burning fat stores.  Additionally, there are a lot of physiological benefits to fasting, including anti-aging, anti-cancer, growth hormone release ( predisposing you towards muscle building ) and a slight increase in metabolism.  If you are skeptical, check this out: http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/the-benefits-of-occasional-fasting-20121116

Reading that, it seems like a slam dunk to fast at least one day a week, especially as it makes the rest of my diet much easier to manage, and on days when i am working out intensely, i can eat a nice calorie surplus to make sure i put on some muscle from my workout.  

So my plan is to fast 1-2 days a week as my schedule allows.  On those days, i save 1+ hours by skipping breakfast and lunch.  I check my weight every morning, and if my weight is over my goal weight, i fast that day, unless it is before a race.  I will gradually lower my goal weight 1 pound every 10 days to reach my goal of 165 by mid-june.  

So i have a nice, mechanical system that will guarantee my results, as long as i follow the simple edict: fast on days when my weight was too high.  After some practice, fasting is no big deal.  Even on non fasting days, i DON’T eat if i’m not hungry; there is no obligation to consume because i think i should to work out, or there is some social occasion that normally necessitates eating.  

Also, with my being so happy with my results at Aon a few weeks ago (12:55, 23rd overall), i am feel this race season already successful!  The only race i will be doing again is hancock, and i am sure to PR there, as my previous best there is 15:32, and i think <13 is realistic there if i hit everything just right.  However, i will be happy with any sort of PR.   Looking forward to next season, and other fitness and yoga goals, so i am doing more muscle building and sculpting work.  Having a beach bod for summer can’t hurt. :)

On with the upward spiral!

Dave

For the 2 days before the Aon race, i let my body rest, taking only a yoga workshop friday night, and doing easier versions of a few poses.  Saturday, i stayed in, tidied the house, and caught up with a few e-mails.  Roxanne showed up around 4, and we hung out, then went to visit some very cool friends of hers, then headed out for dinner. We were near amitabul, my favorite restaurant, so we went there.  I had over-eaten there before my previous race, so i was very careful with my food choices this time, ordering soup, and only eating ½ of that.  That being said, their bowls of soup are utterly ginormous,  and half of that was plenty of food for me.  We each brought ½ of our meals home, and snacked a bit.  I had a few of the dark chocolate peanut butter cups roxanne got at trader joe’s.  I could have eaten half the container, i had to work hard to stop myself at two.  There is a good reason why i don’t keep things like that in the house!

My clock was set for 6am, but i woke up at 5:30.  Unable to grab any more sleep, i went to dunkin donuts to get our per-race coffees.  I always have a big coffee pre-race, not only because the caffeine provides some extra energy, but ( this gets a tad graphic here ) because it gets my insides moving, and with any luck i can leave few pounds behind that i would otherwise have to carry up the stairs.  Every little bit helps!  And it did that morning.

We dressed and got ready.  I was anxious, but not overly so.  The drive to the race was non-eventful and the guard at the lot waved us by without checking our race materials, saying “You look like those athletic types”.  Very funny.  We checked in, got our bibs and chips, and said hi to old friends.  I had to pee, but i was pretty early.  I could stretch a bit, then go, then check gear, then line up.

Then i noticed a problem.  My bib number was 16, but my chip was 15!  My bib had my name on it, so my chip was wrong.  What to do?!?  I contacted a volunteer, then got led around to different race personnel as they tried to figure out what to do. Time was ticking, and i still hadn’t checked my gear or gone to the bathroom.  I started to get really nervous.  They started to lead me to the start line, but i told them i had to check my gear.  A volunteer kindly took my gear to the check for me, and then i was led to the timing table, through the rapidly gathering crowd.  They started to make a new bib and chip for me, but it was going to take a while, and make me miss the start, more than likely.  I was bummed out, with the probability of missing the elite start i had worked so hard for, and likely therefore not making my goal time.

Then someone pointed out the runner that actually HAD bib 15.  I went over to him, and, amazingly, he had my chip.  We quickly switched chips, and i told the timer what had happened, and he complimented me on being a solver.  But it was time to start, and he started sending up runners.  And i still had to pee.  Well, i was hoping to finish in 13 minutes, could i hold it that long?  Probably.  I has no idea what was going to happen, but i was wired, anxious; i hadn’t gotten a chance to warm up, and my bladder was full.  Mentally, i kissed my sub 13 minute goal goodbye, but i decided i was just going to go do my best.  Karen lined up right behind me, and roxanne just after her.  Karen had been with me at both sears tower and US bank, finishing faster than me both times, but providing me a lot of inspiration in the steps.  And, she’s been encouraging and boosting me tremendously, so i was glad to have her there.  Before i knew it, it was my turn, and i crossed the timing pad and headed up the stairs.  

As i crossed the pad and heard the beep of my chip registering, i pressed play on my ipod.  I make mp3 tracks that have music themed for the parts of the race ( for example, starting with relax, to remind me to start slow ) , as well as a synthesized voice that counts off floors and times.  My goal was to do the first 69 floors at 10 seconds a floor, then the last 10 at 9 seconds floor, for a small closing sprint.  Again, much of that now seemed unlikely, but i was going to do my best.  

Right away, i was behind, presumably because the first few floors were taller than the others.  Also, with the stress and distraction of my bib situation, i forgot to tuck my headphone cord into my shirt, so i promptly knocked my headphones off and nearly tripped over the cord.  Idiot.  I had to let go of the handrail and deal with this situation, but kept climbing as i put the headphones back on and looped the loose cord around my neck, hoping it wouldn’t somehow tighten and cut off my air.  I was nearly a floor behind, but put on a surge and caught up.  I had decided beforehand not to let myself fall off my pace unless i was physically incapable of keeping it up. Maybe i would burn out at 15, but i didn’t want to be cursing myself at 70 for being 5 floors behind with fresh legs.

I focused on my step pattern.  Aon is almost 10 and turn all the way up, and i had figured out the most efficient step pattern.  Single step with the inside foot, two doubles with each foot, then a long single step with the outside foot so the left could skip the landing entirely and go from the 9th step from the staircase behind me to the 1st step of the one in front.  You can do the reverse, pivoting on the inside foot, and a few times during the race, i did that for a little while, but i was focused on only putting one foot on the landing whenever possible.  Many racers take 2-3 steps on a landing, and also double step every step, which means one leg is doing 2 steps and the other 3, leading to a more tired leg. Also, by mixing in single and double steps, you utilize different muscle fibers helping to keep the legs fresh.   I figured it was better to do my efficient step pattern slowly and deliberately, and conserve energy.  And i was still moving at a very good clip.

But someone was catching up to me!  Karen was quickly on my heels.  I peeked back to see if she looked as if she wanted to pass me, but she seemed to be ok, using me as a pacer for a while.  I must have misread that, though, because soon she passed me on the outside.  I felt bad, it was very poor etiquette on my part to not get out of her way so she could pass on the more efficient inside.  She started to pull away from me, and i resisted the urge to go after her, but my pacing track kept reminding me of my 10 second a floor goal.  Soon karen was a floor ahead and almost out of sight, on floor 15 of a 80 floor race!

But not quite!  She remained a floor ahead for a few floors, and then my predetermined pace gradually caught me up to her.  I knew i was not going to ask her to let me pass, but she stepped aside once i got close, and i again felt bad for making her go around me.  She settled in behind me, and i just focused on sticking to my pace.  She had gone a little too hard at the start, and i could keep both of us on track.  

That worked from about 20-30, but then she started to drop back. By 35 or so, she was out of sight, and i was sorry to see her go.  But i was still feeling great, still periodically slowing myself down so as to not get ahead of where i wanted to be.  From 35-50 i didn’t see anyone but the volunteers thrusting cups of water towards me.  I wondered if they were feeling bad no one was taking water, but i knew none of the elites would.  

At 50 i saw a large figure obscuring the light from above, and realize it was Sid, another friend of mine from the races.  He looked back, smiled, stepped aside, and said “Good going dave” as he slapped me on the back.  I said something back, but i forget what.  That was quite a boost for me, and i felt re energized seeing him.  I was still on my pace, and still feeling good, now starting to wonder if my goal was achievable after all.  

My legs were starting to feel tired, but i started to play a game i often played in the gym.  When i have a workout planned, say 140 steps/minute for 18 minutes.  Often at only 5 minutes i find myself thinking i can’t keep up my pace for as long as planned.  So what i do is say “Ok, maybe i can’t do 10 more minutes, but i can do 2 more and see where i am.”   Often i can keep doing that until i hit my original goal.  In this case i had 30 floors left, and the last ten were going to be at a faster pace than what i was doing now.  I wasn’t sure i could do it, but 5 more seemed like no big deal, so i focused on going 5 floors, and reassessing.  at 55, i felt exactly like how i felt at 50, so i just focused on keeping the same pace to 60.  

At 60 i saw someone else ahead. It was Scott!  Soon i was on his heels, and he stepped aside to let me pass, saying something along the lines of “Doing great, Dave”!  Again, it was a huge boost to see a friendly face in there, and i felt re-energized.   

Then i decided to employ a bit of race planning i hadn’t expected to be able to make use of.  I had decided in the extremely off chance i still felt good at 60, i was going to pick up the pace a little, so i had some time in the bank when i hit 70.  It was hardly much of an increase, but i started to hit the landings a second ahead, then 2, then 3.  By the time i hit 70, where i was supposed to go to 9 second a floor pace, i was a whole floor ahead.  Automatically, i picked up the pace a little more.  

Then i was almost 2 floors ahead at 73 and it hit me: i had the race in the bag: 7 floors left and i was almost 20 seconds under my goal.  I could take it easy and still be under my goal.  Even if i lost 20 seconds over the next 5 floors, i would be on track, and with all that rest, i could easily sprint the last 2 and still come in under.  If i kept pushing it, who knew, i could face plant or black out or just trip over my feet and screw up.  

So i backed off, still double-stepping but focusing on good form, deep breathing.  I started to lose a few seconds, but before i knew it, i was on 79, and i popped up the last staircase and across the mat.  I stumbled out into the ballroom, and several seconds later heard my timing track count off “13 minutes”.  It was over, and i had crossed the mat about five seconds before my timer had counted off 13 minutes.  I had succeeded!

I looked around for a group of people, but everyone seemed far away in corners and along the wall.  And, the room was pretty empty. I realized i had probably been only the 12th or so person to emerge from the door into this giant ballroom, and that was why it was eerily quiet and empty.  I walked towards the center, and thought that even though i could probably walk it off, it was a perfectly fine to go to the floor.  I laid myself down, and doubt much could have gotten me off the floor for the next few minutes.  I had spent most of the race feeling pretty good, but as i lay on the floor, waves of exhaustion washed over me.

About 2-3 minutes later, though, i felt fine, and more of my friends were emerging from the stairs, or had already emerged and were recovering themselves, so i mingled and checked in how everyone had done, getting some photos.  Kristin had apparently won the women’s, possibly tying her course record, which was great, as she had been very pessimistic about her training. Sproule had apparently won the men’s.  When people asked what my time had been, i told them i estimated 12:55, and since i had been declaring my goal was sub 13, i got a lot of hearty congratulations.

We went back down, and several of us climbed again, but i went to look for my cousin, kyle, so i could pace hm up ( he’s 11 ).  Kristin went with me, and we waited in line to go up again.  Kristen took off at her torrid pace, and one of the climbers behind me and kyle saw i was a pacer, and stuck with us.  I watched the clock to keep kyle on or under his goal time of < 25 minutes, slowing him down a few times to avoid burn out.  The woman stuck with us until 70, where despite my encouragement, she slowed down.  Her goal had been 23, and i thought she was in danger of missing it, but i wished her luck and kept on.  At 75, kyle sprinted, and we were at 80 before we knew it!  We had gotten a little under 22:30, several minutes faster than the previous year.  Even better, when we had hit the top in previous years, all the food was gone, but this time there were tons of cookies.  We took the elevator down after getting some pictures, and there were great muffins at the base; i took two cinnamon crumbs for myself.  Nice reward after two 80 floor climbs!

We gathered the team together, and decided that instead of driving distance for a pancake eating contest, we’d go next door and have a regular meal.  We had a great time, and scott purchased food for us.  Rox and i drove scott to the airport, but because we were stuck in the Aon parking lot for 30-40 minutes, we missed scott’s flight.  Fortunately, he was able to get on the next one.  We had a great time, even given the adversity.  I drove rox to my place, and she quickly packed and left, hoping to beat the ice storm.

Soon the results were posted, and i saw that my time estimate had been spot-on at 12:55.  That was good for 23rd place, both tremendous accomplishments for me!  Kyle had gone 22:18, surely placing him highly in his age group.  

I went to a yoga class that evening, and did most of it, except for a few of the squats where i had to hold my weight up.  It was my favorite teacher’s last class, and i couldn’t miss it.  Afterwards we went out for beer and pizza, and i had a little of both, though i made sure to fill up on the protein bars i brought.  

All in all, a fabulous day!!