Stan’s Obligatory Blog

I just heard word that the San Diego Towerthon is on again for this June. I did this last year, and I did pretty well, climbing the 25-story building 17 times in 2 hours.

That evening, I was adding it up, and 17 times up the building totals 5,015 feet climbed. And this planted the seed of an idea. I figured out that 18 times up that building would make a vertical mile. I made this a personal goal, and I finally made my vertical mile stair climb at one of the practice sessions at the Aon building last month. And along the way, I managed to convince several other people to do it, too. It’s a deliberately crazy idea, and I’m a bit surprised that it caught on.

So my goal for the Towerthon this year is to do 18 or more times up the building. That totals 432 floors, 5,310 feet, and 9,108 steps.

How hard could it be?

Today was the “Fight for Air” stair climb put on by the Lung Association. This is my fifth time doing this event. Oddly enough, it never gets any easier. But after all the practice sessions at the building for the last three months, I think I’m about as ready as I’m going to be.

We rode the train downtown, since that’s just so much easier than driving. We got there just a few minutes before it was time to line up. I was in the lead group, given the lucky number 13. We were roughly lined up in order of our finishing times from last year. I’d made up a little card to rubber-band to my arm with floor targets of where I planned on being at each one-minute mark on the way up. I was hoping to do roughly the same time as last year, which was 11:31.

When it was my turn, I trotted into the stairwell and headed up. I managed to stay on schedule up to about the 24th floor or so. Then I started to fall behind a bit. It wasn’t too bad, but I didn’t feel as good as I had at my last practice run on Tuesday. And by 45 or so, I was fully into the “OMG! What the HELL was I thinking when I signed up for this?!?!” mode. And that’s not conducive to doing a good time. Still, I managed to keep going, and I stumbled out onto the roof with a time of 11:45.

At the top, we got the whole West Coast Labels group together for a picture on the roof. I also got a picture with George. He had found a couple of errors in my chart of the staircase, and one evening we walked up together, counting and taking measurements. He has a real eye for detail, and I’m glad that he was able to check out and fix my chart. He was also excited that his time of 11:49 was only four seconds behind mine.

After coming back down, we hung around and visited with everyone I’ve gotten to know in this crazy sport, and I finally walked up the stairs a second time with Jane and Lisa. We did it at a moderate pace, so it was fun. And we still passed lots of people on the way up.

In the end, the day was a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, I didn’t go as fast as I’d wanted to, or as fast as I think I can. But on the other hand, I came in 20th out of 617 climbers, so I really can’t complain. At least not without looking kind of stupid. So overall, it was an all-right experience.

Full results are here: http://raceresults.eternaltiming.com/index.cfm/20130406_Fight_For_Air_Stair_Climb_-_Los_Angeles.htm

A couple weeks ago, I went downtown to meet with Evan from KCRW so we could climb the stairs at the Aon building and talk about the sport of competitive stair climbing. The final piece that he made was broadcast yesterday. And here’s the link to the blog posting at KCRW about it, including a Soundcloud link so you can listen to it:

http://blogs.kcrw.com/whichwayla/2013/04/the-hardest-sport-youve-never-heard-of

This evening was the my last practice session on the Aon building staircase before the race this Saturday. I wanted to try an experiment, and I made up a little card with targets of where I wanted to be at each one-minute mark in the race. In order to test this out, I had to start from ground level, so tonight I walked down the staircase to the door to start.

Pretty much right away, I was behind schedule. The first section of the staircase is 80 steps, and it has a lot of short flights and turns, so it took longer than a ‘normal’ 80 steps should take. So I was behind schedule by the time I got to my first time point at 6. But I managed to stay about the same amount of time behind schedule the rest of the way up.

My original plan was to try and make it to 55 in about 10 minutes. But when I got close, I was still behind schedule, so thought that wasn’t going to happen. But when I got to 55 and stopped my watch, I’d made it up in just exactly 10 minutes. So that was a pleasant surprise.

After doing the one climb for speed, I walked up three more times just for fun. My friend Briana was there, and she wanted to try for a vertical half-mile, which is four times up the staircase. So I walked up with her the last two times. Climbing stairs really isn’t bad, as long as it’s at a moderate pace and with company.

So I guess I’m ready to race.

Tonight was my third attempt at the Vertical Mile, and this time the magic worked. Well, the magic, combined with a quart of Gatorade.

I rode the train downtown as usual. And this time, I stopped in at Famima!! on the way in and got a quart bottle of classic lemon-lime Gatorade. I’d also brought along a big bottle of water. The plan was to gulp down some of both of them after each ascent. I was hoping that the little shot of sugar would keep the bonk away this time, and prevent the troubles I had when I’d tried this stunt last Tuesday.

The first four times up were pretty straightforward. Each time, when I got to the top, I headed straight for the elevators to go back down. I snapped a picture of my stopwatch to record my time while I was riding the elevator back down. I managed to keep it under 12 minutes for all four times, which meant that at the halfway point, I was about five minutes ahead of schedule. That gave me a little extra time to drink the Gatorade, towel off, and change to a dry headband for the second half.

The fifth and sixth times up were slower than before. My plan for the first four ascents was to do 4 1/2 floors per minute, and I kept an eye on the clock to maintain my pace. The plan for the second set of four was to dial that back to four floors per minute, and I was pretty much able to maintain that pace for the fifth and sixth climbs.

By this time, I was lying down on the floor in the elevator during the ride down. I wanted to get everything I could out of that 40 seconds or so of rest.

When it was time for the seventh climb, I resorted to counting down the floors, starting with “51″ when I took the first step. It gave me something to think about, other than, “What the HELL was I thinking when I decided to try this!” At the top of the seventh, I checked the time, and I had 20 minutes left before they closed up the stairwell. At that point, I knew I had it in the bag. I went back down, finished the last of the Gatorade, and started up for the last time.

The last time up, I had to keep reminding myself to not think, and just put one foot in front of the other. I felt a bit like the hamster-stair-master. Once again, I counted down the floors. I switched my watch back to display the time. I didn’t really care how fast I went the last time up, as long as I got to the top before 7:00. I even passed a few people on the stairs. That was a pleasant surprise.

One thing that helped a lot was that all my friends who were there knew what I was up to, and they were very nice about it. They gave me encouragement along the way, and the last time up, George even held open the two fire doors on the 44th floor, and then he shadowed me up the last 11 floors. And at the top on the eighth time, I ran the last three floors, and then collapsed on the landing. It was good to be done.

Just to put it in perspective, George made up a picture to show what a mile-high climb would look like:

The final tally was: 408 floors, 5,520 feet, 1,680 meters, and 9,008 steps. Total elapsed time was 1:58. I finally landed the White Whale.

After last week’s unsuccessful attempt at the Vertical Mile, tonight was time for a second try. I’m feeling quite a bit better. I estimate I’m running at about 95% of full capacity now. So I went downtown to try again.

My plan was to just cruise through the first four ascents, since the other times I’ve done multiples, it didn’t start to get really hard until the fifth time. And that plan worked pretty well tonight. I started to feel a bit slow on the fourth time up, so I thought the mile was in doubt, but I continued on anyway.

The fifth time was grim. I slowed down a lot. I think I made an error in not bringing enough water, and not bringing anything with sugar in it. I had a classic case of the bonk, as we used to say in my bike racing days. Still, I figured I’d just keep going as best I could and see how far I got. As you can see by the pictures, my times kind of fell off a cliff the last three times.

After six times up, it was about 6:40. I knew I had time for one more ascent, regardless of how slow I was going. But I knew that the mile was no longer possible. So I ground my way up the stairs one more time to finish seven ascents.

When I left the building, I stopped in at the Famima!! across the street and got a quart of Gatorade. I chugged that down standing on the sidewalk. And in just a few minutes, I felt a lot better. I think next time I will stop and get that on the way in, so I’ll have something to drink to keep my energy level up.

So my total for tonight: 357 floors, 4,830 vertical feet, 1,470 meters, and 7,882 steps. Total elapsed time: 1:54

I’ll be back Thursday to try again for the mile.

Last week, I’d been talking with Alberto about trying for a Vertical Mile, and we’d planned on making the attempt tonight. Sadly, I was sick this week, and I’m only 24 hours out from lying on the couch with a fever. But since we’d decided to try, I figured I’d give it a shot. If it didn’t work, I could just stop.

So we got to the building a little early and got suited up. We were the first ones on the staircase, and the first two ascents went well. We were right on schedule. Then, on the third time up, I started to get dizzy at about the 17th floor. I knew that wasn’t a good sign, so I thought it best to just abandon the attempt. I sat down on the 20th floor landing and rested for a bit. Then I continued on, albeit slowly, up to the 55th floor.

I went up one more time after that, just for grins. Or grimaces, perhaps. I didn’t even bother timing the fourth climb. I went very slowly. But in the end, Alberto made the Vertical Mile in a total of 1:57. I’m going to try again next week, when I’ll presumably feel a bit better.

A few days ago, I was contacted by some of the people from the West Coast Labels stair climbing team, and they asked if I’d meet with a producer from KCRW at one of the practice sessions at the Aon building downtown. So tonight was the night.

Sadly, I was home sick today. I’d left work early yesterday with a fever. And today had been spent taking sudafed and ibuprofen, and wishing I wasn’t sick. But since I’d agreed to go, I took an extra decongestant, got dressed, and headed downtown.

I met Evan on the front steps of the building, and we went inside and up to the guard station to sign in. It took him a few minutes to convince the security people to let him climb the stairs with me, even though he wasn’t signed up for the race. But in the end, we got our clearance and headed up the stairs.

We walked up slowly. Partly so we could talk, and partly because I was in no condition to be trying to go fast. On the way up, I told about what it was like doing stair climbing races. I explained the basic technique of taking the fewest number of steps to climb the staircase, and how not to waste steps on the landings. A few times, other people passed us on the stairs, and he sometimes asked them questions as they went by. We stopped a few times to rest and talk, and we finally made it up to the 55th floor in just a bit under 18 minutes. That’s about half as fast as I’d be going normally, so it was a pretty easy pace, even with being sick.

At the top, we walked around the empty 55th floor, looking out the windows at the view. I pointed out the other buildings where there are races, and also the buildings we’ve trained in. All told, it was an interesting experience, and he said he would go back to the studio and somehow craft a piece for the radio out of our talking that he’d recorded.

With that done, I went home and went back to just being sick.

It’s yet another practice evening on the stairs. I was not feeling too energetic this time, but that’s how I felt on Tuesday, and I still did a pretty good time. So I figured I’d give it a try.

My first time up the stairs, I could tell I was in trouble from the start. I made my first time point on schedule, but then I started to fall behind. Usually, I manage to stay on time up to at least the 30th floor or so, but this time I was falling off the pace by 16. I managed to keep going, and when I flopped on the landing at 55, I had 9:08, which is a full 10 seconds slower than my time from Tuesday.

I went back down and started up again. My goal for the second time up was to do it at the pace I plan to use when I attempt the vertical mile. I may make an attempt at that next week. So I kept to a relatively modest pace, and I made it up the second time in 10:58.

I went up a third time, just for grins. I didn’t time it. I just walked up slowly. And then I went home. I wanted to get home in time to try again to see Comet PanSTARRS, And thus ended yet another evening of fun on the stairs.

It’s Tuesday, and time for another session on the stairs.

This time, I decided to try my one-foot method for doing the middle section of stairs from 24 to 44. My goal was again to do 10 seconds per floor. I started out from 4, and I made it all the way to 22 on schedule. The two hallways and fire doors between 22 and 24 cost me about 30 seconds, but then I was looking to get back on pace.

From 24, I started up, and I managed to maintain my pace all the way to 36 before I started to slow down a bit. I found that if I lean forward a bit on crossing the wide landings, I can do them a little bit faster, and it doesn’t require taking an extra step on the landing. So I think this is going to be my method now, since it’s efficient and balanced.

When I got to 44 and the two fire doors there, I was about 15 seconds off my pace, but that was all right. I started up the final section of stairs, and when I got to 52, I sprinted for the last three floors. I heaved myself up onto the landing at 55 in 8:58. Not a new best time, but equal to my two best practice times so far this year. So I really can’t complain.

The second time, I went a lot slower. The plan was to do my moderate pace that I plan to use for when I attempt the vertical mile. Not much to say about that. I just went on up at a nice, steady pace.

I went up a third time, just for extra practice, and so I could say that I’d done a 1,000-calorie workout today. I don’t really care about that, but it sounds good. I didn’t bother timing the third time up. I was just walking, and I even tried doing single steps for a change.

Now that we’ve changed the clocks, there was still some sunlight on the way home. I took a picture of the big Metro headquarters building by Union Station, just because I liked how it looked in the sunset light. And on the train back to Pasadena, I was looking out the window to try and see the thin crescent moon, since that would mean I could take out my binoculars and see Comet PanSTARRS when I got home.

It was a good evening’s outing.