My Second Race

Last week I learned about a stair climbing race up the John Hancock Tower in Boston. Thank you www.towerrunning.com for advertising this race! For those of you who aren’t familiar with this site, please check it out. It has a wonderful database that shows upcoming stair climbing races around the world. Without this site, I wouldn’t even have known about this race.

This race benefits the fight against multiple sclerosis. If you would like to donate to the National MS foundation, please click here. My goal is to raise at least $250 to help battle MS.

Even though I’ve had limited time to focus on this race, I’ve been training consistently for the CN tower climb in Toronto (in October) and this race fits perfectly with my training plan. This race will be 61 floors (starting in the basement) and covers 1220 stairs. I estimate that there will be a 241 meter elevation gain.

Since I only have a couple days before the race, I’ve tapered off my training. Here is my training schedule for the past 7 days.

Saturday – Stairs x 12 sets; 1 set =  178 stairs with 34 meters elevation. Sets done by sprinting up the stairs with active recovery by climbing down the stairs. I nearly dropped from exhaustion and had to take a couple “water breaks” near the end.

Sunday –Core Workout & Pull-ups (4 sets of 15)

Monday – Spinning Class (40 minutes) + Chest Press (5 sets)

Tuesday – Leg Workout: Core Workout, Lunges & Squats, Dead Lifts (3x12 @ 135 lbs), Hamstring Curls, Tabata Leg Presses (@180 lbs).

Wednesday – Interval Training; Intervals on Step Machine (30 minutes) + Modified Navy Seal Pull-up routine

Thursday – Core Workout + Stairs x 8 sets; 1 set = 145 stairs with 27.5 meters elevation. Sets done slowly at proposed race pace with ample 2 minute recovery between sets.

Friday – Light Workout (TBD)

Saturday – Race! I’m hoping to beat the course record (7:49) set by Paul Teti, who was a former US Olympian in rowing.

Wish me luck! I’ll post the results this weekend.