Dreams Pt.1

19DEC2023

I often dream about climbing stairs. They are often bizzarro versions of real stairs. I might as well document before I forget. 

Premise: I met a young, fit Asian girl and convinced her to try competitive stairclimbing. I took her to RPI to practice at the Approach (an outdoor stair case). 

Dream: For the first round, the goal was to climb as fast as possible to the top of the hill (Approach + Running + More Stairs) to test her fitness. However, I was slightly nervous as I was carrying an extra 20 lbs. But surely, I could still keep up with a newbie, right?

We started up the steps. Although we were at the Approach, the staircase looked different. The stairs were nestled between brick walls of apartment buildings reminiscent of a hilly NYC suburb. In addition, the pedestrians were well-dressed. Not the college kids, vagrants, and the occasional exercise fanatics I'm used to seeing. 

I kept up with her on the first extended flight. I was winded but so was she. I decided to pick up the pace.

The next flight was long and straight. About 100 steps. Rather than pass her on the stairs, I decided to take a parallel detour consisting of a dirt path carved into the grassy hill (note: this parallel path does not actually exist irl).

I ran up the pathway, pulling away from my trainee. However, at the very top of the path, a four-foot wall blocked my path. For some reason, I didn't notice the wall until the very top. Despite the rails (which struck me as odd considering I was on a dirt path) my muscles didn't have enough strength to get me over the top*. I was stuck.

Somehow I managed to get a leg over the wall and pull the rest of my body over the top. I had lost maybe 10 seconds. My trainee was nowhere in sight. I had either lost her on the previous flight or she was way ahead of me. Probably the latter. So I continued my ascent as quickly as possible. I couldn't let a newbie beat me to the top.

*Imagine doing pullups to exhaustion. That is what it felt like. Enough strength to hold on to the pullup bar, but not enough for one more full rep.

The end.

Analysis:

• Clearly I dream way too much about fit Asian girls... and stairs. 
• Despite taking place at a real location (The RPI Approach) the dream version looked nothing like the actual location. The four foot wall blocking my path seems to be a common theme. Something *always* prevents me from finishing a race in my dreams.
• In real life, I'm actually struggling with losing the excess weight I gained during the COVID19 pandemic . It turns out I need to lose about 19 pounds, so from now on I'm just going to call it "The COVID19". It has a nice ring to it.
• Like usual, the dream finishes without anything being resolved. Did I make it to the top? where was the trainee? More questions raised than answers...

Climbing Back...

The last few years have been a disappointment - at least with respect to my relationship with stairs.

Maybe I'll go into depth on the why and the how of things, but here is the tldr:

With no races to look forward to, I gained 20 lbs and lost some fitness.

Sure, I trained ~4 times per week for the past few year -  including stairs - but it wasn't enough to stave off the COVID weight gain or a moderate decline in fitness.

About a year ago, as COVID was winding down and races started to pick up again, I increased my training, thinking I'd make my comeback sometime later in the year.

But my weight wouldn't budge.

For perspective, I like to be at 172 lbs or lower on race day and during January I hovered around 192-193 lbs... and if I'm truthful, I was up around 194-195 lbs at my peak weight.

Come September, I finally weighed below 190 lbs. I signed up for the Sears Tower race in November thinking that maybe I'd be able to shed a few more pounds and not completely embarrass myself. 

But my weight wouldn't budge.

Still, I signed up for Sears and I wasn't going to back out. At the very least I had gained some of my fitness back and I could use it as a benchmark. 

Fast forward to Halloween and I made the trip to Chicago.

It was hailing. Seriously?!

Fortunately, the bad weather didn't last and I had a few days to train, relax, and experience the city.

The day before the race, I met up with David at Sears to pick up my racing bib. I hadn't seen him since pre-COVID and it was nice to catch up.

After walking around the city, I got back to my hotel room completely exhausted. My throat was scratchy and I had a headache. I took a short nap. My alarm went off just before dinner time. I had planned to meet up with a few other climbers for dinner, but by now I had a fever. Instead I took a couple Tylenol and tried to rest up.

How could this happen 12 hours before the race?

I felt even worse by bedtime, but set my alarm to 4:30 AM anyway. Maybe I'd feel better in the morning.

I didn't.

Racing was out of the question. I wanted to at least attend the race to see the other racers, but between bouts of chills and fevers, I wasn't sure I could get to the Tower let alone climb it. So I stayed in bed.

It was the right choice. The next couple days were spent mostly in bed, though I ventured out a couple times to replenish my dwindling supplies.

I managed to make it back home though the flight was miserable. I ended up missing a couple more days of work, too. So much for the "vacation".

I was disappointed. Not only did I miss the race, but my fitness took a hit as well. I tapered my workouts while traveling specifically so I would stay healthy and be at my best on race day. But instead I ended up resting for an entire week.

Though I was depressed... it somehow flipped a switch. Suddenly I was motivated again.

Motivated enough to change my diet 

Motivated enough to step up my workouts 

Motivated enough to write my first blog post in 4 years.

I've got 74 days until the US championships at Scale the Strat and a solid 15 pounds to lose.