Struggling with Motivation

Since the Bennington Monument race in May, I’ve suffered from lack of motivation. One root cause is that my fitness levels have hit a plateau. A year ago, my climbing times were steadily improving, but in recent months, I’ve seen little to no improvement. This fitness plateau has had a profound effect on my motivation. I call it the “all pain and no gain” syndrome; I hate putting my body through grueling workouts without having any measurable improvements in fitness.

To make matters worse, I had a string of business trips where my eating habits and exercise schedule went out the window. When I finally got back into my regular exercise schedule, I had gained a few pounds and my fitness levels decreased proportionally.

I’ve overcome several obstacles over the last few months and although motivation is still a challenge, I’ve learned a few helpful hints that have helped me stay motivated.

1)     A little bit of exercise is better than nothing at all.

This tip is more about preventing discouragement rather than increasing motivation when I had limited time to exercise. During my latest string of trips I felt awful whenever I bagged a workout; partly due to guilt and partly because exercise helps me cope with stress. On the other hand, I felt pretty good on the days I exercised, even if I only managed to sneak in 15 minutes or so. These short sessions helped minimize the loss of fitness. It also helped me get back into shape once I resumed my regular schedule.

2)     Don’t always focus on performance.

When I train hard, I usually have a goal in mind (e.g. certain number of reps, weight lifted, and pace/duration climbed). When I got back into the stairwell after a long business trip, I felt sluggish. Between jetlag, weight gain, and limited training, I had lost my edge. Midway through my first workout, I stopped timing myself up the stairs and ripped up my time tracking sheet. Rather than feel depressed because I couldn’t achieve my usual goal, I focused solely on having a good workout.

3)     Put on your workout clothes.

For several weeks I dreaded going to another grueling training session. Simply walking over to the gym was mentally challenging since thoughts of the upcoming workout were always at the forefront of my mind. To make it easier, I tried focusing on simply getting dressed. Putting on my gym clothes was painless and easy and it took my mind off of the upcoming workout. Once I was dressed, I usually felt ready to exercise.

4)     Reset your fitness benchmark.

My fitness peak plateaued in March and decreased a bit in June. Resetting my fitness benchmark helped in a couple different ways:

·        Before I reset my fitness benchmark, I was climbing faster than my body could handle. I’d burn out prematurely and feel like crap because I failed to achieve my goal. By resetting my benchmark at a lower performance level, I could finally complete my workouts.

·        Once my benchmark was set a reasonable level, I was able to see improvements from week to week. This bolstered my confidence and motivation because I knew I was getting my edge back.

5)     Sign up for a race.

Even though racing season is still a few months away, signing up for a race helps me keep focus. Earlier this month I signed up for the Willis Tower (Sears Tower) race in Chicago and made a promise to be in better condition than I was at the end of last racing season. Whenever I feel like skipping a work out or overeating on junk food I ask myself - how will my actions impact my race?

6)     Have a rival and an idol.

As a competitive stair climber I know the capabilities of most climbers on the circuit, especially the folks on the east coast. As such, there are a few people that I know I can beat if I can just shave off a few seconds. Likewise, there are folks who I can’t touch in the stairwell, but want to emulate. I use both for motivation. When I’m getting tired during my stairwell sprints, I often try to visualize racing against one of my rivals to help get me to the top of the stairwell. Similarly, I think about my idols when I plan my workouts & diet; after all, if can pick up a few seconds by imitating my idols, then someday they will become my rivals!

After a solid 6 weeks of regular training, I’m feeling much better about the upcoming racing season. I’m still struggling with my weight, but I’m also a bit stronger and my power outputs have improved. I can’t wait for my next race, but at the same time I’m glad I have a couple of months to train. I want to be in the best shape of my life come race day. I’m planning for a top 10 finish, so I need to shave off at least a minute from last years’ time!

Every Little Bit Helps

I read a great article today about Bradley Wiggins, the 2012 Tour de France winner. Check it out here.

In particular, I liked item #9:  Bradley’s systematic plan to make a number of small gains, such that the aggregate gain would be significant.

This same approach is applicable to stair climbing. By changing training & racing methods slightly in a number of different categories, the overall impact could be huge. For example, a half of a percent gain in one area only nets a 4.5 second improvement in a 15 minute climb. However if multiple incremental improvements are made in a variety areas, these tiny improvements can make a big difference. For example, 6 marginal improvements will cut nearly 30 seconds off of a 15 minute climb!

The best part of this approach is that several marginal improvements often take less effort than a large gain in a single area. Here is an illustrative example:

To be a better climber an athlete needs to be able to increase their power/weight ratio for the entire duration of a race. To do this an athlete needs:

1)      A lower body weight

2)      Stronger muscles & better muscle endurance (anaerobic system)

3)      Stronger cardiovascular system (aerobic system)

*Assuming* each of these areas has an equal impact on performance, it would be possible to make a 3% improvement in any one area, but it would probably be much easier to make a smaller 1% gain in each of these three areas. In my case, I have a very hard time losing weight and I bet it would take a good one month effort to lose 1% of my body weight. However losing 3% would take much more than 3X the effort; I’d probably have to consistently improve my diet for the next year or so in order to lose the weight. I would have a much better chance making marginal improvements in both my cardiovascular endurance and anaerobic muscle endurance.

Over the next 4 months as I train for the Willis Tower, I’m going to challenge myself to make a number of marginal gains in a number of different areas. Here is my list of goals & actions.

1)      Injury rehabilitation: My lower back, butt, and right hip are prone to injury because of an inflamed piriformis nerve. I also have chronic Morton’s Neuroma, another painful nerve in my foot. In order to train like a champion, I need to be at 100%. Below are some ways I can help myself recover.

a.      Get wider shoes to help my neuroma

b.      Get up and stretch every 10-15 minutes at work & at home

2)      Injury prevention: Simply put, suffering another injury will prevent me from training. My Achilles tendon is often sore because of descending stairs. Likewise I don’t want to re-aggravate my piriformis once I’m finally healed. Here are some ways I can stay healthy:

a.      Strengthen my calves and stretch them more often

b.      Practice going down stairs backwards to relieve stress on the calves

c.      Don’t perform certain exercises (i.e. deadlifts & running) until I’m back at 100% and do these exercises in moderation once I’m healthy.

3)      Strength: Quad & Glut strength are both key to stair climbing. Here are the goals I hope to reach at the gym in time for the Willis Tower race:

a.      Tabata leg presses: 2 sets @ 230 lbs

b.      Dead Lifts: Three sets of 15 reps using 95, 145 & 185 lbs. These are light enough weights to ensure I don’t hurt myself, but I’ll need to heal a bit I get back to dead lifts.

4)      Endurance: Long climbs require a phenomenal cardiovascular system. Here are my goals for my primary cardio exercises:

a.      4300 meters on the erg machine in 15 minutes (PB = 4195 meters)

b.      45 seconds (x12 average) up my practice stair case* (PB = 45.68 seconds)

c.      16 minutes on the Step Master at the 180 setting* (PB = 8 min@180 + 8 min@170)

*Assuming body weight = 175 lbs.

5)      Diet: Proper nutrition helps the body recover and stay healthy. Although I have a healthy diet, there are a couple things which I could do to improve it.

a.      Cheat less often when I’m out with my friends & family (i.e. less junk food)

b.      Incorporate more green vegetables into my diet.

6)      Weight Loss: Decreasing weight improves a climber’s power to weight ratio. At this point, I’m not willing to lose my upper body muscle mass, but I could certainly lose a few pounds of fat and still be healthy. My goal is to weigh in at 172 lbs (~8% body fat). A few actions are:

a.      Limit the amount of bread that I eat in the morning

b.      Cheat less often when I’m out with my friends & family (i.e. fewer calories)

c.      Increase the volume of low intensity workouts on the weekends

7)      Proper Sleep: Without rest, the body cannot recover from physical stress. I generally need close to 8 hours of sleep per night. During the work week, I often get fewer.

a.      Aim to get ready for bed at 11:00 PM

8)      Reduce Stress: I’m not sure what the correlation is between stress levels and athletic performance, but I’m convinced that mental stress cannot be good for my overall health. Since I’m overstressed, here are a couple ways I can reduce my stress levels:

a.      Leave for appointments 5 minutes earlier than usual; I’m prone to road rage when I’m running behind schedule.

b.      Bring along a Snickers bar with me on trips; when my blood sugar is low while driving, I can get angry.

c.      Practice meditation at least 3 times per week.

9)      Better Racing Gear: Gear which improves climbing efficiency or increases power/weight ratio will cut time off of my climb.

a.      Use a pair of minimalist shoes; it will shave off nearly a pound of weight!

b.      Climbing gloves may increase the efficiency of using the rail while climbing; at the very least, they will help prevent blisters.

10)   Improved Racing Strategy:

a.      Calculate my expected race pace and necessary time splits early in the race; don’t rely solely on my metronome.

11)   Improved Racing Technique:

a.      I’m positive I can adjust my step pattern to ensure I always land with one foot on the landings.

b.      Use the metronome to assist pacing; Last year at Willis I sprinted up the first few flights and I paid dearly for it in the middle of the race :P

Power Up a Tower: Part 2

In Power up a Tower: Part 1, I showed the relationship between work (J) and power (watts). I also introduced the power to mass ratio metric (watts/kg) which can be used to measure the performance of different climbers climbing the same building. Finally, I showed an example of how the power to mass ratio of climbers depends on the height of a climb. In this post, I will attempt to predict how an athlete's average power to mass ratio changes with respect to the height of a climb.

Before I discuss climbing, I’m discuss to show a related topic; running. Admittedly, I’m neither a serious runner nor a scientist, but I conjecture that running speed is proportional to power output. At the very least, here is a paper that supports this assumption. Although this paper ignores important terms like drag and acceleration, at low speeds these terms are relatively small.

Since a runner’s sustained power output will drop as race length increases, it would be interesting to see how much it drops depending on the total distance run. I’m particularly interested in races lasting between two and twenty minutes in duration, nearly all stair climbing races fall into this range. I couldn’t find data for individual runners across this range, so instead I plotted data for world class athletes. In most cases, I took the average pace for the top 10 races done at a given distance. See table below:

Average Running Pace per Race Distance

Here is a plot that shows the pace as percentage of the 100m dash pace, a pace very close to a runner’s top speed.



Figure 1

Here are a few notes and observations about this data:

• The shape of the curve looks like a decreasing exponential.
• This data represents a theoretical maximum for humans. Even for world-class athletes, it would be nearly impossible to replicate these speeds across the whole range of distances. For example, Ryan Hall would handily beat Usain Bolt in a marathon, but Usain would dominate in a sprint. With training, these athletes might be able to excel in other races, but they probably would still have different (yet similarly shaped) speed vs. distance curves.
• Max speed (and hence power output) looks like it can only be achieved for about 20 seconds. You will note that the men’s 200m has a greater top speed then the 100m since the initial acceleration is less of a factor in the longer race. However, for the women’s race (which lasts over 20 seconds) the average pace for the 200m race is slightly slower than the average pace for the 100m race. For longer races, there is a significant drop off in average speed.
• There is an odd drop off for the women’s 300m race. This is probably because very few races are done at this distance; hence the world record pace is somewhat “slower” than what would be expected.
• For races shorter than a mile (about 4 minutes in duration) average speed (and hence power output) drops significantly as race length is increased. However, for longer races, average speed drops very little as race distance is increased (about 60% - 70% max speed). In fact, if you extended the curve out to include the marathon distance, you would see that the marathons are done at about 55% max speed.
• There is a distinct gap between the curves for males and females. Part of the gap can be explained because top women are a bit slower than men. For reference, the world record for 800 meters is 1:41 and 1:53 for males and females respectively. Since it takes females about 12 seconds longer to cover the same distance, it would be expected that a female’s % maximum power during the race would be slightly lower at this distance.

To make this information useful to stair climbers and eliminate some of the discrepancies highlighted in the last bullet above, I’ve transformed the X axis to show “Time” instead of running “Distance”. I’ve also relabeled the Y axis to show “% of Max Power” rather than “% of Max Speed”.

Figure 2

A couple observations:

·        The data is virtually identical for males and females up to about 2 minutes (about 800 meter mark) but then diverges by about 2% of Max Power.

·        I made the assumption that Power & Running Speed are directly proportional.

This is a very useful tool for stair climbers since it can be used to predict race times for any building assuming the climber knows the vertical height of the race course and has results from at least one other climb.

Here is an illustrative example: A climber wants to race up a building which is 300 meters tall. Prior to this race, the climber raced up a 100 meter tall building in 4 minutes. What is the predicted time up the 300 meter building?

Step 1: Find where the climber’s previous race lies on Figure 2. Example: For a four 4:00 minute race, the climber was working at about 69% of maximum power (taking the average between male & female curves).

Step 2: Estimate how long it will take to do a long race. Example: For a 300 meter race, it is going to take a bit longer than 3X as long as the 100 meter race. Therefore, let’s guess it will take about 15 minutes.

Step 3: Find where the climber’s estimate lies on Figure 2. Example: For a 15 minute race, the climber would be working at about 62.5% of maximum power (taking the average between male & female curves).

Step 4: Calculate the climber’s pace & predicted finish time using % maximum power found in step 3. Example: The climber should be about 10% slower when climbing the 300 meter race compared with the 100 meter race (i.e. 69%/62.5% = 1.104). At that pace, the climber would be able to climb 100 meters in 4.42 minutes (i.e. 1.104 x 4 minutes). This translates into 13.248 minutes (i.e. 3 x 4.416 minutes) in the 300 meter race.

Step 5: Repeat steps 2 through 4 using the predicted finish time from step 4 as your new guess. Stop once your guess matches your results from step 4. Example: Guessing that the finish time is 13.248 minutes (@ step 2) then the climber would be working at 63% of maximum power (@ step 3). This value predicts that the climber should be able to do 300 meter in 13.14 minutes (= 69%/63% x 3 minutes x 300m/100m) which matches closely with the initial estimate of 13.248 minutes.

A few final notes:

·    As mentioned before, the curve is derived from a “theoretical best”. Some climbers will do better in longer races and others will do better in shorter races. In my case, I tend to do better in shorter climbs, so using results from a shorter race to predict how I’ll fare at the Sears tower won’t be very accurate (i.e. my race time will be slower than what is predicted).

·    This method only takes into account vertical height of the race. It won’t be very accurate for races like the ESBRU which includes a fair bit of running.

·    This method assumes that races will be done at a constant pace (i.e. constant power) throughout the entire race. From experience, I know if I go out too fast in the beginning, I’ll pay for it dearly in the 2^nd half of the race.

·    Other variables like number of turns, hand rail placement, etc. are also not factored into this method. When using this this curve to predict how you’ll do in a race, hopefully your trial time was done in a similarly configured building. From experience, I know that turning around corners eats up time!

Bennington Part 2: Race Day

I had a wonderful time in Bennington this past weekend and our WCL came in first place! Take a look the results here. I’m very happy with the overall results since we just barely managed to form a team for this event.

Race day started off smoothly. Since the race started at 10:00 and Bennington is only 41 miles from my house, I was able to wake up at a reasonable hour and still get to the race early. At race check in, I met up with my friend Bob and his son Ben*. A few minutes later, my friend Steve Marsalese arrived and our team was complete... until I learned we needed a minimum of 5 climbers to form a team! Fortunately, I saw Fred Eames at race check-in and I managed to sign him up on our team at the last minute. Fred is probably one of the best 60+ stair climbers in the US and he held the Corning Tower record (4:50) for 8 years prior to the era of David Tromp, Jean Francois Harvey, and Jesse Berg. What is even more impressive is that Fred set the record when he was in his

*Bob traveled all the way from Indiana to do this race with his son Ben, who is a graduate student at RPI (a nearby college).

The weather was perfect in Bennington; Bright and Sunny and not very hot. About 30 minutes before the race, our team ventured into the Bennington monument for a look at the course. Here were my observations:

·        Much cooler on the inside of the building

·        Very dark! Several sections were unlit

·        The steps wrapped around the inside walls with 90 degree turns

·        There were only a couple landings, so running was kept to a minimum

·        The rise/run ration was very small; in other words the steps very short (only about 5.5 inches tall) and were very broad. Maybe they were a couple feet long? I did not bring a ruler L

·        The outer rail was situated at a convenient height, but the inner rail was much too high to grip effectively. This was probably done for safety reason since the tower was originally open (they added an elevator shaft later). I could only grip the vertical posts going around the turns.

·        The stairwell and handrails were a bit rusty (but not dangerously so).

·        The final 20 stairs or so is a narrow circular staircase which is difficult to navigate.

After we made it to the top, we spent some time trying to figure out the best way to climb the circular staircase. The two methods that seemed to work well were:

1)      Take the outside part of the steps one at time with “quick feet”.

2)      Take the inside part of the steps two at time by leaning toward the center and keeping one hand on the rail and another on the stairs themselves.

I planned to race with the 2^nd option because it seemed much faster.

We then descended via elevator to await the start of the race. About 10 minutes before the start of the race, I began my usual warm-up and then lined up with Steve & Paul Curley (another well-known climber and former pro cyclist) to start the race.

At 10:01 sharp, I bolted up the stairwell. Since was such a short race, I went out hard and fast. I couldn’t use the inner rail effectively, so I simply ran up the stairs taking two steps at a time. Fortunately, I was able to grip the vertical railing supports to aid in turning. I glanced at my watch around the 40 second mark and was still keeping pace. However in the span of about 15 seconds, I went from feeling tired but strong to feeling like crap. Right around the 55 second mark, I hit “The Wall”. My breathing was okay but my quads simply stopped working. I knew I was close to the top, so I plodded along as fast as my legs would manage. Soon enough, the circular staircase was in view and the end was literally in site. I entered the final stairwell… and promptly fell down. My muscles were so full of lactic acid that I lacked basic coordination in my legs. I pulled myself back up and fell down again a couple steps later. My feet kept on getting tangled up in the stairs. I got up again and fell down for a third time about half way up. At that point I was in a panic; I was so close to the finish and I just couldn’t climb up the damn staircase! I crawled on my hands and knees for the rest of the way up and just finished the race. When I heard my time (1:22) I said a couple choice curse words. I was pretty disappointed since not only did I fail to meet my goal time of 1:18, but I also failed to reach the 1:20 mark. It took a few minutes to catch my breath and in the meantime I greeted the other climbers (Steve, Paul, Fred, etc.) as they finished the race. Although my breathing was soon back to normal, my quads were on fire and I shook out my legs to relieve the pain. Eventually, we all descended the tower via the elevator.

Down at the bottom, I had a quick snack (free Cliff bars!) and socialized with the other racers. I had another 90 minutes or so to wait until my second run-up and I spent a bit of time thinking about what went wrong during the race and how could I improve during my 2^nd attempt.

First, I lost a bit of time at the end on the final circular stair case. I don’t really know how much time I lost by tripping up a few times, but I guess I lost about 2-3 seconds. To prevent falling during my 2^nd attempt, I planned to stay to the outside taking one step at a time using “quick feet”. Although this method of climbing might little bit slower, I figured this method required less coordination and would ultimately save a couple seconds.

Next, I hit “The Wall” right around the 55 second mark and I lost during the latter third of the race. Rereading my initial post, this was exactly what I was worried about in the days leading up to the race. “The Wall” also happened pretty much where I thought it might happen. I must be prescient! To compensate, I knew I had to use the rails no matter how uncomfortable they were. Although I might lose a bit of efficiency by using the rails, if I could delay the onset of fatigue for another 10 seconds, I’d be able to cut a few extra seconds off of my time.

Last but not least, my legs were pretty much spent after climbing so hard during the first run-up. I knew I needed time for my legs to recover, so I chose to do my 2^nd run-up closer to noon (near the end) rather than go up with Steve and Paul around 11:20ish in order to maximize my recovery. I felt that every extra minute of rest was precious since I was worried that I’d hit the wall even earlier during my 2^nd run up simply because my legs were already toast. I know it might seem far-fetched that my legs were in such bad shape after just 82 seconds of exercise and if it didn’t happen to me, I would’ve been skeptical. The only plausible explanation that I can think of is that I pumped my legs so full of lactic acid in such a short amount of time that I needed a good long rest to recover.

Finally, it was time for my 2^nd run-up. My legs didn’t feel fresh, but I certainly think the extra 30 minutes of rest helped. I entered the stairwell at a slightly slower pace than during my 1^st run up in order to make sure I wouldn’t hit the wall prematurely. I consciously focused on using the inner rail and although it was pretty awkward. I’m glad I did; I tripped a couple time on the steps but holding on to the rails prevented me from falling down. Honestly, it didn’t feel like using the rails helped me climb (i.e. it felt like I was transferring very little power to the rails) but with only a few flights to go, I did not have to resort to a power walk. I got to the final circular staircase and took the outside lane. Taking one step at a time certainly felt slow, but I managed to ascend the final staircase without any incident and finish the race. Unfortunately, my final time (1:27) was five seconds slower than my first attempt. Although disappointed, I wasn’t really surprised. Although I climbed more efficiently this time around, my legs were just too tired to compete at 100%.

A couple minutes later, Bob and Ben finished their 2^nd run-up, which was cause for celebration. Both of them smashed their previous attempt by a good 10 seconds! Once again, Bob edged out his son by a single second*.

*Which makes me feel pretty good; It means I have a good 20 years of racing before passing the torch down to the next generation J.

Since we were literally the last racers, all that was left was the official times to be posted. By this time, Fred and Steve had already left*, but we knew that our entire team made the top ten and Bob, Ben, and I enjoyed what was left of the post-race buffet.

*Steve hails from NYC and had to work that afternoon!

When the results were finally posted, we confirmed our times and received the lion’s share of the awards. Steve and I came in first and second overall and Fred, Bob, and Ben all won their age groups. Best of all, we received a beautiful team award plaque, which was extra special. In most other ALA races, we just receive an additional medal. Better yet, Bob and Ben suggested that I get to keep it for the team! To celebrate, I met Bob and Ben back in Albany for bite to eat a few hours after the race*.

*If you are ever in Albany, you just have to try Crisson’s Bakery and L’il Buddha Café down in Lark Street!

Here are my final thoughts:

·        I thoroughly enjoyed Bennington. It was a perfect day for having a race and because the race is pretty small and is close to home, it doesn’t fill up the entire day.

·        The length of the course taxes the anaerobic system much more than the aerobic system. Although I was breathing heavily throughout the race, my legs gave out first. It is definitely suited toward sprinters.

·        In my estimation, the course favors tall climbers who can use the rails effectively. It also favors short but light climbers who don’t have a lot of upper body mass (i.e. climbers who have a much lower arm/leg power ratio).

·        Grade 1^st attempt: Strategy = B-; Exertion = A; Technique = D; Overall = B-;

·        Grade 2^nd attempt: Strategy = B+; Exertion D; Technique = B-; Overall C+;

·        It is amazing how I close I predicted where I’d hit the wall. I also predicted that the rails would be difficult to use and the how challenging the circular stairs would be to ascend. That said, I *still* underestimated these challenges.

·        Although I’m quite disappointed with my results, I’ll definitely come back. I know with a set of fresh legs and improved technique that I’ll be able to break 1:20. It just won’t be as easy as I initially thought!

Bennington Part 1: Race Preview

5/16: Bennington is only a few days away and I’m excited! I expect a smaller group of elite climbers this year compared to the last few years, so I believe the primary “competition” will be against the times from previous years.

The race course is only 61 meters tall and has 435 steps. Since the stair case is continuous and wraps around the inside wall of the Bennington Monument it should have fewer turns than my practice stair case and should pretty fast. On the other hand, I’m seen a video of the 2009 climb and the inner rails don’t look very suitable for climbing.

Knowing this, I’m predicting a time of 1:18. This pace is on par with my normal practice pace, so it should be achievable.

My primary concern is the position of the rails. Although I climb pretty fast without the rails, I’ll be several seconds slower without them. From experience in my practice course, my legs give out sooner when I don’t use the rails*. My other worry is the last 20 or so steps up a narrow spiral staircase. From the video, it looks tricky and I could potentially lose a couple precious seconds.

*On a typical stair workout I’ll go up and down 7 flights a total of 12 times and I alternate between using the outside rails, no rails, and the inside rails. My legs almost never give out when I use the rails, but when I forgo the rails my legs start to give out near the top.  During my 1^st run-up without rails (my 3^rd trial) my legs give out near the 7^th floor. In later run-ups (the 6^th, 9^th, and 12^th trials) my legs give out even sooner; often as soon as I reach the 6^th floor. Going up the last flight of stairs is particularly challenging and although my speed is not severely impacted, I know I wouldn’t be able to maintain the pace for much longer.

Because this is such a short race, my racing strategy will be quite simple. Go just a bit faster than my practice pace for the first 45 seconds. Use the rails as much as possible to delay leg fatigue. Then turn on the after burners if at all possible. Once my legs start to give out, I only have a 10 second window to keep pace before I start to slow down. As long as my legs feel okay at 45 seconds, I should be able to break 1:20 without too much problem.

Here is my pre-race to-do list:

1)      Go to bed by 11:00 PM the night before.

2)      Wake up at 7:30 AM. Have a light breakfast (yogurt, raisin english muffin, + banana)

3)      On the road by 8:00. Eat an apple during the drive. Arrive around 9:00 AM.

4)      Drink my caffeine drink at check-in @ 9:15.

5)      Try to enter the stairwell before the race in order to practice using the rails, both at the bottom and the top of the course.

6)      Warm-up 15 minutes before race time: Burpees & Jacks.

7)      Race at 10:00 AM!

5/18 Update: After re-reviewing some of the videos from 2009, 2010, & 2011, I have a much better idea of the stairwell layout. It appears that I will be able to use the rails effectively, although the inner railing looks to be positioned a bit higher than I’d prefer. Additionally, the grade of the staircase (rise/run) appears to be a bit shallow, meaning there will be a bit of a horizontal element to the race, which puts me at a bit of a disadvantage since I’m not a runner. I admit to being a little bit intimidated by the speed of prior year participants in the videos (Jean-Francois Harvey, Jesse Berg, Tim Van Orden, Justin Stewart, etc.) and I’m having a hard time visualizing how I’m going to match their pace. On the other hand, I know my limits quite well and assuming the height of the observation deck is truly 61 meters, I should be clocking in under 1:20.

I'm still keeping my official race prediction at 1:18... let's do it!

Racing Season Finale: Clash of the Titans

Note: Post written in late March & April 2012... it just took an extra month for me to post :)

Tomorrow is the last race of the regular February/March racing season. I will be travelling to Hartford to climb up the Hartford 21. This race is a bona fide sprint since the building only has 36 floors and the building is only 134 meters tall. This course suits me quite well because I consider myself to be very competitive for races under 150 meters.

A few days ago, I expected this race to be between me and my friend David Tromp for gold. He holds the course record (3:15) and I know he'll be at the race to defend his title*. However, after looking at the starting lineup, it turns out that both Sproule Love and Tim Donahue will be at the race! Now it looks like it will be a fight just to get on the podium.

*Dave and I are planning to carpool to the race together, so he'd better show up :)

All three of these guys have manhandled me in one way or another this season. Sproule whooped me at both Willis & One Penn Plaza; Tim smoked me at 30 Rock; and David of course has beaten each and every time we've met (ESBRU, Albany, & Philly).

With these three racing, my chances of winning are slim and by rights I should be expecting a 4th place finish. But even though the odds are against me, I still have a shot. Sproule, Tim, and Dave have beaten me in longer races, but we haven't faced each other in a true sprint. I'm built for power and my training is centered on short bursts of speed. In my mind, the slate is wiped clean and I should stand on equal footing in this race. So bring it on, I'm not settling for 4th :)

Here are my expectations:

• Expected finish - 3:20 (assuming no fancy hallways or running)
• Goal - 3:15 (course record)

Race Day

Sproule Love won the race pretty handily, but I pulled off an unlikely upset, narrowly edging out both Tim and David for a solid 2nd place. See the race results here.

As you can see the top 4 times were within 20 seconds of each other and 2nd through 4th place was determined by only 6 seconds!

Race day started off like most other race days... lots of nerves and very little sleep. I woke up at 3:00 AM and lay in bed until my alarm clock sounded at 5:00 AM.  Fortunately, I was still well rested having had plenty of sleep in the days leading up to the race. I quickly got ready and I hopped in my car right around 5:25 AM. I headed over to Dave's house and we were on the road to Hartford shortly after 6:00 AM.

Although we had just a handful of days with snow this past winter, it started to snow while we were on the road. Fortunately, it wasn't snowing heavily and although it was slow going, we still had plenty of time to make couple pit stops and roll into Hartford before 8:15 AM.

After checking in, Dave met with his team "The Connecticut Healthcare Stair Runners", led by Ray Schneider who knows Dave through the local stair racing circuit. After a few introductions, I was drafted by the team :)

Next Dave and I went into the stairwell to warm up and do some reconnoitering. Here is what I learned:

• The course starts on the 1st floor (ground floor) and ends on the 35th.
•  Most floors have 20 steps: 11 steps --> Landing --> 9 steps.
• The building skips floor 13, but has an extra floor (labeled PH) between the 34 and 35.
• The steps are between 6.75 and 6.875 inches tall (I always bring a ruler to races).
• The course turns to the left and the railings are close enough to use both sides. The railings are easy to grip and are the made of the thick tubular stock found in most buildings.
• The stairwell continues up to floor 36 and the roof. There are a total of 54 steps from floor 35 (the end of the course) to the roof.
• 100% vertical; no fancy hallways to navigate. The only obstacle was a security gate on the 2nd floor.

I continued my warm-up on the 3rd floor holding area (burpees & jacks) and a few minutes before 9:00 AM our team headed down to the start line.

The hallway was crowded with race volunteers, racers, and the media so it took a few extra minutes to start the race. David summed it up perfectly: "We could have made another bathroom stop before the race!" Once everyone was finally in position, the clock started and David bolted into the stairwell. I followed 20 seconds later.

The race:

I started off quickly, just a bit slower than my regular practice pace*. By the lower teens, I was still going strong, but I did not like how I was climbing. I felt like I was accelerating through the stairs, but losing time changing directions on the landings. No matter how hard I concentrated, I simply couldn't keep one step on the landings. In fact, I often stutter-stepped on the turns, wasting time, energy, and ultimately efficiency.

*My practice pace is usually much faster than race pace since I train in a 7 story building.

By the 25th floor, I was still hanging on but I didn't have the energy willpower to go faster. Instead, I waited until the 30th floor to start my final push. I could hear cheering from the finish line and I knew I had to kick it up a notch. It wasn't much of a push, but I gave it my all by the time I hit floor 34 (two floors to go). Crossing the finish line, I quickly looked at my watch and saw 3:20. I didn't quite reach David's record, but it was still a fast time. I then sat down next to David to see how he fared. He had a solid time of about 3:25. We congratulated each other and then focused on recovering. David busied himself hacking up a lung and I spent my time writhing in pain. My breathing soon turned back to normal, but my arms and legs were burning because of the lactic acid build-up. For comparison, the pain was just as intense as it was in the New Haven and Albany races.

After another 5 -10 minutes, Tim Donahue and Sproule Love finished the race. I went over to greet them and ask how they did. Unfortunately, neither of them brought a watch but Tim claimed that Sproule beat him by a good 20 seconds. At that point, I figured Sproule won the race and I came in 2nd unless Sproule somehow managed to break the 3 minute barrier.

After Sproule, Tim, and David recovered a bit I asked them to make sure we could meet later for a group photo. I was pretty thrilled that three of the top stair climbers in the North East were all in one place!

Sproule and Tim took the elevator downstairs to cheer on the rest of their team, but David and I opted to take the secondary stairwell down*. This gave us a chance to count the number of stairs in the race course. I called out each step and David confirmed my count at the end of each landing. Unsurprisingly, the published number of steps (686) is different than actual count (700).

*All skyscrapers are required to have more than one set of stairs for safety purposes. In 

Hartford 21, the secondary stairwell is basically the same configuration as the racecourse, but turns to the right rather than the left.

After counting the steps, David and I headed back to the 3rd floor lounge to socialize with the other climbers*. At long last I was able to snap a few photos of Sproule, Tim, and David.

*Special note goes to Reese, a raw Vegan who recognized my WCL shirt. He is one of Tim Van Orden's many followers.

East Coast Champions!

After the photos session, I snagged a few Larabars and a banana for the trip home and then headed over to the Black Bear Saloon for the post-race party. The party lasted a bit longer than expected because of the record number of climbers and we were there until about 2:00 PM. Fortunately, I had a good time socializing with my new team mates and the Black Bear provided a buffet for both breakfast AND lunch! I also had an opportunity to hang out with Sproule and Tim's older brother Bill (a fast climber in his own right).

Team Donahue!

Partying with the Connecticut Health Care Stair Runners

And the Winner is... Spoule Love!

Here are my final thoughts about the race:

• Climbing technique is vastly different in a sprint climb compared to a longer climb. I can easily keep one foot on landings when going at a slow pace, but it becomes exponentially more difficult the faster I climb. This makes a bit of sense because my legs are moving much faster during a sprint. I'm also going so fast, my body is overcoming significantly more centripetal force when turning around the stairwell. As a reference point, I climbed each stair case in less than 6 seconds (3 seconds per landing) at this climb. However at the Willis tower I climbed each floor in about 10 seconds (5 seconds per landing). I've got to learn how to take turns more efficiently (or at least more quickly) during a sprint.
• Grades: Strategy = A; Exertion = A-; Technique = B-; Overall = A-;
• Based on my measurements, the real height of the course is between 120 and 125 meters.
• The race organizers should have kept about 10 or 15 seconds between each climber rather than 20. That would have sped up the race while keeping the stairwell traffic at a reasonable level.
• I'm happy that I was able to keep up with the likes of Dave Tromp and Tim Donahue at this race. Although Sproule set the new course record, he was only 4% faster than me. For comparison, at One Penn Plaza Sproule was 12% faster and at Willis he was 22% faster! Although I'm a bit better than I was a few months ago, this race shows that I'm no longer the underdog when it comes to sprinting. I can't wait for Bennington in May which is an even shorter race!
• I had a lot of fun hanging out with David over the last few races. I'm hoping he'll be able to tackle the Willis Tower later this year.