"I'd rather be seen on my bicycle than on a park run" - Quote from the dark side

Friday, 21 June 2013

Stairs, my good friend.

Blogathon post 21/30



I've never gone out to do a specific stair workout, but I do climb a lot of stairs daily. I do this deliberately as part of my training and I can tell you that it works wonders. This is more specifically for my trail running and I can say with certainty how much stairs help for that.
 
 

At work I park on the 8th floor of the parking garage specifically to run down on my way into the office and then run up again to my car at the end of the day. I also walk the stairs everywhere else I go during the day and never get into a lift. This has the added bonus of not sucking up everyone's germs during the lift ride as well.


 


When I go to the bathroom or go to get coffee I walk up 4 flights of stairs every time instead of going on the floor where I work. Running down is also great practice. On average I climb 54 flights of stairs daily. That might not sound like much, but do it 5 times a week and I promise you will find yourself stronger on those hills. The 54 flights down definitely helps as well.

The best about this...it's all done as part of my daily routine and I don't have to make time for it!

 
What this means is that I do 270 flights of stairs up and 270 flights of stairs down on average per week. I see this as a key part of my trail training. It certainly shows in the long term. Last week on the trails I could feel the strength in my legs on the climbs and this was after I've been away from the trails for a long time.

The stairs are my friend, are they yours?

8 comments:

misszippy said...

That's an awesome habit to be in. Since I work from home, my only stairs are those here, but I do walk all the time, even on my treadmill desk. I feel so much better for it!

Char said...

You must be great running hill with all that stair work. I have to admit that the only time I do stairs is if I have a stash of M&Ms upstairs and I've failed in trying to resist them.

Giorgio said...

Completely agree about climbing a lot of stairs daily: I always walk the stairs when I reach my workplace. On the contrary, going down stairs isn't a good thing for our backbone ... and also our knees.

The Green Girl said...

That's awesome that you're so dedicated to adding in all those extra stairs to your daily routine. I am very impressed.

ajh said...

That's a lot of stairs. I never (almost) take the elevator but my work building only has one flight of stairs to take.

Christina said...

I work in a 2 story building on the bottom floor and on a rare occassion I go upstairs to the bathroom. After reading your post I realize it would be so easy to add some stairs to my routine. Next week I'll commit to using the stairs to go up to the restroom. Thanks for the motivation.

Tina @GottaRunNow said...

I really like that it's all done as part of your daily routine!

Ordinarylife said...

I have never really gone out of my way to do stairs, but we don't have lift at work and the loo is on a seperate floor.

However, lately I have been going to the gym and using the stair master. I can't run at the moment due to an injury but the stair master seems ok. I am hoping that it helps - I am doing the Dryland Traverse in November and will need all the help with the hills that I can get.