The final Cathedral of Learning stair climb before the Fight for Air Climb

Mar 20, 2013 · 2 minute read · Comments
exerciseCathedral of LearningPittsburghPittsburgh MarathonFight for Air Climb

Today, members of Team Ferlee met for a final stair climb at the Cathedral of Learning before we race in the Fight for Air Climb.

I originally had not planned to attend, because I am still in a state of recovery from all the running I’ve been doing, and had hoped to rest up till tomorrow before doing my own final stair climb. In fact, because I had not intended on a stair climb, I had done a run this morning already as my exercise for the day.

But circumstances made it most convenient for me to meet up with Becky in order to give her a final donation check as well as receive items to use for agreed-upon team costumes.

The workout

It turned out it was just Becky, Bill, and me.

Despite starting from a condition of fatigue, I ended up doing four reps again. This was my most intense workout yet.

The three of us started with one rep.

Bill and I both did a crazy fast second rep: he did 6:49, which is a lot faster than the 7:26 he did ten days ago. I went close to all-out, but without knowing for sure when I could start my final sprint. Still, I finished in 7:06, a lot faster than the approximately 7:36 of ten days ago.

In the third rep, I went at a fairly fast pace.

In my fourth rep, I did a series of intervals of sprints in order to figure out how long I could go into a full run. My conclusion was that I could not do more than five floors without my quads turning into jelly. That was good to find out.

What next?

I am completely beat.

No more stair climbing tomorrow or Friday, because Saturday is the big day!

It is unfortunate I left the fine-tuning of speed to the final week before the race, so I won’t get the full benefits of a serious training program, but optimizing the race was never of high priority to me, after all.