Depending on what races I have coming up or where I am in the stair climbing season my workouts will vary. If its early in the season and I don't have any races for a while I will usually do a kind of base training consisting of slower intervals with more sets. Ill give you some examples...If Im trying to prep for a race that is a week away Ill race specific pace work. Since all towers are set up differently this become difficult but I try my best to simulate. If it is a sprint race, 30-40 floors, I will usually do more sprint intervals when the race is approaching. Basically I do longer and slower intervals early and progressively increase my paces and lower my sets, sometimes even doing 5 or 10 floor sprints, resting for 30sec.-1 min. Lastly, when you're setting up a stair climbing training program it is important to note that the typical U.S. stair climbing season is November-March typically, with the most races coming in February and March. Obviously your training will extend outside of this time frame if you want to excel "off season training."
Here are some examples of my workouts on the stairs.
Sunday October 14th 2012
1 mile warm up
Drills (High knees, butt kicks, karaoke, etc.)
Set 1: 3:15
Set 2: 3:09
Set 3: 3:17
Set 4: 5 floor sprints rest 1 min.
Set 5: Decent in 2:01
Cool Down run in the parking garage
*This workout came 3 weeks after my first marathon in which I took 3 weeks off afterwards.
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Friday November 30th 2012
2 mile warm up run
Drills
4 x 32 floors
2:45
2:53
2:58
Last set I hit every step
*In this workout the goal was to hit each interval in under the 3 min. with just the elevator ride down for rest. If I can get 3 intervals under 3min. with little rest it usually lets me know that Im pretty fit and ready to race. Which in this case next week was the WaMu climb 56 floors in Seattle, WA.
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Thursday December 13th 2012
.5 mile warm up
6 x 32 floors
3:48
3:20
3:00
5 floor sprints w/ 1 min rest
2:57
15 floor sprints (1:10/1:06)=2:16
1 mile cool down
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Sunday December 16th 2012
1.5 mile run
Drills
7 x 32 floors (3:15, 3:09, 3:11, 3:09, 3:17, 3:34, 3:42) w/ 1:30 rest b/w all intervals.
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Friday December 21st 2012
2 warm up climbs (nice and easy) 32 floors
2 x 5 floor sprints w/ 20-30 sec rest
Splits:
floor 5 (31, 29)
floor 10 (17, 16)
floor 15 (14, 13)
floor 20 (17, 17)
floor 25 (17, 17)
floor 30 (18, 18)
*On the first set of 5 floor sprints I took 30 sec rests. On the second set I took 20 sec. rests. The point of me doing this is so I can widdle away the rest time as I get stronger.
* Combine the times together at it was a 1:50; exactly 17 seconds under my PR at the Hilton which is 32 floors.
2 x Every step 4:08, 3:44 splits
1 cool down climb
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Video of me during a workout session.
@ the Hilton in downtown Springfield, IL
