4 Days Till the 2011 Willis Tower Stair Climb



 

Willis Tower
103 Floors



I thought I would share a little bit of what I've been doing in order of getting ready for this years Willis Tower Sky Run stair climbing race on Sunday November 6th 2012.  Since I just got into the sport of stair climbing this year this will my race of this magnitude.  Ive donesom smaller more local stair races and Ive performed well in each of them but this race brings something different to table.  It takes a lot more effort in getting prepared for a race of this length and copetition.  

In order to get prepared for this race I have incorporated alot more endurance type of climbs at the Hilton tower here in Springfield.  Instead of doing faster paced climbs of only 3-4 intervals up, I did slower paced intervals of 7-9 x's up w/ shorter rests.  I also increased  the amount of bike rides Ive gone on lately.  Longer, more threshold type of rides, as well as some interval sprint training.  I have also kept with running 3 times a week, usually 3-5 miles each time.  In the past couple of months I have also started using a workou macine called the Jacobs Ladder usually once a week.  I have also stuck to lifing and plyos as well.    

I know it only my first year racing on the stair climbing scene but I feel I have learned alot since this past Feburary when I had my first race.  Training for stair races isnt like running or biking in terms of training everyday.  In running or biking, overall, the way you get better is to run or bike almost everyday, granted mixing up your workouts from day to day.  Yet with stair climbing if you did stairs everyday you would get bored and it would ware on you after time.  So you have to be creative when mixing up workouts that will unltimately make you better in the stair case.  Cycling, running, lifting, and plyos all have an ingredient in them that transfer over to climbing stairs.  I have found that mixing up my training with one of these activities each day has significantly improved my efforts in the stairs.  When climing the stairs you use a wide range up muscles and you have to train each of these groups.  When mixing up your training and doing workouts that use varied muscle groups all caters to making you better in the stairs.

So in regards to this up coming stair climb at the Willis Tower, I feel my training these past several months has set me up for a great race.  My goal is to after the record which is 13:09 setby a German by the name of Matthais Jahn back in 2009.  In order to do this I have to set a vigorous pce and stay there for 103 floors.  My training has set me up to do this.  All I have to do now is go out there and do it.