Holy Spin Class

Wednesday 12/28/2011

I just got back from a spin class at the YMCA they just built near my house, which is really convenient for training purposes.  But anyways, WOW, what a workout tonight.  I have been to many spin classes before but this one really pushed me to my limits and I really really had to dig down deep and stay focused and ignore the pain.  Mentally it was one of the hardest workouts Ive done in a long time.  We did a mountain climb workout and we were practically out of our seats the entire 45 minutes of class.  Made me feel like Lance climbing the Alp d'Huez in the The Le Tour de France.  I pushed myself to complete exhaustion and so hard that I was dripping in sweat and got off the bike and was walking around like a new born giraffe.  everybody in the classes was looking at me like I was weird but I didnt care, I worked to complete exhaustion in a workout, and thats what I need to be doing if I want to be great in the running and stair climbing world.  


In these stair races I have found out very quickly that it is a huge mental game.  Your legs are usually going to feel like crap on the 20th maybe even 10th floor of an 80 or even 103 floor climb but you have to find that mind frame where you just insist on ignoring that hurt and burn and pushing through to complete exhaustion.  Check out some  of the videos online of climbers just completed wiped out physically and mentally at the top of these climbs.  its not for show, they are like that because they made themselves hurt.  I am going to continue doing these spin classes and continuing to make my body hurt like they do in races.  Which reminds me of a song.  Check it out. 

Two Solid Weeks of Training; in Preperation for Empire State Building RunUp

It has been 2 weeks now since Ive really been turning it on training wise in getting ready or ESBRU race on Feb 8th in NYC.  The ESBRU (Empire State Building Run Up) is considered the "SuperBowl" of stair climbing races in the world, just for the fact that it has the best athletes in the stair climbing world come to race.  Here lately I have really been turning it up a notch, incorporating 2-a-days as well.  Here is a glimps of what Ive done on a day to day basis the past two weeks.  Check it out...

Tuesday:  4.6 mile run
Wednesday:  20 mile bike interval sprints
Thursday: 3.25 mile run
Friday:  20 mile bike interval sprints
Saturday:  1 mile run, Jacobs Ladder Workout (717 ft. in 5 minutes); 4min. leg press tabata workout
Sunday:  10 mile bike, 4min. tabata bike wokout

Monday:  5 mile run
Tuesday:  2 mile run, 3 x 32 floors, 1 x 5floor sprints, plyos abs
Wednesday:  15 mile spin class
Thursday:  3 mile tempo run, 6:15 mile pace
Friday:  1.5 mile run, 3 x 5min row machine, leg press tabata, lifting abs
Saturday:  10 mile tabata bike workout
Sunday:  .5 mile run, 5 x 32 floors at the Hilton, .5 mile run
Heres my workout on 12/25/2011 Christmas morning.

Athlete Profile

Justin Stewart
Age:24
Springfield, IL
Occupation: P.E., Health & Drivers Ed Instructor, Head XC and Track coach

5'10"
155 lbs

Running PR's
400m 48.9
600m 1:20.2
800m 1:53
Mile 4:19
2 Mile 9:47
3 Mile 15:09
5k 15:52
10k 34:34
1/2 Marathon 1:17

Stair Climb Records
*Check out my previous blog on my past races in 2011

2012 Racing Season/Schedule

2012 Stair Climbing Racing Season

Dec. 11th      300 Lasalle Tower Chicago IL
Jan. 21st        Bop to the Top Indianaplois IN
Jan. 29th        AON Tower Chicago, IL
Feb. 8th         Empire State Building Run Up New York, NY
Feb. 12th       Oakbrook Terrace Tower Chicago, IL
Feb. 18th       Hilton Springfield, IL
Feb. 26th       John Hancock Building Chicago, IL
Mar. 11th      Presidential Towers Chicago, IL
Sept. 24th     U.S. Bank Tower Los Angeles, CA
Nov. 4th       Sears/Willis Tower Chicago, IL
Nov. 15th     U.S. Bank Building Milwaukee, WI
Dec. 5th        Bogota, Columbia


2012 Road Racing Season


Lincoln Memorial Half Marathon
River to River Relay Race
Illinois Half Marathon
Scholastic Challenge 5k
Sizzling Mile
St. Louis Track Series (400m, 800m, 1500, 3000)
Illinois Parade Run 2 Mile
Abes Amble 10k

*Now that the 2011 racing season has come to an end its time to start thinking about the 2012 racing season.  In these sports there really is no off season.  Constantly doing some sort of training whether its building a base, peaking, tapering, etc. I am constantly training in some way or fashion.  Before stair climbing I only focused on running.  Now that there are two sports to think about now it has become harder to plan out how I want to train and how I want to approach certain races.  I run into the problem of specificity training.  If I focus on running it partially takes away from my stair racing performances. If I focus on stair training only it partially takes away from my road racing.  Since this is the case I have to take an even ground on staying all around fit, so if I wanted to road race I can be competitive, if I stair climbed I can be competitive, if I hopped in a cycling race I could also compete as well.  So far with this approach I have seen positive results.  My training is composed of a wide range of activities, one focused on more than others depending on what of the season I am in.  A lot of running, cycling, stairs, plyos, and lifting.