I Climbed 71 Floors Today

Today I climbed 71 floors at the Detroit Renaissance Center with Olivia, my daughter, friends Lisa and Alicia, and Alicia's father and sister.  We had a team of 6 and next year plan on taking others with us.  It is a stair climb fundraiser, called Fight for Air Clim for the American Lung Association.  Everyone must raise at least $100 to climb.

I signed up a month ago and was hoping that all my hard work at the gym and all my classes would pay off because I really didn't have time to do much stair climb training.  I did a few extra flights of stairs at my Y.  I got on the stair stepper a couple times at the end of workout.  But really, I hate stairs.  

I was worried about my lungs and heart and not my legs.  Others seemed to be worried about their legs going in, calves in particular, cramping, quads......so I started wondering how they'd be on me. I drank tons of water yesterday and this morning.  I ate extra healthy yesterday and made a scrumptious smoothie this morning full of potassium, protein, calcium, vitamin C, and anti-oxidants.  I was doing this and didn't want any cramping going on.

Well, cramping and leg pain were not a problem at all!  I was totally in shape as far as my legs were concerned.  It was exactly what I thought it would be.  My lungs and heart.  Whew.  

As we were waiting in line to start our climb, we asked a volunteer what the average time was for people because we had no clue how long it would take us.  He said the record was 6 minutes!  Now THAT is insane!  We saw some people already back down and they hardly looked like they were sweating!  Again, THAT was insane!  But we were pumped, excited and ready to climb.

Out of the gate, I ran up the first flight and said, "whoaaa, slow down, this ain't gonna work".  So one flight up, I started my mantra of "slow and steady".  I took it one step at a time and made sure to keep breathing.  At about the fifth floor I thought, oh noooo.....this is gonna be hard.  I was already winded.  But I kept on.  At the next water station floor I grabbed a drink of water.  They had water every fifth floor and we weren't aloud to take it in the stairwells.  I decided then I would step out every fifth floor to grab a sip or two and then keep moving.  I kept my pace.  I stopped only for 15-30 seconds to sip my water and then went back at it.  It was awesome to hear when I was half way there.  It was even better to hear when I only had 10 more to go.  This is incidentally when I caught up with my daughter.  She had stopped here because she was feeling a bit like she was going to throw up.  I guess that not quite 16 year old youth didn't keep her exempt from having to work to get to the top!  I was definitely sweating.  I was SO glad I wore shorts and a tank top.  I was breathing hard.  Before I knew it, I was done. DONE. Finished.  That was it!  So 30 minutes later I was at the top recovering.  30 minutes after that I felt great and wouldn't have even known I had just walked 71 flights.  I'm proud for all of us that did it today and we're all ready to go back next year to beat our time!  I'm dragging my hubby with me next time.  (He's got an excuse this year though since he just had surgery a couple weeks ago.)

Now, one would think climbing that many stairs would burn A LOT of calories!  At least I did.  But my calorie burn for the climb was under 300!  Crazy I tell you.  That had to be worth more than that.  Oh well.....it was fun and great exercise.  I did indulge with some pasta at the end, some cheese a couple delicious chocolates.  It was so yummy.  Now I gotta go work on the rest of my calorie burn for the day. Toodles for now.