2,340 Steps, Marathons and a "V" Word

Yesterday, I climbed 180 floors / 2,340 steps at the Presidential Towers in Chicago, and it was fantastic! A huge thank you once again to those who donated in support of my climb. I had a fundraising goal of $250 and I raised $275 for the American Lung Association. When I signed up for the Fight for Air climb a few months ago, I decided to just go for all 4 towers. I previously climbed at the Aon Center (80 floors) and Willis Tower (103 floors). For this climb, it was go big or go home.

When I train for my half marathons, I follow a week by week training plan. For stair climbs, I pretty much just make up my training as I go. I attend my morning boot camp as usual, which is about 2 to 3 times per week, for strength training and then I do cardio - a mix of treadmill interval sessions and long sessions on the stair climber. I'll stay on the stair machine for anywhere from 35 to 50 minutes. I feel like it's always hard to anticipate how you'll feel during a stair climb, and you don't really know what the stairwell will be like until you get in it.

I found this event to be very well organized and well run. Participants start in waves, and I didn't find the event to be overly crowded at all. Brent, a friend of mine from college, signed up for the climb as well so we carpooled together with our significant others coming along for support. Our start time was 11:10 AM.

When I do these climbs, and even my marathon, I view myself as more of a "slow and steady" type. I'm more concerned with finishing the race well than I am with my finish time. I started off in Tower 1 at what I felt was my regular pace on the stair climber. These stairwells were pretty narrow, but the height of the actual stairs were pretty similar to the machine at the gym. After you finished one tower, you would proceed to the elevators and take them down to the starting floor (which was actually the third floor in each tower) and then run down a hallway to the next tower. Your timing chip stopped when you crossed over to the elevator area, and started up again as you exited, so you were able to get a time for each tower.

I slowed down a bit in Tower 2 because I didn't want to burn myself out. Tower 3 and 4 I picked up the pace a bit, and I even ran up some flights of Tower 4. I didn't feel winded at all in terms of cardio. My legs and butt were feeling pretty worn out by the end, though!

I really liked that you were able to get a print out of your times at the end of the event:

                Me post race                                                      Brent and I post race

Dan and I and Brent and Kaitlyn after the climb

Congratulations on your first stair climb event, Brent! Brent took on a 4 towers as well and did a great job. He channeled his inner Kobe Bryant and was all decked out from head to toe in Lakers gear. Nice work!

 Now that the climb is done...what's next? I am participating in the Chicago Half Marathon again this September, and I'm very excited because my best friend Christina said she wants to do that race too and will train with me! (Christina...it's officially published in this blog...now you have to do it!)

I'm also considering running in the Allstate Half Marathon in June. Participating in both of these races will make me a finisher of the Windy City Challenge - basically, I just get an extra medal for doing two half marathons. You may be wondering why I don't just go for the full Chicago marathon. Answer: it's just not something I want to take on right now, and I may never take it on. I know a lot of people who participated last year, and it did make me think, "Hey, if they can do it, I can do it too!" I have so much respect for those who take on those 26.2 miles! But then I think about how I feel after running a half marathon, and I just don't want to go there. I'm not ready to commit.

My boyfriend Dan is interested in running a race with me, and may do the June race with me. If we train together, I have to accept that he is a much faster runner than I am and not get all competitive (read: frustrated) if we train together.


On the nutrition side of things, I'm preparing myself for yet another challenge. A few weeks ago, I watched a documentary on Netflix called Vegucated.
















Vegucated is a documentary about 3 New Yorkers who go on a vegan diet for 6 weeks. If you aren't familiar with what a vegan diet really means, it is a diet free of meat, dairy, or animal products of any kind. True vegans also avoid any clothing, shoes, or other products made from animals. I've heard about veganism before and have wondered how - and why - anyone would want to be a vegan. Ever since I saw this film, I have found myself reading up on vegetarian and vegan lifestyles more and more. I have greatly cut back on my meat intake since discovering vegetarian meals I enjoy, like my black bean burgers. But could I really do without milk, my beloved scrambled egg breakfasts, and delicious cheese?!

I still have a lot of reading and learning to do, and I intend on writing several blogs in the weeks to come about being a vegetarian or a vegan. For now, what I can tell you is much of the information in this documentary shocked me. I sat and cried through the part of the film that showed footage of animals, the conditions they are kept in, and the things they go through. I was presented with information I never gave thought to before, such as how much energy it takes to produce meat and dairy products for such a huge population. I've been questioning why we drink cow's milk when no other species drinks another animal's milk.

I still have so much I could write at the moment based off the information I have so far, but this blog post needs to end some time! What I can say for now is the documentary really has me thinking about the food we eat.  On Wednesday, I plan on renting Food, Inc., a documentary I've been intending to watch for a few years now.

There is so much more I would like to say, but I need to prep my lunch for tomorrow and get some sleep! Stay tuned...