July 17, 2010 Transamerica Stair Climb

I got off work feeling surprisingly good. We had a pretty easy night with one call around 1:30 am. My legs felt limber and springy even after the wildland fire the day before. I grabbed my gear and drove up to the Transamerica building in San Francisco. One of my biggest supporters, my dad, met me there. That's always going to put a little pep in my step.

My goals for this climb were to break 20 minutes and for my air bottle to last all the way to the top. I didn't train nearly as much as planned for this one, but easily accomplished both of those goals. I made it to the top of the 48 floors in 17:05 with 1000 psi of air left in my bottle. In addition to this, I recovered almost instantly and had enough energy to go bounding back down the stairs and encourage others as they were on their way up. Here's a link to an article the San Francisco Chronicle ran on the climb. I was super impressed by the National Guardsman that ran it in full kit including gas mask.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2010/07/18/BAFM1EG20R.DTL&object=%2Fc%2Fpictures%2F2010%2F07%2F17%2Fba-stairclimb18_0501979305.jpg


Still though, that little competitive bug is kicking in and the next time I'd like to finish in the 15 minute range, ultimately finishing in 10 minutes. To do this, the main thing I need to do is climb stairs and figure out my pace. I didn't spend any training time under load preparing for this event. I was mainly curious to see the carryover effects my minimalist training routine would have during the climb. The weight felt fine. I didn't notice any aches and pains or discomfort from the gear, which is always a good thing. For the next time I'll spend time with my weight vest on the step mill, the steps at Joaquin Miller Park, and hiking on trails. I can't wait for the next one.