I'm going to do a charity stair challenge for the Humane Society on 9-15. It will be all the stairs in the Tucson Convention Center Arena and be 1307 steps up (and down).

My wife thinks I'm nuts, and asked me how I'll train for it, and I said all I could do is ride, and do my weekly hill climb hike. I went to the gym today, and they put stair machines in since my last trip last week.....Training issue solved.

I did 1307 steps today. I'm thinking about doing 2071 on 9-11.

Hmmm, I never heard of such a thing. I try to take stairs whenever there is a choice of stairs, elevator, or escalator, but I rarely get into a building that takes me up more than about 6 flights.

I did have a few trips up and down the stairs when Mom was in the hospital recently. They felt good considering I hadn't hardly climbed stairs for several years.

That has the brain churning... if only I knew of a building with a dozen escalators, I could imagine a midnight reverse escalator challenge

https://what-if.xkcd.com/126/

I have heard of stair challenges and I climb stairs quite regularly. I work in an 10 storey building, and I was up to 40 flights of 20 stairs a day, 5 days a week, for a while there.

I find stair climbing to be surprisingly helpful for cycling uphill. It really strengthens my cardiovascular system, and legs.

Right now I'm up to 10 flights, but plan on increasing that a bit next week.


A tip ... a very, very, very strong suggestion ... in other words, do this:

Climb stairs. Climb real stairs.

Cycling, hiking and using the stair machine will help you going up to some extent, but they won't do a thing for you going down.

If you do not climb real stairs up and down, you will experience the most excruciating calf pain the day after your "event" that you've ever experienced in your life.

Find real stairs and start climbing. But .... only do 5 flights up and down on the first day. If your calves are OK, then do 5 flights each day for 5 days. Then increase to 7 or 8 flights the next week.

If you want to have a preview of the potential calf pain, go ahead and do 10 or 20 flights the first day, up and down. If you do that, don't make plans for the next day or two.

I'm hesitant to call it a good idea without any warm up.

That's why you don't start climbing stairs for the first time with 1307 real stairs up (and down) ... that's why you might try 5 flights on your first go. If that seems daunting, just try a couple flights.



I have walked and ran 873 km this year so far ... flat ground, up hill, down hill. And I have maintained at least 4 flights a day, 5 days a week. And yet, going from that to 10 flights of stairs was enough to cause some DOMS in my calves.

No real stair options for me, so it'll be the gym, my weekly hike up Tumamoc Hill, and riding until challenge day. How my legs handle going back down 1300+ stairs is a concern, but there's nothing I can do about it, so I'll just have to deal with it.

Fwiw, my legs are fine after my first stint on the gym stair machine, which is good because Fri is Tumamoc Hill day, and you definitely want fresh legs for that.

No real stair options anywhere?

Not in the airport?

Not in a shopping centre?

Not bleachers in a sports ground?

Not in any buildings in town?

No stairs up to your front door?

Not out in one of the Saguaro Parks?

It's not the UP that will get you ... it's the DOWN.



Can you somehow turn around and go down on the gym stair machine?

Calf raises?

Walking barefoot on a sandy beach for 5 or 6 km a couple times a week? (I suppose not in your area, and you probably wouldn't want to go barefoot with the possibility of scorpions around!)

I bet there are fancy dual suspension MTBs that could ride down those stairs with ease. Must be maddening to think about that while descending and jacking up your knees.

I would challenge a set of stairs to a race. I might win for a change.

I like going up stairs, but descending a staircase can be hard on the knees, coupled with a greater chance of falling.

My four year old granddaughter challenged me to a stare contest...oh, wait....sorry.

Ok. By "warm up" I mean different thing. Not training, but starting slowly in each attempt. May be HR monitor will be useful for that.

BTW when we were kids we run 400 steps trying to get to the tenth floor before elevator... Going down was normal and much faster.

Now I see 1307 steps up as a broken elevator in 30-story building. I hate even think about it.

I'd never suggest running the stairs. You've got to plod very slowly at first, then later you might pick up the pace a bit. But I try to avoid running stairs.


And there's a little trick to doing higher numbers of stairs, like when I was doing 40 flights of 20 steps a day ...


In my building, there are 10 steps, then a landing, 10 steps and the landing for the next floor, and repeat 10 times. So I walk 10 steps, then take 3 or 4 steps on the landing, then 10 steps up, 3 or 4 steps on the landing, etc. I find taking my time a little bit on the landing means I can breathe all the way up.


Going down, it's not a bad idea to pause and stretch a little every 5 flights or so.

Ever been to Tucson ? Lots of mtns like Tumamoc Hill to hike up. Not a lot of stair options for a working person that squeezes gym time in after work.

I'll be fine. I don't seem to have problems going down my own stairs, or 1 1/2 miles down Tumamoc hill.

As far as going back down the stair machine......I have a hard enough time using it correctly without falling off.

Yeah, I have been to Tucson, and somehow I thought there was a flight of stairs in one of the Saguaro Parks around to take you up to a viewpoint.


All you need is one flight of stairs, walk up ... walk down, and repeat. It's when you get to the 10th or 15th repeat that the calves are likely to start feeling it the next day.

I'm pretty sure the stairs in my house and the walk down Tumamoc Hill will cover my calves, but if I suffer the effects of the stairs, I'll be the first to admit to you that you were right.

Evidently they still have the Run Up The Empire State Building contest. The Empire State Building Run-Up Presented by Turkish Airlines Powered by the Challenged Athletes Foundation | Empire State Building

I would do something like that. I like cycling, and I like climbing stairs. I sometimes climb the stairs to my office at work, eight flights up. I'm pretty fast. I always take steps two at a time, and that helps keep me in shape.

I sometimes take stairs 3 at a time.

Up is OK, down is tricky.

I remember once going down a whole flight of stairs with one step ....

A serious stair-climb: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manitou_Incline

Like Rowan's big step down?