A brief look back
This coming Saturday is the Aon Center stair climb, so today is the last day I’m planning on going there for the practice session. So as an exercise in look-how-far-we’ve-come, I decided to try a little experiment. The first time I did this, I averaged 12 seconds per floor, and I felt like I was gonna die! Now I’m averaging about 10, still feeling like I’m gonna die!. So I wanted to try going up at the same pace as my first time, just to see what that would feel like now.
I made up a split time card, with the aim of doing the 56 floors in 11:20. That’s pretty slow by my standards now, but it’s the same pace that I did the first time I did this climb.
Right from the start, I was having to hold back and deliberately go slow. When I got to 20, I was way ahead of schedule, so I slowed down a bit. At 32 I was a little ahead, but not much. And at 46 I was ahead again. I took it easy at the end, not really trying to sprint the last few floors, and I came out on 60 at 11:00. So even trying to go as slow, I still ended up going faster than I did at my first race.
In any endeavor, it’s useful sometimes to stop and take stock of the progress one has made.