Filling the quota
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
It’s Monday, and the start of another week of stair practice. I’m still trying for 100 climbs up the Wilshire-Figueroa building for the season. I’ve got 82 so far, and I was aiming for five tonight.
I was the second one on the stairs. We got a little bit of a late start, but not too bad. I was on the stairs by 5:36. I aimed for a slightly faster pace tonight than last week, just to increase my chances of getting through four climbs before the cutoff at 6:45.
The first time up, I got 10:27, which was all right. And the elevator ride down was pretty fast. We didn’t have to stop, so it only took about four minutes. I started up the second time, still aiming for my 4 3/4 floors per minute pace. I was able to maintain that all the way up, and came in at 10:44. The second elevator ride down had one stop, but it wasn’t too bad. I got in the stairs for my third climb at 6:06.
I was starting to slow down a bit on the third climb. I did the 4 3/4 floor pace for about the first 20 floors, and then I slowed down to 4 1/2 per minute. Still, I got to the top the third time at about 6:17. At that point, I knew I had a good shot at five for the night.
I went up the fourth time, arriving at the top at 6:32 with a time of 11:18. And the elevator ride down was reasonably fast. I got back to the door at 6:39, so I headed up for a fifth time.
The last time up, my only goals were to not stop, and to make it to the top before 7:00. I didn’t see anyone else on the stairs, but I could hear someone coming up below me. I got to the top in 12:32, which is not blazing fast by any means, but not bad for the fifth consecutive climb of the night.
So now I have 87 climbs up the building so far this season. I can make it to two more practices, and if I can make five on both of them, then all I have to do is three climbs on race day, and I’ll have my 100.
