Last few practice climbs
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There are only a few more practice sessions on the stairs before the CFF Climb on November 15th. And now that we’re back from Chicago, I don’t have to think about that any more. Now it’s just a matter of trying to see how fast I can get the the building one time. So tonight, I thought I’d try an experiment.
I’ve been aiming for five floors per minute as my target pace for the Sears Willis Tower, but for this, event, only 54 stories, I want to aim higher. So tonight I went for 5 1/2 floors per minute. That’s easy to calculate, and easy to follow. My two-minute goals would be floors 12, 23, 34, and 45. I hoped to get to 51 in just about nine minutes.
The first five minutes or so were fine, and I kept on pace. Nearer the top, I slowed down a bit, losing a few seconds each minute on the floors above 35 or so. So I got to 51 in 9:13. Not too bad, but nowhere near my personal record of 8:33 for the climb to 51. Still, considering that I’m not in the same shape I was last year or the year before, and I’ve been having knee problems the last few weeks, I’m not going to complain. I guess my goal for race day will be to try to make the finish line on the roof in less than 10 minutes.
I went up a second time, just because I could. I timed it, but didn’t push for speed. And by the end of the second climb, my knee was feeling a bit swollen, so I stopped there.
