The Beast...

Sooo, I didn't do the US Bank Tower challenge on Friday... I didn't think I was ready for 75 flights straight up (even though I did 105 flights on the Evil Escalator on Tuesday -- not the same thing...)

A friend of mine told me about this fairly new walking trail with a staircase.  I looked it up, and the pictures looked insane... concrete steps built into a mountain... no hand rail... crazy, right???  Of course, that meant I needed to go check it out.  I went this morning, and it was indeed insane.  It's not normal stair climbing... the stairs are tall.  Some are over a foot high, and spaced out all different ways.  It felt like climbing bleacher benches... but way worse.  LOL.

There is also a trail that zig-zags up the mountain.  I climbed up the stairs, and I walked down the trail.  The stairs are much to crazy to climb down.  Four times on my first visit to the place, so I was very content.  Thankfully, it was nice and overcast Sunday morning as I started to climb.  The sun came out during my third time up.

This is a view from near the top...  I affectionately named it "The Beast!"

I'm going to go stretch some more... hopefully I'm able to walk tomorrow....

Great day!!!

Yes, it's another post already! LOL! I just have to pat myself on the back today. I was planning to go to the hill at Valley Ridge (which I will post about when I go back...) But I decided to make an appointment for a body wrap after work. I knew after a relaxing evening at the spa, I wouldn't want to get all sweaty and sore from a workout, so I laced up my sneakers at lunch time & climbed the stairs in my building.

Here is what happened.... my building has 12 stories, so it's 11 flights to climb... each flight has 20 steps. In the beginning, I would get winded & take a break around the 3rd flight.... after a while I didn't need to take a break until the 7th flight.... today, I started up those stairs, and I got up to the 12th floor without stopping once. I was fine... amazed, but fine! I'm pretty sure I was in shock as I SLOWLY headed down the stairs. The trip down took longer than the trip up! **My sister, Dr. Kimberly Manning (www.gradydoctor.blogspot.com) told me to take the elevator down or walk down the stairs slowly & deliberately to save my knees...** So I go down, and I head back up... again, up to 12 without stopping.... I'm thinking, "Yay for me!" I head back down.... back up to 12 for a third time and a fourth time without stopping. I head down again for the 5th and final time... I got tired around the 6th floor on the 5th time up, but I really think that was because I knew it was the last time... the fatigue was all in my head.

So I'm patting myself on the back tonight. The fact that I climbed over 1000 stairs today has me completely fired up. In fact, I'm considering doing the YMCA Stair Climb downtown at the US Bank Tower (picture above) on Sept. 25th.... 1500 steps, but this is UP, UP, UP with no break to walk down in between. I'm in no race, but I think I'd like the challenge.

I KNOW I can do it!