Tower Tackled and the Runner's Cough won't quit!!

This morning was the "Tackle the Tower" Stairclimb. I woke up to a text message from my sister-in-law saying that the snow was so bad at her apartment that she got her car stuck in her parking lot and couldn't make it to my house to watch the kids. I called Deb and we discussed the weather and what we planned to do. Thankfully her husband was kind enough to agree to watch my kids while Deb and I went and did the climb. We got there, got our bib numbers and were lined up in numerical order and started at 10 second intervals. Deb and I talked to the runner behind us and she gave us the advice to walk at first and pick up the pace since this was our first time doing the climb. I ended up starting out running. I did have to walk at different times throughout the 37 flights of stairs. When I got to the end of the climb I realized my watch hadn't started. I was convinced I did it in 9:00 or 10:00 minutes. I just checked the results and my official time was 7:35. I have to say I am very impressed by that. It was a great experience but let me tell you, my lungs have been burning since I finished and the "runner's cough" won't quit. Given the choice I would prefer to just run but the climb was a great cross training workout for today. Tomorrow's long run calls for a scale back of 10 miles. Here's hoping I can run outside and not on the treadmill in the morning.

Keep running, you're simply the best, and you inspire me!!

"Tackle The Tower" Stairclimb

I did a search on google to find a video of last year's "Tackle the Tower" Stairclimb. Perhaps, that was a bad idea as this is what I found.

http://videos.cleveland.com/plain-dealer/2009/02/tackle_the_tower.html

I will report back tomorrow after I climb 646 steps. I believe the distance is close to 1 mile. Now I can run a mile no problem but add in steps and I don't know if I should be excited or terrfied. Wish me luck!!

Keep running, you're simply the best, and you inspire me!!

Who needs a stairclimber?

I ended up with a cold after last week's 5K. I didn't run at all until Thursday. I ran 4 1/2 miles on my friend Deb's treadmill. Last weekend Deb and I were looking ahead for races we could run in the coming months while we train for the Cleveland Marathon. We came across a tower climb. Upon further review, we learned that the tower climb involves running up 37 flights (646 steps) at the Galleria Mall in Cleveland. I decided to run my steps (15) at home today for my work out. I certainly need training for "Tackle the Tower". I was sweating buckets after 35 minutes on my steps and I can guarantee I was nowhere near running 646 steps.

This workout got me thinking, there are so many ways to workout using things around the house. This workout also made me realize that I seriousoly need to purchase a treadmill and maybe an elliptical too! So, what kind of winter workouts do you do?