My friend Michele has been doing stair climbing as part of her workout routine for some time now, and I joined her at some point last year. Once a week, we head to a nearby office building and walk up and down 17 flights of stairs 3 times. It’s such a short and easy workout, so I love it. But it’s crazy how much more it affects the lungs than the legs. It doesn’t appear to improve either, which isn’t fair because you’d think that the more you do it, the less it should hurt!
We just finished the American Lung Association’s annual Fight for Air Climb fundraising event, and I’m still feeling it in my lungs! The event was at the Republic Plaza building downtown and we climbed 56 flights of stairs, 1098 steps. Again, it wasn’t hurtful for my legs, but a killer for the lungs! I have exercise-induced asthma, so I was worried that I’d have problems before finishing. So I had intentions of spending the whole climb getting my mind aligned and visualizing my lungs as open and breathing properly…but the mind is a crazy thing, right? I would get on track with it, but then a distraction would pop up (a sign to read, cheering people on certain floors, sudden cold blasts of air, etc) and i’d soon be thinking about how bad my lungs felt. But I kept bringing it back and tried to keep thinking healthy thoughts. After I made it to the top, it took me about 15 minutes to breathe without pain. But I made it to the top without having that be an issue. Yay!
I’ve never participated in any kind of marathon, but I can see the appeal. Not just for the fundraising and public awareness aspects, but for the challenge of pushing yourself beyond your perceived limits. Not to mention that you get to see the results of everything leading up to it. Although, I imagine if my lungs still hurt in the morning, I might think differently!
