Stair Victory

A while ago, I was posting often about climbing the stairs at work for exercise on breaks.  I haven’t posted about it in a while and there is a very simple reason for that.  I haven’t been doing it, due to my continuing fatigue issues.

Tonight, I decided to give it another whirl.  I did my usual 11 floors (22 flights) up, but there was a difference this time.

Normally, I have to stop for a second (usually literally only a second or two) to catch my breath after four flights.  I think part of my problem is that I seem to be physically incapable of actually walking up or down stairs.  I have to run.  I’ve always been like that, ever since I was little.  It used to terrify my mom when I was little, because she was constantly afraid that I will fall to some great and horrible disaster.  Which did happen on occasion, but it wasn’t ever anything I couldn’t recover from.  Obviously.

There are a few rare instances in which I can actually force myself to walk slowly up or down a staircase:

• I’m with people who are either walking slower or can’t run up/down them;
• I’m with someone or will be meeting people shortly after the staircase, so I don’t want to be totally out of breath;
• I’m in heels or scary unstable shoes.

And that’s it.  Lately, my habit of rushing up and down the stairs has led to more than a few tumbles.  I have several pairs of pajama pants that have wide legs and are about as comfy as you can get.  Unfortunately, when you combine the wide leg openings and my rushing, it makes for a dangerous situation.  Inevitably, as I’m climbing the stairs, one of my big toes will get caught in the hem of my other pants leg and down I’ll go.  I’ve had quite a few bruises and sore wrists to show for my trouble.  But has it made me go any more slowly or carefully on the stairs?  No way.

Have I mentioned that I’m a klutz?

I also obviously have problems with digressing.  The point is that I think my habit of running up the stairs is what has made me poop out by the 4th floor every time.  Today, I made myself take the first flight slowly.  After that, it was all downhill (uphill?) and I went back to my old ways.  I forced myself to keep going though, and made it eight floors without stopping.  I then stopped for only a moment before continuing up the last three.

Even though I was breathing so hard that my throat literally hurt, I was pretty proud of myself.  I did 22 flights of stairs in approximately 3 minutes.

I hope that everyone had a good Friday and has fun plans for the weekend.  I’m going to see Saw V in the morning.  I’m so excited!  I’ve been looking forward to this movie coming out for months.  I’ll probably go try and vote afterwards.  I definitely know that I want to do something this weekend that involves some form of exercise, but the rest of the weekend is pretty much up for grabs at this point.