Stairsmaster, Stairman,
OMG…these are the few names which I have been given to me in the last few
months after people saw a transformation in my body. And it is quite obvious
because now I am a completely changed person internally and externally, thanks
to my training which included running, stairs climbing, Abs, SuryaNamaskars and
Kick Boxing. I don’t know how I got addicted to these but these are entirely my
inclusions.
So, how I started? I have
been running for a long time but with no focus on timing; however, I always
thought improving my timing. In one of the many articles, I read stairs
climbing as one of the core training of all successful runners. Meanwhile,
Sharad, an IT entrepreneur and my running fellow did few sessions of stairs in
his building which inspired me to do stairs in my building but I found it
boring, may be due to non-circulation of air and closed four walls. Parsik Hill
was one place where I remembered one small patch of stairs (110 stairs oneway).
Next day, I ran to Parsik Hill (PH) and did 1,100 stairs (5 times of stairs run
cum jog, 220 stairs up and down). It was an amazing experience for me though I
was tired too. In my next run to PH, I did 7 times of repetitions completing
1,500 stairs which went to 3,300 stairs in next two sessions. Meanwhile I realized
that I started feeling light due to stairs and my calves were becoming
stronger. This made me to include stairs as my permanent training plan. So,
instead of mixing running with stairs, I focused on doing stairs only. I landed
on PH with my loads of carbohydrates, water and other stuffs and did my first dedicated
stairs jog and ended up doing 5,500 stairs in 1:10 hrs. My other core plans
like SuryaNamaskars, Abs, Plank etc were on. I increased my stairs count from
5,500 to 8,000 to 11,111 and then 15,555 stairs in a span of one month. Yes,
initially I felt tired but later on, it was perfectly fine except on the day
when I did 15,555 stairs, my feets were paining. On an average, I did 5,500
stairs an hour.
These trainings helped me a
lot; first, it gave me a discipline and direction how to target and achieve it
and at the same time, it made my body strong, rather I would say super strong. I
accomplished my sub 2 target of completing ADHM 2014 in 1:53 hrs followed by
Emidar Navi Marathon Half Marathon in 1:50 hrs. Because of these trainings
which included stairs, I finished Bangalore Ultra (50 km) in a reasonable time
(5:40 mins). Believe me, I never ran beyond 21 km but I ended up doing 50 km
without any hassles. Yes the last 10 km was tough but I managed to finish
strongly. Recently I participated in Stairs Everest Challenge organized by Skyscraper
Dash where we had to run 43 times up and 42 times down of Kohinoor Square (52
floors), Dadar equivalent to 106,500 stairs in a team of 6. We ended up doing
109,000 stairs where I contributed 18,750 stairs and rest by my team members. We
took an average time of 3:00 hours and beat Bangalore record by a cool 13 mins.
I read a lot of articles on
stairs and kick boxing and read few histories of some of the great runners of
the world. Two things were common in all – Stairs running/Hill running and
Boxing/Kick Boxing which are part of my training plans currently.
I strongly recommend all
runners to include stairs, abs and other core exercises in their training plans
which will definitely improve their running pace.
My life changed very fast in
the last two years, especially in the last one year; everything looked positive
to me, personally met so many wonderful and determined people, most of them
runners of different ages but in different professions. I am blessed that I am
surrounded by positive people, friends and bosses who always supported me in my
dreams. God bless everyone!
Happy stepping!
