It’s going to take a bit of effort to get my climb into the top percentile of CN Tower climbers. My first climb was a tortoise-like 23:53 and my second was a little more brisk, but still brick 18:59. The CN Tower is 1,774 steps – so to get to 11:59 (just under 12 minutes) is about 2 1/2 steps per second on average. Whoo!
My first instinct was to hit the step mill and just practice stair climbing. For the past two months, every week or two, I’ve been pushing up the step mill and doing the equivalent of a climb up the Tower. I’ve been plateau-ing just under 16 minutes. It seems that after 9 or 10 minutes of pushing myself at the maximum pace of the machine (which would only bring me in at a 13 minute climb), I hit a wall and have to slow down.
These next few weeks, the focus is going to be on building endurance. This means long cardio sessions on the elliptical. Since the past month has been a climb every week, I’m going to move that out to every other week and start tapering down the pace before I hit the wall.
Of course, all this climbing couldn’t happen without healthy eating, including breakfast. That’s something the United Way Toronto provides for hundreds of kids each school day.
