Suggest workouts for increasing speed (stair racing)

[dullard]

I've been getting in to stair racing (such as up the Sear's/Willis tower), after never doing much cardio for the last ~20 years. I never expect to win a stair race, but I think that I could one day be around the top 10% of men.

I've been in 3 races now in various buildings. In the first race, by calves gave out. So I worked the calf muscles harder in my workout routine. In the second race, my quads gave out. So I focused more on my calves and quads. Now, in the third race, my legs had no problem, but it was my lungs that held me back.

So, what should I do to help out my lungs?

My current workout:

• Stair climbing. I can't run up the Sear's tower with every workout as I live 8+ hours away. But I can practice on stairs in nearby (far shorter) buildings. The problem being that there is always a break when going back down the stairs when my lungs get a rest (often on an elevator to save my knees).
• Cardio. I figure the best way to practice for a 22 minute race is to do 22 minutes of cardio (mixture of different machines) at the fastest pace that I can. Is this actually a good strategy though?
• Weights (upper/lower). I basically do a mix of some free weights and some circuit machines to cover the big muscle groups. I could probably go faster if I let my upper body atrophy and get weight savings, but I am not interested in doing so.
• Core. I mostly do planks and crunches for overall body balance.

Any suggestions on cardio?

 

[vi edit]

For cardio, you'll want to toss in a "long" workout to build up aerobic base and endurance. For something 22 minutes in duration, you'll want to be running for 45 minutes to an hour to stimulate that. Keep it slow (know your heart rate ranges) and casual.

Add in tempo runs to stimulate VO2 max.

For pure speed and anaerobic workouts find the steepest hill you have in the area (hard for Lincoln, NE I'm sure) and do hill sprints.

You need to think of aerobic function as gears of a car. Different speeds stimulate different responses in your body. And almost all of it is a function of volume rather than durated intensity.

 

[dullard]

I certainly can put in longer workouts. If I ran at the expected time for various building heights (which by necessity requires a variety of speeds) of different races would that do? I'd have to throw in a longer run for the Sear's tower though.

 

[vi edit]

I'd be very interested to see the heart rate data of a typical stair race. I really have no concept of the activity or the zones that you operate at while doing them.

But the important part is that no matter what, your aerobic system is going to be doing at least 50% of the work or more. Increasing that capacity makes your ability to sustain output more efficient and over a longer duration.

At 22 minutes I do not think you are effectively stimulating your aerobic system. 30 minutes minimum, and work your way up to an hour. It's not about training for a specific distance. It's about making that system more efficient regardless of distance. Your aerobic system does most of the heavy lifting at any output range and only starts to offload to the anaerobic system at the most extreme levels of intensity. But even then aerobic fitness accounts for more than 50% of that output.

I'm training for a half marathon right now. I did a 12 mile run last weekend. Even though I'm doing very long distances and not focusing on speed or short distances my 5k times are rapidly improving just due to aerobic efficiency gained from those longer distances and aerobic volume.

 

[dullard]

I'd be very interested to see the heart rate data of a typical stair race. I really have no concept of the activity or the zones that you operate at while doing them.

Stair racing is one of the fastest ways to hit your maximum heart rate and keep it there. I don't have a great answer for you when it comes to the top stair racers (there are a few blogs that state that they go at a pace that their heart feels like it is coming out of their chests and their lungs are about to give out). But, I do have a few data points.

1) When I'm on the StairMaster (which I try to avoid), I can use its heart rate monitor. I can keep my heart rate around the lower to mid 180 beats per minute while exercising without too much problem. Beyond that, I can't keep up the pace and have to slow down. My max should be in the mid 180s due to the "211 - 0.64 * age" rule of thumb for men. So that seems about right.

2) Here is a study with participants asked to go up and down 5 floors four times at whatever pace they wanted, but not so fast as to bounce. It looked like they were hitting the lower 160 beats per minute after the 10th floor (grey line for double-stepping it).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3520986/figure/pone-0051213-g001/

I would assume if they actually ran then the heart rate would be higher.

3) Here is an amateur with a heart rate monitor on a tower run. Looking at the graph, her heart rate basically shot nearly instantly up to the 170 beats per minute range while on the tower portion of the run.
http://towerrunninguk.com/tag/stair-running-tips/

 

[RagingBITCH]

To be good at a sport, you have to train specifically for it. Doing random cardio isn't defined enough to get you better at training stairs.

I've been a marathoner/half marathoner for years, as well as a running coach. Doing alternate cardio to make up a 3.5 hour long run doesn't train your body to properly acclimate or be efficient at racing a 3:30 marathon. Same goes with stair racing. I had ITB issues before OKC 2010 - prevented me from running but I could do stairs all day. So I tried a 3.5 hours on the stairmaster - it's as bad as it sounds - it definitely does not prepare you for running a sub 4 marathon.

Want to get better at it? You'll be hitting the stairs all the time. Same general principles. First you have to define how many floors/stairs you are climbing and general time. (Whatever the next race is - how many floors you are climbing) Based on that, you can structure a plan to get better at that distance (floors/stairs) and improve your time.

Regardless, you'll still need:

- Easy climbs / rest days
- Intervals
- Long easy climbs

They all serve a purpose to prepare your body (calves, quads) to be able to handle it. Also your lungs too. Based on your third race, your body was more apt at handling it, but your lungs couldn't, which means you weren't conditioned to climb at that pace for that many floors. Doing 22 minutes of elliptical, rowing, and treadmill and lifting weights - while it probably improves overall conditioning and certain muscle groups, isn't focused enough to make you better at running stairs.

 

[dullard]

To be good at a sport, you have to train specifically for it. Doing random cardio isn't defined enough to get you better at training stairs.
...
Want to get better at it? You'll be hitting the stairs all the time. Same general principles. First you have to define how many floors/stairs you are climbing and general time. (Whatever the next race is - how many floors you are climbing) Based on that, you can structure a plan to get better at that distance (floors/stairs) and improve your time.

That is the crux of the problem. Almost any marathoner can go out on the streets, find a track, or in the worst-case-scenario find a treadmill and can reasonably simulate a marathon. True, the treadmill doesn't include wind-resistance, but that is a minor problem that can be roughly balanced by setting the treadmill at an incline.

The same isn't true with stairs. Very few people have the Sears tower in their backyard and none have it in their gym.

I can run on stairs, but there is always that rest period as you go down the stairs or down an elevator. Even a stairmaster fails with being close to reality since you don't actually lift your bodyweight up. Sure, it is good exercise, but it is almost like comparing isometric to dynamic moves when you aren't moving your bodyweight. So, you can't really simulate it. I can't just train specifically for it. I can train for things similar to it (such as running up hills).

Don't get me wrong. I do plenty of running on stairs. I'm just finding that stairs alone isn't quite close enough to really push my lungs to their limit.