In which I am both grateful for my morning exercise, and lose faith in it

[indigo_rose99]

So I've had a lovely dinner and I'm reentering my hotel.  In my new attitude as "healthy person," I ignore the elevator and head for the stairs.  I'm halfway up the first flight (from floor zero) when someone enters behind me.  I think, "Oh, well, it is only polite to not make them wait, I'll speed up!  And I do this every morning, so that should be easy!"  Taking two stairs at a time, I made it to the 2nd floor.  "Surely, he'll stop here.  I mean, who climbs the stairs up past this point?"  But he kept following me.  By the 4th floor, I'm trying not to pant audibly and have realized that I cannot do two stairs at a time any more... and he is gaining.  How humiliating!  The last floor I'd like to think that he didn't have to slow down for me... but *shrug*  Who knows?

Bleh.  Ok, kudos for not collapsing in the stair in a humiliating heap.  Further kudos for him not actually appearing to be forced to slow down or pass me.  But I would have felt a lot better if I hadn't been panting heavily by the time I made it to my room.

Comments

[thebroomecloset.livejournal.com]

Good for you for taking the stairs!

One of the important things I learned when I first started running about 10 years ago is that panting and breathing hard does not equal out of shape. Before that, I used to think that if I ended up breathing hard, it was a sign that I was nearing my limit and that I needed to stop and let my breathing settle down. What I learned is that I can keep going long after my respiration rate increases. It's just one sign that my body is working hard and needing more oxygen.

How hard you breathe is definitely affected by conditioning and level of exertion, and you will definitely breathe hard when pushing your limits, but you will also breathe hard when getting a good aerobic workout so breathing hard isn't bad, per se.

[indigo-rose99.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It keeps getting harder every morning to be motivated. The getting up oh-god-early... Stair after stair after stair... I added an mp3 player. And then just two days ago, i added a book... It helps. But the last 45 flights are just... hard.

Although, the whole stair thing came in really handy today when climbing the (many) stairs at the Cliffs of Mohr. No problems there!