Saturday, September 24, 2005

Stairs 1.2.3.4!

Today was a beautiful day in Seattle. It was one of those crisp fall days, sunny and warm but also really, really fresh. The day started out pretty good. Some errands, moving my office to the one for my new job with my friends J & S, and then breakfast where we had egg omelette souffles. After this nice, typical Saturday sort of day, we dediced to take a walk in Capitol Hill. J and I have this goal to get healthy this year. We have both been very stressed out and not so good at taking care of ourselves so we made a pact. Get healthy - eat healthy, exercise, lose weight. The whole 9 yards. I am happy about this pact. It's helping me change some things, having a buddy to hold me accountable. I am taking it somewhat seriously, you know, if I want the odd bit of not so healthy living, I am ok w/that but I am making a decent effort to stick to our pact.

However, there is an important thing to know about my friend J, when she sets her mind to something, SHE SETS HER MIND TO IT! There is no turning back. Somehow, at some point, J made a deal w/her husband that she would walk these stairs in Capitol Hill 200 times. And on top of this, some whimsical evening over dinner (after I had a glass of wine no doubt), I agreed to do this too. Yah - not one of my best moments.

Anyway, today on our walk, we spent about 45 minutes walking all over Capitol Hill, which was great (I'll tell you about this tower I had never been up later), and then and only then did we get to the bottom of the Capitol Hill stairs. These stairs are unbelievable in length. I think there are close to 600 stairs. The incline is pretty steep. We walked up and down these damn things 4 times. Up, catch your breath for a couple minutes. Down. Up again. Catch what's left of your breath for a couple minutes. Down. Up again. Not a single breath left but go ahead and do it again. Apparently, in addition to the weight that this is going to help me lose, this exercise is also going to help me ski better (which I haven't done since 1994 but which I am determined to do again this winter). Not the best consolation on the 4th walk up... but something to hold on to nonetheless.

Now that it's done, all I have to say is - OUCH. Every part of me hurts. I feel like an 80 year old woman. As I was doing this jaunt up and down the stairs, all I wanted was to be the dog, which J & S had tied up because he would get too pooped going up and down with us. Every time I passed him, I gave him a look of desperation - rescue me puppy! Now. Rescue me now! He just looked at me sadly and watched as I walked on.

When I finished, I thought climbing stairs should be outlawed. And yet, I will do it again tomorrow. 4 more times. As I said, J is a FOCUSED woman and we have made this pact and I do want stronger thighs so there ya go. After this weekend of stair climbing, I will have only 189 times more to go up and down these stairs (for you math wizards out there, we also did this exercise last weekend - 3 times up and down that time). If my body does not resemble a super-model's by the time these 200 climbs is over, I am going to wage war on these stairs.

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