Thursday 7/16/20
I don't know this with any degree of certainty, but I think that if the Monument were to open tomorrow--and might not be open for a long time yet--that I could pick up and do a set of five climbs no problem, because of the shape I've kept my legs in on the Boston College stairs. Today I walked eleven more miles and ran the stairs ten times. So, that is fifty-seven miles on foot for the week and 7800 stairs. If you are hauling ass, you can do that set of ten in about twenty-five minutes. If you are hauling ass in the Monument, you can climb five times in about twenty-seven minutes. I took a good chunk of the stairs quite quickly today--that means I did more than half two-steps-at-a-time. Whether this is better than one-at-a-time, I don't know. I mix it up. I feel like just doing them singly is harder breathing-wise, though you're really running fast--these leaping runs--when you double it up. One bounds up the stairs that way. I look at it like this--mix it up, do the ten climbs, you'll get all the benefit in the end. There was a student there today warming up near me to exercise by doing stretches and running in place, all of which she did while smoking a cigarette. Strange. I took the train back, and it was still morning, and a gentleman on the side of me was enjoying a nice 40 of beer for himself--or, should I say, some malt liquor. Guy was very thin--made me wonder if he ate or just drank. Or maybe he drinks one mighty 40 a day and he was off today and had a cold one on the T in a brown bag but I think that is unlikely. Morning malt liquor drinking on the T is probably not the best testament to life going well but it also occurred to me that maybe he would take some comfort that his life was all but assured to be far nicer and easier and worth living than mine right now. Sobering thought, and I don't drink. Sobering and true thought. Note to self: Do not give in.
