Stair Master

In the weeks leading up to the challenge, I had managed to write up a series of turn-by-turn directions for the routes and had them on my phone. In addition to this, I had the map with pins on my Google maps app and photos of the maps with the hand-drawn routes.

Rain was in the forecast for my birthday and unfortunately the predictions were accurate. It rained overnight and was gray and drizzly in the morning. After breakfast, I got my things together and we loaded the little one into the car and drove the short distance to the start of the first route. Since it was only drizzling, I decided to risk not bringing an umbrella or wearing rain boots.

That's Baby Z under the red hood

 I put Baby Z into the baby carrier and covered him with an extra rain shell. Then I put on my rain shell and started up the first set of stairs. The route I started with (which I had labeled Route 2) pretty much follows one street and has multiple sets of stairs that lead up to the next two streets uphill that run parallel. So there was a lot of going all the way up and all the way back down to get to the next set of stairs.

The drizzle got heavier as I walked and Baby Z fell asleep. I was happy with my choice of rain shell coverage since it never actually rained properly and wearing rain boots for a long walk sucks. As I was heading for the last stairway, I realized that I had neglected to include turn-by-turn directions to it. Thankfully I was able to use my map to figure out where to go. After an hour and seven minutes, I had finished the first route which wound up being 2.2 miles long. My husband drove over to pick us up and take us back home.

After resting for about an hour and a half, which coincidentally overlapped with a huge downpour, we set off in the car again to drive to the next route. My husband suggested that if things seemed like they were going well that I could combine the next two routes (Route 3 and Route 4) because they were both short. The finish for Route 3 and the start to Route 4 are very near to each other. In order to link them I had to add one extra trip down the first set of stairs on Route 4. But it seemed like a good way to save some time, since dealing with the baby and car trips was very time consuming.

When we arrived at the start of Route 3 it was pouring, so I started putting on the carrier and checking my gear inside the car. To my dismay, I realized that I had left my phone at home. So we had to drive back to get it since all of the route info was on it. At this point I was a little worried about how long the rest of the routes would take and I was not sure I’d be able to finish before dark. When we got back to the start of Route 3, it was still pouring, so in addition to the two rain shells, I wore rain boots and carried an umbrella.

First stairway of Route 3

I was feeling good when I finished Route 3 so I decided to continue on to Route 4. It took me one hour and 16 minutes to walk both routes which had a combined distance of 2.5 miles. Then my husband came to pick us up so we could go home to rest and have some lunch.

After sitting down for a while, I started to feel tired. The last route I had to complete (Route 1) was the longest and I wasn’t sure how long it would take. I thought it would probably take about two hours and so if I started it by 3:00 p.m. I’d be able to finish before it got dark.

The rain stopped during the afternoon break, so I didn't have to bring any rain gear for the final route. We drove to the start of Route 1 and I started up the first set of stairs with Baby Z in the front carrier. My brother decided to join us and met us at the third staircase. I had sent him my turn-by-turn directions, but then I did a bad job of reading them to myself and told him to meet us at the wrong staircase. We were just about to head up it when I realized my mistake. Then we had to backtrack to the correct staircase.

 

First stairway of Route 1

Most of the last route just felt like a total slog. Up a set of stairs. Turn around and back down. I found another error in my directions and had to check the map to figure out where to go. But despite the delays, we finished just as the sun was setting. We decided to walk back to my place instead of getting a ride from my husband. This added an extra trip down the last set of stairs as well as a 15 minute walk, but we still made it back before dark. It took two hours and five minutes to walk the 4.89 mile route.

By the time we got home, I was feeling pretty beat and Baby Z was more than ready to get out of the carrier. I took a much needed shower before heading out to a celebratory dinner.

I expected to feel sore the next day, but I was in for a nasty surprise when the soreness in my calves lasted for four full days. Every step up or down made me cringe. Who knew that carrying a 23 pound baby around all day as you slog up and down staircases would wreck you?

  

Time: 4 hours, 28 minutes

Distance: 9.56 miles

Stair steps: 4,215 

Preparations Continue

For the last few weeks I've been working on revisiting the stairways I chose in order to count how many steps each one has.The grand total is 2,381 steps. I've also spent a lot of time plotting the stairways on a map which you can look at here. The map includes two extra stairways that I won't be doing as part of the challenge (Claremont Path in Berkeley and Unnamed #7). I wound up miscounting as I found stairways and in the end I had 40 on my list. So I cut out the two shortest and least inspiring ones. The complete list with steps counted is at the end of the post.

After plotting the stairways on the map, I printed out paper copies of different sections in order to work on planning a route. After a few days of staring at the maps without being able to figure out where to start to do it easily and simply, I asked my husband if he knew a clever way to do it. His answer was not only that there isn't an easy way to do it, but that it's one of the most difficult problems to solve. It's a version of the Traveling Salesman Problem (a computer science algorithmic problem, see here if you're interested) and it's NP-hard (see here if you want an explanation of that because I can't say I completely understand what it means).

While I was happy to learn that I wasn't overthinking the problem (I was apparently under-thinking it), I was disappointed that there isn't a good solution. But it did make me realize that I should just plan a route and not worry too much. I planned four separate routes because going out and doing all 38 stairways in one go just isn't going to happen with a baby. Since I'm set on ascending all 38 stairways and they are the most direct way to walk through the neighborhoods, I will wind up descending 24 of them as well. As you can see below, the routes are a total cluster. The stairs are each marked with a blue marker and a red arrow shows where the stairs go. The routes are marked in blue and green ink with arrows along the lines to show direction.

So now the planning stage of the challenge is complete. Just a few weeks left before it's time to see if it all works out.

1. Upper Belap Path (Buena Vista to Contra Costa: 70 steps)

2. Lower Belap Path (Golden Gate to Buena Vista: 76 steps)

3. Erba Path (Broadway to Contra Costa: 80 steps)

4. Lower Arbon Path (Broadway Terrace to Buena Vista: 67 steps)

5. Upper Arbon Path (Buena Vista to Contra Costa: 132 steps)

6. Lower Chaumont Path(Golden Gate to Buena Vista: 48 steps)

7. Upper Chaumont Path (Buena Vista to Contra Costa: 76 steps)

8. Brookside Lane (Brookside to Ocean View: 62 steps)

9. Claremont Path, Oakland (Brookside to Ocean View: 66 steps)

10. Unnamed #1 (Broadway to Margorido: 112 steps)

11. Unnamed #2 (Golden Gate to Buena Vista: 55 steps)

12. Arollo Path (Golden Gate to Buena Vista: 64 steps)

13. Gondo Path (Golden Gate to Buena Vista: 31 steps)

14. Unnamed #3 (Modoc/Morpeth to Proctor: 83 steps) 

15. Oakridge Steps (El Camino to Oak Ridge: 124 steps)

16. The Cutoff Path (The Plaza to El Camino: 37 steps)

17. Park Path (El Camino to Oak Ridge: 49 steps)

18. Ridgeview Path (Rock Ridge to Ocean View: 47 steps)

19. Unnamed #4 (S Rock Ridge to Margorido/Mendocino: 55 steps) 

20. Quail Lane (Margorido to Acacia: 42 steps) 

21. Upper Prospect Steps (Margorido to Manchester: 76 steps)

22. Lower Prospect Steps (S Rock Ridge to Margorido: 51 steps)

23. Unnamed #5 (N Rock Ridge to Margorido: 80 steps)

24. West Lane (Manchester to Ocean View: 41 steps)

25. Claremont Path, Berkeley (Hillside to El Camino 9 steps)

26. Willow Walk (Alvarado to Alvarado: 76 steps)

27. Unnamed #6 (Claremont Hotel parking lot to Alvarado: 45 steps)

28. Eucalyptus Path (Alvarado to Alvarado: 140 steps)

29. Oakridge Path East (Domingo to Oakridge: 21 steps)

30. Pine Path (Russell to Avalon: 51 steps)

31. Avalon Walk (Palm to Avalon: 43 steps) 

32. The Steps (Hillcrest to Hillcrest: 65 steps)

33. South Crossways (Roslyn to Hillcrest: 50 steps)

34. Unnamed #7 (Parkside to The Uplands x2=1)

35. The Footway (The Uplands to Hillcrest: 37 steps)

36. Lower Verona Path (Romany to Mathieu: 52 steps)

37. Upper Verona Path (Mathieu to Acacia: 21 steps)

38. Lower Locarno Path (Cross to Acacia: 51 steps)

39. Upper Locarno Path (Acacia to Alpine Terrace: 62 steps)

40. Andeer Path (Romany to Yorkshire: 43 steps)

Ready...Set...

I’m gearing up for my birthday challenge this year and I’m getting pretty excited. Last year for my 37^th birthday, I was eight months pregnant. I had initially wanted to do a challenge, but as my birthday approached I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to. My knees were shot from running a 12K when I was seven months pregnant (damn relaxin!) and I had pregnancy-induced carpel tunnel syndrome.

So…fast forward to my 38^th birthday which is looming in the near future. With just a little over two months to go, I still have plenty of time to work out the difficulties I’m encountering with the planning process, as well as work at getting my knees in shape for a whole lot of work.

The challenge this year, unlike previous years, has a name: The Secret Stairs Challenge. Every time I say it I think of Nancy Drew which makes me giggle. I’m a huge Nancy Drew fan so I’m happy to give a nod to that super cool girl sleuth.

I live in North Oakland close to the Berkeley border and while I don’t live on a hill, the Oakland/Berkeley hills are just up the street from me. Since having a baby last December, I’ve spent many hours walking around the neighborhoods near my apartment carrying the boy in the Ergobaby carrier. After too many laps on the same loop, I started wandering around and exploring. And to my surprise and delight, I discovered that there are numerous “secret stairways”: short cuts connecting the long, winding neighborhood streets.

So to celebrate turning 38, I’ll be attempting to ascend (and probably descend some as well) 38 different secret stairways while carrying the little darling. The pre-challenge challenge has been finding 38 sets of stairs near me (check!) and then mapping them and creating a route to follow. I’m very thankful I still have some time to work on mapping the route because everything takes SO much longer to do with a tiny helper.

Victorious!

Yesterday I awoke at 6:00 a.m., bright-eyed and bushy-haired. By 8:00 a.m. I had begun Part I of my Birthday Challenge. I started off at Berkeley Ironworks in (you guessed it) Berkeley, which is the gym I’ve been climbing at the most. I was delighted to find that they had set some new boulder problems since I last climbed there. I had been getting pretty bored with climbing the same stuff over and over again. So I got a nice mix of old and new problems and I finished my 36 points worth of climbs in 44 minutes. I was feeling strong and amped and I finished every problem on my first attempt. I climbed 4 VOs, 3, V1s, 3 V2s, 3 V3s, and a V4. I was feeling great and even sent my boyfriend a text that said, “And I still want to climb more so that’s good.”

"Contemplating the first climb of the day" or
 "Reasons I shouldn't take selfies"

I drove home and had some serious couch time. Just me and Netflix on a rainy morning in the East Bay. But after two hours, I was ready to continue my challenge. I put on my rain boots and hopped on BART.

Part II of my challenge was at Great Western Power Company in Oakland. I was excited to get back to climbing and things went pretty well. There were two V2s that I fell off of on my first attempt, but after some thought about how to get through the tricky moves, I got them both on the second try. I made a couple attempts on a V3 but I was unable to finish it. I watched some guys trying it and they couldn’t figure it out either, but they weren’t very experienced climbers so I’m not sure that says much. On another V3, I couldn’t even figure out how to get off the ground. But these things happen. There were plenty of other problems to try and I was able to get my 36 points in an hour and 20 minutes with 3 VOs, 3 V1s, 5 V2s, and 3 V3s.

After a crowded ride home on BART, I ate a late lunch and snuggled up on the couch again for some more Netflix. I was still feeling pretty good, but happy to be wrapped in a blanket watching the rain through the window. After a few more hours of vegging out, I headed out one last time. It was still raining, but the sun was out as I drove across the Bay Bridge into San Francisco. I was looking forward to meeting up with my boyfriend at the last gym. I had been alone all day and not wanting to talk to anyone at the gym because I was afraid they’d ask me what I was writing down (I was keeping track of what I climbed). After the trauma of explaining my 33^rd Birthday Challenge, I didn’t want to tell anyone about Birthday Challenge 36.

Finishing the last climb!

Part III of my challenge took place at Dogpatch Boulders in San Francisco. This is the newest of the gyms and has significantly taller walls than the other two. I had some concerns about finishing the challenge there for that reason. Taller walls=longer problems. And that’s hard at the end of the day. I started to worry as I climbed the first problem of the session. My hand skin was sore and my biceps and triceps were feeling fatigued. After a few more climbs, I was starting to feel exhausted. I wanted to try to get in some V2s and V3s before things got any worse. I found a V3 that I was pretty sure I’d be able to climb. But  it got hard at the top and my grip was really insecure. The top of the wall was just out of reach. I had to stretch and inch my fingertips over the top. If I hadn’t been in the middle of a challenge I don’t think I would have made myself finish it. But I was determined to collect my 4 points and not have to try it again.

My boyfriend arrived about halfway through Part III and it was really nice to finally have someone to talk to. Although he was probably less thrilled because by the time he arrived I was getting pretty whiny. I finished the last part of the challenge in an hour and 35 minutes with 3 VOs, 3 V1s, 5 V2s, and 3 V3s. By this time I was feeling pretty loopy and asked my boyfriend to drive us home. The traffic was awful, partly due to the rain causing some flooding. In one area the street had flooded up over the sidewalk and was lapping up against the side of a building. The water was ankle deep there and calf deep in the street. And then the tunnel on the Bay Bridge was flooded too. It was an exciting trip home!

Flooded tunnel

The final count for my challenge:

VOs: 10

V1s: 9

V2s: 13

V3s: 9

V4s: 1

Points: 36 x 3 = 108

Time: 3 hours, 39 minutes

Well, I’ll be radio silent for about a year until I start planning for next year’s Birthday Challenge. I’ll leave you with the words of Paul Simon’s song “Have a Good Time”, which has been my official birthday-post song since college:

Yesterday it was my birthday
I hung one more year on the line
I should be depressed, my life's a mess
But I'm having a good time

Ready to Rock and Roll!

It seems like I just turned 33 and finished my first birthday challenge. Yet in reality, here I am, about to turn 36! In case anyone was wondering, I did do 34^th and 35^th birthday challenges.

When I turned 34, I went to Disneyland. My goal was to ride 34 rides and do 34 repetitions of 34 different body-weight exercises (squats, lunges, etc.) while I waited in line for rides. I made it halfway there (17 rides, 17 different exercises). My birthday fell two days before Thanksgiving. Let me just say that that is NOT a good time to visit Disneyland. It was unbelievably crowded. And it turns out that you can’t really ask six-year olds if it’s OK to cut in line in front of them for your birthday challenge. It was a miserable challenge in a lot of ways, but it was still fun to hang out at Disneyland.

For my 35^th birthday, I really wanted to do a climbing-based challenge. But it just wasn’t in the cards for me. I had torn my labrum in June and was unable to climb much while waiting for surgery. So I decided to do a 35-day-long workout challenge leading up to my birthday. Every day, for 35 days straight, I either ran (3.5 or 5.3 miles), worked out at the gym (doing 3 rounds of 5 repetitions of bench press, front squats, pull-downs, etc.), or did a hangboard workout (climbing training). It was brutal. And not because any one workout was that hard. But really. 35. Days. Straight. I’ve never been so happy for my birthday to arrive because when I woke up on my birthday I didn’t have to workout! I was also happy because my challenge was successful.

So here’s the challenge this year. Since my shoulder has recovered (mostly) from surgery, I decided that I should finally do an all-climbing challenge. I’ll be climbing at three different Touchstone gyms (Berkeley Ironworks, Great Western Power Company in Oakland, and Dogpatch in San Francisco). At each of the gyms, I will be bouldering a total of 36 points. The easiest climbs (V0) will be given 1 point. V1s will be given 2 points and so on. So I could achieve my goal at one gym by climbing 3 V0s (3 points), 4 V1s (8 points) 4 V2s (12 points), 2 V3s (8 points), and a V4 (5 points).

I’d be lying if I said that I had trained really well for this challenge. In that last few weeks I’ve finally been able to start climbing three days a week again. Prior to this I was only getting in one day a week if I was lucky. I’ve ascertained that I can climb 36 points in one session (I was able to do it in one hour by climbing problems I’m familiar with). My last day of training I climbed a total of 66 points. And boy was I exhausted. So I think I’m going to need all the luck I can get this Thursday!

For info about what a Birthday Challenge is: http://www.birthdaychallenge.com/

The Challenge

The day of my birthday challenge dawned bright and clear. Now it’s funny typing that because I feel like that usually implies the time before someone awakes, but on challenge day I was actually starting to run as dawn broke. It was a balmy 45 degrees out in the Baylands and I was pretty cold for the first mile or so. It was rather dark and somewhat foggy when I started out and I started wondering what I was doing. I felt somewhat reassured as I saw a few other runners and some bird watchers, but mostly I was thinking, “What’s wrong with these people that they’re out so early in the cold?”

As the sun peeked up from behind the mountains, I was rewarded with the beautiful sight of sunrise over the Baylands. I saw tons of cool birds (white pelicans, egrets, American coots, etc.) and was almost attacked by a flock of Canada geese. OK, the last is probably an exaggeration, but I’m always scared that Canada geese will charge me and peck my eyes out. The sun brought some warmth and I was able to strip off some of my layers and finish my run more comfortably.

Tom was waiting for me in the parking lot with a warm car and bags filled with 33 donut holes. We headed back to my brother’s house for second breakfast and the beginning of my eating challenge. I showered, changed into cycling clothes, and prepared for the second part of my physical challenge. Tom and my brother came along for the riding part of my challenge. We departed from my brother’s a little later than scheduled and rode along the Steven’s Creek trail, Baylands trails, and finally up onto the Dumbarton Bridge. The halfway point for the ride was the high point of the bridge so we turned around there and rode back to Mountain View. Every time we stopped to use the bathroom or eat some Gu, I ate a donut hole. Due to our numerous stops and my slow pace, the ride took 45 minutes longer than I had anticipated. But I was so excited about the ride that I didn’t care. The weather was perfect for the ride and the lovely bike trails left me longing for living in the Bay Area again.

When we got back to my brother’s house, I showered and changed again, this time into climbing clothes. While I showered, Tom went to La Bamba (our all-time favorite burrito place) to pick up lunch. I was already starting to feel sick from eating donut holes and only made it through half of my burrito. I took a few minutes to lie down on the couch, which was not scheduled. Between this and the ride taking a long time, we wound up departing for the climbing gym an hour later than I had planned. My brother had to go in to work, so Tom and I set out alone for the gym.

By the time we got to the gym, I was feeling fairly exhausted. I took a quick tour of the gym to scope the routes and learned that there were more than enough routes in the range of difficulty that I wanted to climb. This was reassuring because it meant that I wasn’t going to be forced to climb harder routes than I wanted to. I tied in and started up the first climb. Things seemed like they weren’t going to be too bad, but as I rested between routes, I kept eating more donut holes. The more I ate, the sicker I felt and the longer I rested in between routes.

Finally I came to the realization that if I didn’t stop eating donut holes, I wouldn’t be able to keep climbing. So I stopped eating at 18 donut holes and decided to save the rest for the bar. My friends Katie and Sasha stopped by to give me some encouragement and my brother showed up as I was finishing climbing. I climbed 12 5.8’s, 18 5.9’s, and 3 5.10a’s. I was feeling very accomplished until I remembered that I still had 15 donut holes to eat, 28 people to talk to, and the full 33 shots of beer to drink! I only managed to talk to 5 people at the gym and only two of them were self initiated. I quickly regretted having set this part of the challenge for myself. I hate talking to strangers! What was I thinking?

We left the gym and headed back to my brother’s place once again. I showered again and changed into sweats before we departed for dinner. We had some delicious ramen at my favorite ramen house in Mountain View and then we left for the bar. Arriving at Fred’s Place, I was reminded what a dive it is. As we walked in I was wondering how in the world I was going to fulfill the talking part of my challenge. It was a Monday night and the bar was far from filled.

Our friends Dave and Tina (and Tina’s friend, Dan) met us at Fred’s for the drinking part of the challenge. After drinking several shots of beer and eating some more donut holes, Tina dragged me over to a group of six people. She told them I had something that I needed to tell them. So I launched into a description of my challenge. After the ice had been broken I continued around the bar by myself, talking to some of the weirdest people I’ve ever talked to.

There was “pink sweatshirt guy”, who I guess is a regular at Fred’s. He looked homeless to me and might be the drunkest person I’ve ever seen. I was nearly in hysterics as I explained my challenge to him. I’d call it a conversation, but it was really a monologue since he didn’t respond to anything I said. He did, however, give me a thumbs-up at the end. I started talking to two middle aged men who were sitting at the bar. They were self-described “wolves” who talked about carrying me out of there on their backs. They asked if kissing 33 men was part of my challenge and said all sorts of other creepy things. I wound up staying with them for a while because they bought me four shots of beer that they insisted I drink. Tom finally came over and saved me.

As it turned out, I talked to every single person in the bar (which was 20). This brought my total up to 25. I made it through 22 shots of beer and 28 donut holes before I called it quits. We had to get up early the next morning, pick up Tom’s mom and drive all the way home and I was having a hard time imagining doing this severely hung-over and sugar-coma-ed. Some might say that I failed in my challenge, which in some respects I did, but I feel pretty good about what I did accomplish. And I’ve already started planning next year’s challenge because this was the best birthday I’ve had in a long time!

Setbacks

Since last writing, I was feeling really fired up about training hard. I climbed one day at the gym, ran two 6.6 mile runs, and did a hard one hour ride on the trainer. But then the setbacks began. And somehow all the things that I had feared would happen when I first started planning my challenge did happen. I got injured, sick, and the weather turned rotten.

During my last session of climbing last Thursday, my pointer finger on my right hand started to hurt. I cut the evening short figuring it was better to take care of my hands than to train anymore. I appear to have tendonitis in my finger and was in pretty bad pain the day after climbing (I made a makeshift splint at work because movement of any kind was hurting). It’s been a week since it started hurting and while the pain has lessened immensely, I can still feel it when I grip anything. I’ve been icing it several times a day and taking ibuprofen. Hopefully with a few more days rest it will be feeling even better.

On Saturday morning, I woke up with a sore throat. I spent the weekend reading on the couch and taking lots of Zicam and vitamin C instead of training. I figured that by Monday I’d been on the mend. Instead, I woke up Monday full blown sick and spent most of the remaining week at home. I managed a half day today, but was so exhausted that I had to come home after my class left at 11:30.

I’ve been checking Mountain View weather obsessively in the last week and it’s gone from bad (30% of showers) to worse (70% chance of rain with a high of 59). So I first toyed with moving my challenge to Saturday. However, when I considered how rotten I felt today, I decided the wisest decision would be to move the challenge to Monday. By then hopefully, I’ll be all better (including my tendonitis) and the weather is supposed to be clear. Sadly, since Monday is only a holiday for me, the supporters of my challenge (friends who were going to do various parts with me) will be at work. My boyfriend is currently my only support.

While things aren’t going exactly as I had planned, I’m still pretty excited about the challenge itself. I may not be as prepared as I wanted to, but I’m fairly confident that I will be able to finish my goal.