why is stair-climbing so strenuous this time around?

There was a time when I could climb my building's staircase, from B1 to the 26th floor, three times in a row. That might not be much by the standards of real athletes, but for me, it meant that, at that level of cardio fitness and leg strength, I had little trouble tackling hills that had intimidated me during my earlier trans-Korea walks. This year, beginning a couple months ago—and after having fallen pretty far down in terms of fitness—I've been trying to build up to something like my former glory, but I've decided to settle on making it up the staircase twice. As I realized some time ago, twice is enough to reach that level of hill-conquering fitness.

But progress has been slow. Last time around, I divided my training into stages: walk up to the 6th floor (absolute minimum), walk to the 12th or 14th floor (halfway), walk up to the 26th floor (one full staircase). Beyond that—1.5 staircases, then 2 full staircases. I was able to get to the next stage after maybe two or three weeks at the previous stage. Now, it's taking me longer: I've been at the 14th-floor stage for about three weeks, and it still feels like the first week. For a while, I was racking my brains as to why. Then it came to me.

It's the lack of regular distance walking. Since last October, I've walked semi-serious distances (about 18-20K) maybe once or twice, and that's it. So the only times my heart and lungs are getting any real workouts are when I do the stairs, and that's only twice a week. A couple solutions present themselves. (1) I can walk the stairs every single day, but I'll go only up to the 6th floor on most days. I currently walk up to the 14th floor on Mondays and Thursdays; I can walk to the 6th floor on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, with Sunday as a rest day. (2) I can get biking, which is something I've been meaning to do for several weeks now. I bought a new pump with which to reinflate my tires; I can do that, tool around to get used to the bike's weird method for shifting gears (the brake handles double as the gear shifts), then start cranking out the kilometers.

Biking is probably the better solution from a cardio point of view: stairs work is intense, but it's also brief. Walking to the 14th floor takes me about five minutes at a slow, stroke-y pace. (I can't do two stairs at a time; I tried and discovered I no longer have the balance for that.) Walking to the 6th floor therefore takes me about two to three minutes. On a bike, though, I can go for 30, 60, or 90 minutes. Once my ass gets used to being on a bicycle seat, I can go for hours. A round trip to Bundang and back becomes conceivable. An exploration of the Yangjae Creek beyond my usual stopping point as a walker suddenly becomes an achievable goal.

So I know what my problem is, and I know what to do. The next step, after setting a goal, is taking action to reach it. Expect more biking and stair-work news soon.