Monday’s have unofficially been dubbed a “running day”, and after taking both Saturday and Sunday off to heal up after a pretty wicked leg day on Friday, I was ready to get after it.
The plan that was bouncing around in my brain was to do 3-4 miles of steady state running at a decent pace (for me), but my so called friend wanted to join in on the fun and add a little bit of excitement to it: stair runs.
So we settled on a compromise, and after doing a couple miles on the treadmill, we headed over to the beautifully ghetto/majestic (depends on what block you’re on) Church Hill. There, I was greeted by a great view of the city….
Which was quickly followed by a terrible view:

We did a couple rounds up the stairs, which sufficiently winded me, after which I told my buddy I’d see his stair runs and raise him an 80lb sandbag carry…. He was not happy. I’m pleased to report, we both manned up, and made the trek up the stairs with the sandbag across the shoulders. There was absolutely zero running involved. I’m fairly certain if I tried to run up stairs with a sandbag on my back I’d end up with a fraction of the teeth that I currently possess.

Anyway, great workout, and one that I think I’ll bring out of the arsenal more often. On top of the cycling and normal lower body lifting days that I’m now working with, adding this in should kick my quad strength up a few notches… At least that’s the idea.


running (while not being chased by large bear) = terrible idea
running up stairs = terrible’er idea
running up stairs with sand bag = terrible’est idea!
on serious…how is your recovery from runs to lifting?
@Sio
Hi Sio! Right now I’m shooting for the bulk of running to be on Mondays, and then I lift legs on Thursdays, so so far my recovery has been pretty good. I haven’t really pushed my squat/deadlift in a month or so though, so I can’t say for sure yet if my 1RM has dropped or not. I’m thinking I may add a 1RM test day once a month just to trend where my strength is while I’m going nuts with the cardio.
Are you 100% crossfitter, or do you mix in running with the lifting? If so, any tips you could lay on me would be appreciated!
One thing that always seems to help is rolling out. Painful, yet effective.
Oh and I hear bears certainly help with motivation…