Sarah Frost smashed her own course record at the Broadgate Tower Run Up last Saturday to win the London leg of the Vertical World Circuit.
The British athlete held off competition from a loaded field of international stair climbers to reach the top of the 877-step tower in 4:40.
‘I feel amazing right now,’ Frost said at the top of the building in the City of London. ‘My plan was to forget what everyone else was doing and focus on my own goal which was breaking the five-minute barrier.’
‘My training must have paid off because I smashed it. I’m so very happy to be at Broadgate, a really special race for me because I train here and it’s so great to have the VWC here as well, bringing in lots more elite athletes. I’m already looking forward to the next race.’
Japanese tower runner Ryoji Watanabe took an incredible 17 seconds off the previous men’s course record as he stormed to victory in 3:41.
Watanabe’s victory brings him up to fifth position in the current VWC rankings, and follows on from his win last month at One World Trade Center in New York.
‘As London is quite far from my country, Japan, I’m very happy to win the Broadgate Tower Run Up,’ Watanabe said at the finish. ‘I’m also very excited to have won two races of the 2019 Vertical World Circuit. Because the course was shorter than other VWC races, it was difficult for me to adjust during the race, but I was able to prepare the strategy for London after my New York win and perform well. I’ll be doing my best to win the next VWC race in Beijing in August.’
British newcomer Laurence Ball continued his incredible start to tower running by taking second place in 4:00.06.
Ball won his debut tower race at the Walkie Talkie Building back in March, and followed it up with a fourth-place finish at Vertical Rush two weeks later.
Soh Wai Ching took an impressive win on his Vertical Rush debut in London last Thursday.
The Malaysian athlete was first up the 932 steps of Tower 42 in a time of 4:17.
His impressive finish makes him the fourth fastest person to ever race the tower, with only Thomas Dold (3:58), Piotr Lobodzinski (3:59) and Fabio Ruga (4:11) having run faster in the 11 editions of the UK’s biggest stair race for the charity Shelter.
London’s Tower 42, home to Shelter’s Vertical Rush since 2009
Wai Ching was an unexpected entry, having journeyed in from Paris, where he had finished fourth the night before at La Verticale de la Tour Eiffel.
The UK’s Mark Howard, also making his Vertical Rush debut, laid down the early marker in the 10am wave, where he finished in 4:48.
Sims managed to beat the 5:00 that earned him second place at last year’s event, but his 4:58 finish was a little way off the faster Howard.
At 3pm, Wai Ching and Slovakian athlete Michal Kovac turned up. Kovac had also been in Paris the evening before, where he had finished in an impressive seventh position.
Wai Ching held off the challenge of his rival, crossing the line in 4:17, with Kovac just nine seconds behind him in 4:28.
At 6pm, Laurence Ball-King, who won the GOSH Walkie Talkie Tower Climb on his tower running debut at the start of the month, put in another impressive performance to finish in 4:49 and earn fourth overall.
Drinkwater had been a surprise winner last year on her stair racing debut, but had picked up a decent amount of race experience in the intervening 12 months and was expected to do well.
She exceeded expectations, taking a massive 30 seconds off her time from last year to take first place in 5:41. That time makes her the fourth fastest woman to have run the tower since it opened up for racing in 2009. Only Suzy Walsham (5:01), Anna Frost (5:30) and Lenka Svabikova (5:36) have finished faster.
Sophie Gladwell was second in 6:20 and Krissy Hartigan was third in 6:27.
Piotr Lobodzinski and Suzy Walsham won La Verticale de la Tour Eiffel for the fifth time in a row last Wednesday (13th March).
Lobodzinski took victory in 7:53.97, the only sub 8-minute time on the night. In the women’s division, Australian Suzy Walsham was a clear winner in 10:16.57.
Harsh conditions in the French capital had an impact all around and finishing times were generally slower than in previous editions of the event, which was in its fifth year.
The expected close competition for Lobdodzinski from Christian Riedl didn’t materialise, as the German finished third in 8:46.98.
Christian Riedl takes 3rd place at La Verticale de la Tour Eiffel 2019
His time was just bettered by Austrian Jakob Mayer, who finished in 8:44.31.
Second-placed finisher Jakob Mayer
Lobodzinski was the last to run. With the heavy winds in Paris affecting most runners adversely throughout the night, the Polish world champion’s time was not expected to be particularly fast, even though, as the only man to have won La Verticale since it began in 2015, he had never finished slower than 7:56. But despite his rivals nearly all running slower than usual, he maintained his perfect record of sub 8-minute finishes by reaching the top of the 1,665 steps of the Eiffel Tower in 7:53.97.
Christian Riedl, Piotr Lobodzinski, Jakob Mayer (l-r)
Unstoppable Walsham wins again
Suzy Walsham proved once again she is a practically invincible force on the stairs with an incredible fifth straight win at the Eiffel Tower.
With China’s Muhua Jian unable to make it to the start line, Walsham’s expected strongest competition was missing, but with the harsh weather and the Australian star’s preparation seriously hampered by injury, there was still the chance that Dominika Wisniewska-Ulfik might push Walsham hard.
As it happened it was Walsham’s fellow Australian, Alice McNamara, who came closest. She finished second in 11:26.36.
Alice McNamara reaches the top in the second fastest time
Dominika Wisniewska-Ulfik took third for the second year in a row, with a finishing time of 11:28.74.
Poland’s Wisniewska-Ulfik finished third for the second year in a row
The fifth edition of La Verticale de la Tour Eiffel takes place tomorrow evening and all eyes will be on Paris for the biggest race in the European tower running calendar.
Piotr Lobodzinski and Suzy Walsham will each be going for a fifth straight win at the tallest building in France.
Unfortunately footage of this year’s event won’t come close to what’s been available at previous editions, but you’ll still be able to catch some of the action.
Previous editions have been televised on Eurosport or shown on a full live stream online, but this year live footage will only be available from the departure area at the base of the tower. Viewers will get to see runners warming up and heading off into the tower, plus some pre-race interviews, too.
The rest of the action up the tower and at the finish, which will presumably be quite limited, will filter through via videos and images after a delay.
The live stream of the event will begin at 7pm UK time (8pm local time) and you can access it through the Facebook page below:
If you’re unable to watch the stream, but want to try and catch updates on other social media, it seems the official hashtag for the event is #Eiffeltowervertical and #VerticaleTourEiffel.
Sarah Frost set a new course record as she took the win at the LOROS Tower Run on Saturday.
The in-form runner clocked a new best time of 1:43.82 for the 351-step St George’s Tower in Leicester, taking just under six seconds off the record she set in 2018.
Sarah Frost sets off on her winning run at the LOROS Tower Run 2019
The victory made it two wins from two UK races in 2019 for Frost. Last weekend she clocked an impressive sub 5-minute finish of 4:47 at the Walkie Talkie Tower Run in London to take a clear win ahead of Sonja Shakespeare who was second in 5:28.
Newcomer Susie Drinkwater managed to finish second in an impressive 1:56.97, on her debut at the Leicester tower.
Mark Sims was back to winning ways in Leicester on Saturday, but it took him two runs to pull off the victory.
St George’s Tower in Leicester
Winner of the event in 2016 and 2017, Sims was narrowly beaten last year by Elliot Slaughter. With Slaughter absent from the line up, the race was expected to be a two-man battle between Sims and the in-form David Harris.
In the pair’s first runs, it was Harris who came out on top with an excellent time of 1:33.26, a mere half-second faster than Sims’ 1:34.98.
The LOROS Tower Run routinely gives athletes an opportunity at a second run on the day, and Sims has become the master of it.
His second-run times in 2017 and 2018 were both faster than his first runs those years.
On Saturday, Sims once again managed to make the absolute most of his second shot. He clocked a new PB of 1:31.96, to take the win with the overall fastest time on the day.
Harris and Sims will battle again on Thursday at Vertical Rush in Tower 42. The evening before, Harris will have the small task of scaling the 1,665-step Eiffel Tower for the fifth edition of La Verticale de la Tour Eiffel.
Mark Sims finally secured a win at The Christie Tower Run in Manchester this past Sunday.
Having finished second at the event in 2017 and 2018, the Liverpool-based Sims took victory at the city’s 798-step Beetham Tower with a winning time of 4:29.
Beetham Tower in Manchester
David Harris had laid down a solid marker of 4:33 when he ran in the event’s 1pm wave, setting a massive 25-second PB in the process.
Sims followed at 2pm, knowing the time he had to beat and duly did so with four seconds to spare. Matt Wellock rounded out the podium with his 5:02 finish.
In the women’s division, Spanish runner Marta Cosp set an event record with a winning time of 5:36. Cosp was followed by the previous event record holder Sonja Shakespeare in 5:55, while Elaine Battson was third in 6:03.
Marta Cosp with team mate Oliver Llewellyn-Smith
Highly experienced on the track, with a solid university and club athletic career behind her, Cosp produced a brilliant run to take 27 seconds off the time she set in 2018, which earned her third place that year.
Would you fancy your chances of beating a top tower runner if you could run up an escalator while they took the stairs?
A few years back, brave commuters at the Stadtmitte S-Bahn station in downtown Stuttgart got the chance to go up seven-time winner of the Empire State Building Run-Up, Thomas Dold.
The tower running superstar took the stairs, while members of the public, kitted out in full on safety gear, ran up the escalator beside him to see if they could beat him to the top.
Watch the video below to see how they all got on. This would make a great stunt in a London station ahead of one of the big charity climbs!
Tower running world champions Suzy Walsham and Piotr Lobodzinski won at the Almas Tower Vertical Run in Dubai on Saturday.
The race up the 1,600 steps of the Almas Tower, the seventh tallest building in Dubai, was the first in 2019 for both tower runners.
Almas Tower, Dubai (courtesy Jorge Ferrari)
In the absence of any other leading international tower runners, the pair cruised to practically uncontested victories.
Lobodzinski was fastest overall on the day with a winning time of 7:50. It was the fourth year in a row the Polish star has won the event, and his winning performance bagged him a handsome prize of around £2,000.
Lobodzinski celebrates outside the Almas Tower, Dubai
In what was her 100th stair climb victory, in 12 years of tower running, Suzy Walsham finished an impressive second overall as she reached the top in 9:21, a split second faster than the second-fastest man, Belgium’s Christophe Huybrighs.
It was a huge course record for the Australian, too. The previous best time of 9:50 having been set in 2018 by Italy’s Valentina Belotti.
It’s a great start to the season for the pair. The next race they will be at again together will be La Verticale de la Tour Eiffel in Paris on 13th March, where each will be looking to win the event for the fifth straight time.
For years Australian tower runners have been among the very best in the world, winning multiple titles and setting untouchable records.
The performance of Aussie athletes at the Empire State Building Run-Up is particularly impressive. From Geoff Case and Belinda Soszyn in the 1990s to Paul Crake and Suzy Walsham throughout the 2000s.
To celebrate the national day (26th January) of the home of these incredible tower runners we’ve put together a video of all the winning Australian athletes at the ESBRU from Craig Logan in 1988 to Suzy Walsham in 2018.
The global face of tower running was clear for all to see this week with races in destinations as far apart as Estonia, Japan and the USA.
There were some familiar names among the podium finishers, including four time ESBRU winner Cindy (Moll) Harris.
Read on to find out all the results.
Olumpia Topeltsprint
Estonia has a strong tower running scene and has produced some quality talent that’s competed well internationally in recent years.
This was evident at the race last Monday at the 26-floor Radisson Blu Hotel Olümpia in the capital Tallinn, which was the second round of the ongoing Estonian Cup series.
It attracted a strong bunch of runners, and only the smallest of margins separated the very fastest among them.
The race involved two runs up the building with the holder of the fastest aggregate time being declared the winner.
In the men’s division, the well known Estonian Rauno Tiits completed his first run in 1:48. Then his rival Lauri Ulm clocked the same time. In the second run, both men once again ran exactly the same time – this time 1:49.
It came down to the hundreths of a second, with Ulm taking the win by just four tenths of second (3:37.1) ahead of pre-race favourite Tiits (3:37.5).
‘It was a very interesting and intense competition’, said Lauri Ulm. ‘Before the race, I didn’t think I could offer Rauno a competition. But the first run we ran exactly the same time, so I knew there was a bit of hope.’
Lars Migge, representing Towerrunning Germany, was third in 4:06.3.
Men’s podium: (l-r) Rauno Tiits (EST), Lauri Ulm (EST) and Lars Migge (GER)
In the women’s division Merlyn Valma took victory in a total time of 4:47.7. Second place went to her club mate Piret Põldsaar who clocked 4:54.0, while Marika Turb was third with 5:10.4.
A true sprint event at the 232-step Campus Tower in the German city of Madgeburg took place on Wednesday 16th.
The event, which began with a 60m run into the stairwell, attracted over 300 participants and wins an award for the least user-friendly layout of results we’ve ever seen on a results website. All separated into age categories with no breakdown of overall winners in the male and female divisions. Oh, and they’re all drop down boxes too, and you can only open one at a time!
Fastest man and woman: Sebastian Arndt and Reni Yordanova
Cindy Harris took a decisive win at the Bop to the Top event at the OneAmerica Tower in Indianapolis on Saturday. The veteran American, who first won the event in 1995 has now amassed 24 victories at the building’s single climb event.
The 780-step climb took the four-time winner of the Empire State Building Run-Up just 4:37, which was well ahead of the second placed female, 15-year old Madeline Keller (5:20), and enough to give Harris third overall.
The fastest man was Howard Harrell who finished in 4:23.
In the Triple Step (three climbs up the tower), Harris’ time of 15:11 was the fastest on the day among all those who took part. It was the seventh time she’d finished the three climb event as the fastest woman.
It was great to see another tower running veteran Joe Kenny putting in an impressive display to take third in the Triple Step event. Joe Kenny has won the Bop to the Top and other races numerous times and has been competing since the 1980s. Those of you who have been reading our series on the history of the Empire State Building Run-Up may remember his close battle with Craig Logan at the 1988 ESBRU race.
The tower running season was back in full swing this past weekend with prominent races in the USA, Italy and Germany.
The famous Dallas Vertical Mile weekend event was the star of the show, with many of the top American climbers in action in both the sprint event and longer climb options. But it was also all go at the Torre Pontina in Latina and the Wohnhochhaus der Baugenossenschaft Ideal in Berlin.
Read on to find out all the results.
The Schenectady Express rolls into Dallas
The Dallas Vert Mile weekend got started on Saturday with a ‘sprint’ event up 807 steps of the Reunion Tower. Then on Sunday competitors took on a vertical mile, consisting of 12 climbs up the tower.
Reunion Tower, Dallas
2018 winner Terry Purcell wasn’t in town this year, but last year’s second-place finisher Alex ‘The Schenectady Express’ Workman was back to have another crack at the sprint and vertical mile events.
Workman took the win in both events. He clocked a speedy 3:43 in the single climb and managed to complete the 12 climbs needed for the vertical mile in a record 55:13, which was an impressive improvement on his 57:23 finish last year.
Alex Workman on his way to winning the sprint event at the Dallas Vert Mile
Jason Larson was second in both events, with a 4:01 sprint finish and a vertical mile in 57:20.
In the women’s division, there was an even closer race in the vertical mile. Stephanie Hucko eventually came out on top, finishing her 12 climbs in 1:06:20. Second place went to María Elisa Lopez Pimentel in 1:07:46.
With a 5:10 finish in the sprint event, María Elisa Lopez Pimentel was a clear winner. She finished comfortably ahead of second place Alejandra Sanchez (5:42) and third place Amy Brown (5:59).
Lenka Svabikova and Ivonne Martinucci went head-to-head once more at the 702-step Latina Vertical Sprint.
Martinucci, the 2015 champion, was looking to finally dethrone Svabikova, who she had finished second to from 2016-2018.
The veteran Italian finally turned the tables on the well-known Czech tower running star, winning in 4:39. Svabikova was well off her personal best time of 4:16, reaching the top in 4:50.
Ivonne Martinucci wins Latina Vertical Sprint 2019
The men’s race was incredibly close, with less than two seconds separating the top three.
It was middle-distance track specialist Miroslav Burian from the Czech Republic who was fastest in 3:52.83. Second place was Italian mountain runner Fabrizio Triulzi in 3:53.80, while third spot went to Italian cyclist Pasquale Caramanica who finished in 3:54.39.
Miroslav Burian – winner of Latina Vertical Sprint 2019
The selection of the elite male and female runners for the 2019 La Verticale de la Tour Eiffel has been announced.
15 women and 25 men from around the world were picked by the organisers of the event, which is coming into its fifth year.
Since launching in 2015, the race, which takes place on Wednesday 13th March at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, has become the premier European tower running event.
Each of the four previous editions (2015-2018) have been won by Piotr Lobodzinski (POL) and Suzy Walsham (AUS), and they will both return to Paris in 2019 to try and secure a fifth straight win.
The Christie’s Tower Run returns to Manchester for its third edition on Sunday 24th February 2019 at the city’s 46-floor Beetham Tower.
Standing at 169m, and with 798 steps, Beetham Tower is the tallest UK building outside of London. It played host to competitive races in 2017 and 2018 and you can expect the 2019 edition to be another fantastic one.
This challenging, charity stair climb event returns for a third year, giving runners the chance to climb 798 steps to the top of Beetham Tower, Manchester’s tallest building.
Sign up before 1st December and entry is just £10 (after that it will be £15), with participants asked to commit to raise £150 sponsorship for the charity.
Why should I do it?
Firstly, it’s an excellent cause and charity that deserves support. The Christie charity is one of the largest hospital charities in Europe. It exists to raise funds for all those extra special services that help patients to cope with the impact of cancer on their daily lives. Donations also contribute towards their cancer research programmes, capital building projects and the purchase of state of the art medical equipment.
Secondly, if you’re in the north of the country you’ll know that stair races are thin on the ground up there. We’ve seen more events popping up outside of London year-on-year, and in 2017 the launch of this event heralded the welcome return of stair climbing to the north west of England. For those north of the Midlands this is a brilliant and easily accessible race to try. For stair climbers in the capital, it’s a welcome chance to escape London and climb one of the other tallest buildings in the UK.
Thirdly, it was a really popular and competitive event in 2017 and 2018, with climbers universally praising the organisation and atmosphere on the day. It’s definitely not one to be missed.
When is it?
Sunday 24th February 2019 at Beetham Tower, 303 Deansgate, Manchester M3 4LQ, with waves from 10am to 2pm.
Sarah Frost set a new women’s course record at the NSPCC Gherkin Challenge event in London last Sunday (28 October).
One of the most successful UK stair climbers on the circuit at the moment, Frost shattered the previous record by 30 seconds to set a highly impressive new time of 5.33, which was also enough to earn her third overall.
A relative newcomer to the sport, but already course record holder at London’s Broadgate Tower and Leadenhall Building, plus Portsmouth’s Emirates Spinnaker Tower, Frost was expected to take the win and break the course record, but it wasn’t an easy victory.
Only four seconds separated her from debutant Hannah Rhodes-Patterson, a competitive cyclist from the north-west of England. Former record holder, and last year’s winner, Sonja Shakespeare smashed her previous best by 13 seconds as she finished third in 5.50.
Sarah Frost (left, #049) in the stairwell ahead of her record-breaking run
David Harris wins NSPCC Gherkin Challenge 2018
Overall victory on the day went to David Harris, who took a massive 27 seconds off his second-place time last year and finished in 4.48. His win continues his long run of impressive UK performances and makes him one of the few people to have gone under five minutes at the iconic London building.
NSPCC Gherkin Challenge 2018 winner David Harris alongside Sonja Shakespeare
Focus in the UK now turns to the Broadgate Tower Run Up later this month on Saturday 24th November. That will serve as the London leg of the Vertical World Circuit 2018, where some of the world’s top stair climbers will be in attendance.
With entries from the inspirational amateur to the expert elite, we run through five of our favourite stair climbing websites.
Considering how long stair climbing has been around, it’s a bit surprising (and disappointing) that there aren’t more websites full of event news or training tips. But despite the dearth of sites, there are still some great ones out there worth visiting.
Read on to find out the sites we visit for expert stair climbing training tips and in-depth race reports.
5 – Keep It Up David
Since embracing an active lifestyle and healthy eating habits in 2010, David Garcia has managed to turn his life around and lose 160lbs (11 and-a-half stone/72.5kg).
Of course there have been several factors to his impressive transformation, but key among them has been his involvement in the stair running community.
He’s probably the closest thing to a celebrity there is in the tower running community – we certainly felt a little bit star struck when we spotted him in the holding area at the start line of La Verticale de la Tour Eiffel earlier this year. He’s featured on The Ellen Show!!
For the past eight years, David has documented his inspirational journey in a series of excellent blog posts. His first stair climb was in 2012 and he does an easy-to-read and interesting post-race write up of the stair races and running events he takes part in. We’ve been following his blog for five years now and always look forward to new posts.
The posts are always personal, so if you’re just looking for cold hard training tips his site may not be top of your list, but he offers some nice insights from the perspective of a regular climber leaving it all on the stairs at every race.
This is a new addition to the community of stair climbing websites. Well-presented and well-written, it’s the work of former journalist and keen stair climber Josh Jackett. It’s focused exclusively on the United States, so unless you live there, or you’re a general fan of the sport who likes to keep up to date with the international stair climbing scene, it might not have what you’re looking for.
Stair Life has race previews of most, if not all, of the upcoming races in the USA calendar. It has a page of stat sheets for lots of the major race venues in America, featuring course records, number of steps and lists of male and female winners from previous years. It even dabbled with a short-lived podcast, which we hope makes a comeback.
In a sport that lacks any serious, constant media attention at all, the efforts of sites like Stair Life don’t go unnoticed. We’re sure the race previews give competitors a little buzz of excitement as they prepare for their upcoming climbs. We’re excited to see how this site develops as the sport grows.
PJ Glassey is the founding father of the small corpus of stair climbing training literature worth reading. When we got into stair climbing seriously in 2013, PJ’s X Gym website was the only real source of dedicated knowledge on stair climb-specific training and race-day preparation. It was truly an invaluable resource for a sport where a lot of time can be wasted in trial and error trying to figure out how to race efficiently.
When races at most buildings come around just once a year, minimising errors in pacing and technique is essential so you can make the most of your annual chance. The expert advice on the X Gym site definitely compressed our painful learning phase and if you’re new to the sport it will likely do the same for you.
X Gym’s material is packed full of essential tips for how to approach your stair climb event, how to master landing turns, how to target your legs with tough workouts that will set them up to handle the demands of a long climb, plus lots more. They’ve even got a link to a site that provides a detailed breakdown of the step layout in major US buildings, so racers can pre-plan their strategy ahead of the event (whoever put that site together is another legend).
The fact that it’s almost nine years since he uploaded some of his training videos on to YouTube, and they’re still probably the best and most informative around, speaks to their quality and unfortunately to the unwillingness of the slow-moving tower running community to produce content. But fortunately that’s beginning to change, as you’ll see in the next entry in our list.
The trajectory of the popularity of tower running is an odd one, though. Five years ago Vice and Adidas did a three-part feature on the sport, with a focus on the scene in Seattle. It showcased Glassey and other well-known names including Kevin Crossman, Shaun Stephens-Whale and Kourtney Dexter as they prepared for and raced the Big Climb in Seattle’s Columbia Center.
The sport is definitely expanding, as demonstrated by growing participation globally and increased mentions – albeit small ones – in mainstream publications. But right now, despite this growth, the idea of Adidas, Vice or any other big brand/media channel doing anything with tower running seems like a dream. Glassey was at the forefront of the sport when it was at its zenith and the X Gym materials capture that.
The site’s stair running training materials haven’t been updated in a while and Glassey seems to have taken a step back from the sport, but his contribution to the sport is lasting.
Although PJ Glassey’s training tips are thorough and comprehensive, this site probably just edges it for us in terms of usefulness for competitive stair climbers.
The reason is because it draws from the combined experiences of three of the best stair climbers in the USA: Terry Purcell, Eric Leninger and John Osborn. With dozens of wins between them at some of the toughest events in the USA, what these three don’t know about stair climbing isn’t worth knowing. The result is a rich body of knowledge spread over just a few pages in easily digestible nuggets of stair climbing gold.
There are full sections on pacing and technique, plus one page mysteriously titled The Secret, which has eight expert tips designed to help you lop heaps of time off your stair race PBs. They are excellent.
The site isn’t regularly updated with fresh content, but it really has everything you need to begin training and racing in earnest.
This blog by American stair climbing star Alex Workman was always going to be number one, because it was the inspiration for Tower Running UK.
Back in the barren years of the early 2010s, it was the personal blog of Alex Workman (alongside X Gym) that was keeping stair climbers informed with race day tips and training advice.
As his athletic endeavours have expanded to include other disciplines such as rowing, Workman has been largely absent from the stair running scene in 2018, although he’s recently begun racing and blogging again this month. But among his six years of intermittent blog posts are some of the most informative pieces on stair climb training you will find anywhere.
Made up largely of race reviews, his blog is full of expert post-race analysis. Workman takes a scientific approach to stair climbing – he climbs with a metronome to help maintain his pace throughout the race – and each race he competes in undergoes a thorough examination detailing how he felt through each stage of the event.
He has a very readable style and a knack for telling a good story, so you find yourself really drawn into his experiences. We read over 30 posts in one sitting after discovering his blog in 2013.
But Workman’s lasting contribution is in two training blogs he wrote back in 2014. These two in-depth training posts, combined with the technique and pacing information on Team Stair Climb, are all you need to take your stair climbing to a whole new level.
Part two details his interval training workouts, which he says ‘focus on increasing anaerobic threshold and VO2 max, which I consider to be the #1 ingredients to stair climbing performance.’
Make those workouts part of your preparation for your next stair race and you are bound to see improvements on your times.
Tower Running UK 