A lot of serious runners incorporate hill workouts in their training; however, what do you do if you live in a very flat place, or the hills aren’t close by? (It’s maddening when hills are inconveniently located.) If this is the case, a tall building where you can access the stairwell would work. If that’s not possible, the only option is your front porch which is where I go.

Yes, I have to do a lot of reps for a good workout; however, they are very conveniently located. Actually, there’s a decent grade not too far from my house, so I don’t really use my porch for running. In addition, I get in some stair workouts with the Flying Irish, the running group I often join.

We have a route called Stairmaster which hits several sets of stairs in the three-mile route. A couple are pictured below.

The two photos below are me in the middle of a recent stair workout. I forgot my camera, so after arriving home, I googled, “Jim doing stair workout”, and these photos showed up from Google Earth. I’m surprised the angles those satellite cameras can get.

I think it’s fair to say that stairs are more demanding than hills. When I do stairs, it’s two at a time, at least. Stairs are constructed for walking, so a running stride just doesn’t match up to one stair at a time.

If you’re on a long, tiring run and incorporate a stairway with lots of stairs, I won’t yell at you if I see you doing one at a time. But if I catch you walking, I’ll require you to attend my two-hour seminar on stair running.