I think I've probably posted about the Crairmaster before, but it's been a while. In between the center of town and my office, there's a big building called the Crary Lab. It's not too far out of my way to go through the building rather than around it (especially on cold days). I decided some time last season to implement an exercise plan using Crary as my workout machine.
Crary is located on a hill, with the aquarium in phase III at the bottom, and the library at the second story of phase I. Starting about two-thirds of the way through last winter I started doing laps of the stairs to keep from turning into gelatinous goo. It has always been hard to be religious about going to the gym here, but I have to go to and from work several times a day-- it was a natural! (Plus I don't really get sweaty just doing four laps up and down three flights of stairs, don't have to change, etc.) It's really like four ten-or-fifteen-minute workouts a day. I just leave for work a little early, grab four or five laps on the way down. Coming up to building 155 for lunch, I grab some laps on the way. Same with going back to work, and going home at night.
Well, last year I averaged about twelve laps a day, and got 1410 laps done by the time I had to fly out of this lovely town. This year I started at the first day here, so I'm smashing old records. As of this minute, I have 1538 laps so far this season. I calculate that works out to 4,602 flights of stairs. That's almost sixty thousand vertical feet! Keeping stats on my Crairmaster laps has helped to keep me engaged. If I had no idea how many laps I had done, I might skip a day, or slack off. My average is just over 13 laps a day, so stay trudging so as not to hurt my average.
Too much time on my hands? Maybe. (Note: I copied this picture from the University of Chicago's web site. It is pitch dark here 24/7, so a photo wouldn't mean much.)
On another note, I've spotted some cool links about Antarctica, for those of you so inclined:
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