Today I took The Wife to Denver to get her hair done (the last essential task before tomorrow’s double C-section), and I got in a pretty cool workout. It’s rad how much you can accomplish—and how much you can learn—with just a flight of stairs.

Setup: Six-level parking garage with 78 steps.

Protocol: Sprint up the steps, walk back down. Go on 90-second intervals. Do 10 sets. By the end, my heart rate was pinging just past red line. Perfect.

Experience: My first ascents were in the high 20-second range. When I focused on driving downward with the power leg, the times dropped to a consistent 21 seconds. On the last few sets, I focused on driving the recovery leg upward in opposition with the power leg. Wow! 1) That’s a lot of work. 2) The times dropped to 19 seconds.

Lesson: The upward drive improved my time by almost 10 percent. That is huge! I can’t maintain that focus for long, but it sure makes sense to develop that upward drive and incorporate it into the entire mission. And you know it applies on the bike.

On the way back to the salon I hit a playground for some dive-bomber push-ups and some pull-up variations. When I picked up The Wife, I was worked and her hair looked great.

We are ready for tomorrow.