Hi Tim, thanks for the comment! There are only one or two Towerrunner's that I know of that are good at do single steps. Non of the Elite's I know do single steps. Although a stepmill is a great way to train, it's not as realistic to compare to an actual towerrunning race. For one thing we use the handrails to pull ourselves up with. From my experience, doing single steps waste a lot more motion and energy. Think of doing the Sears (Willis Tower) with around 2100 steps doing that single step. That's a lot of steps, and a lot of energy to burn using the steps. It also makes using the rails to pull with, much less effective too. . If one doesn't use the rails, (and there are several techniques for using rails, and if there are rails on just one side, or both sides of the stairwell), that is, if one were to try to race up the stairs with no rails, I think you're right, your legs would fatigue quicker doing two steps at a time, then single steps. Maybe not for taller climbers, but I am 5'7" and my legs would probably fatigue quicker. . So really, doing a race up a stairwell, or tower, takes the whole body, legs, arms, having a strong core, and technique. Like in cycling doing a endurance rally, or a crit race, Towerrunning is all about conservation of energy, especially pacing oneself all the way up the climb.

​@@towerrunner496 whenever I used a stair climber I didn't touch the rails. I'm currently only about 35 cm/s max vertical ascent rate or 3.5 watts per kg. I think an elite with 6 watts per kg climbing over 3 stairs per second it might be better to double step if you have a hand rail to pull yourself up on. I'm not at that level which is the equivalent of pro athlete. If I try to imitate their technique I am unlikely to set my personal best time. On a stair climber if you don't cheat you have no hand rail to pull yourself up on. I'm not sure the step height on the empire state building but 1576 steps in 1050 feet is an average 8" step just like the stair climber. All I'm saying is for climbs in the 20 minute range, I think single step would give me the highest sustained speed, unless I lost a LOT of weight. Although pulling myself up on the rails might make double step more effective. I don't have a stair climber with moving rails (maybe a down escalator if security didn't mind) and I don't have a building tall enough for a 20 minute pace. With cycling I found out I put out most power sustained with a cadence in the upper 80s, whereas on a full body bike, 70 felt best (not tested rigorously). I know I wouldn't race bicycles with a cadence of 51, which is what single stepping tops out at for me. When I sprinted up 9 floors of stairs with an estimated 30m of vertical ascent (Norwood, Bath University) I set a time of 45 seconds and for that double stepping was fastest and pulling up on the rails. If I can get a burst power of a kilowatt, but an aerobic paces is more like 300. This is the difference. It is quite hard to double step on a stair climber. They aren't so good for burst efforts. I weigh about 185 lbs and on 8" steps I max out at 102/minute, increasing the level by 6/minute until I can't sustain. The other thing with building races is how to warm up. I feel like if there was a stair machine in the lobby I could gradually crank it to 96/minute, then start hot marching up at 102, let the others run ahead if they want, though I don't know if I can sustain 102 for the 15 minutes required, but I can always reduce the metronome a couple of clicks. The other thing I learned is not to stomp on the stairs. Raise the leg only just high enough to make the step. Stomping wastes energy and tires the feet. The other thing is to make good use of my calves (it helps that my calves are quite good, I worked them out because they kept cramping on bike time trials, even a 7 mile, though it turned out my cleats too far forward put too long a lever on them increasing the force they needed to make and wearing them out)

@@TimpBizkit , sorry it took a week to get back to you. Very busy week, but made sure I had a reply to you on my "To do list". Well, you have thought things out very well! Once we totally get past the pandemic and buildings allow for races again, then you can enter events/races and see what works best for you. I takes a bit of time to get the muscle memory, but like most Towerrunner's, they find what works best for them. If you are on Facebook, the most active groupsite right now is "Stair Climbers International" I will leave a link to it. I am an administrator to the site, right now I am heavily involved with endurance road cycling rally's, been taking most of my time. . Towerrunning is extremely challenging, addictive, and very rewarding. Also, the people involved the sport are awesome. It's cool to know athlete's from the the US and around the World. . Stick with what works for you, once you can do races at taller buildings, then you can tweak and fine tune how you want to approach a race. . Oh one last thing, on warming up. When I would do races out of town and stay at hotels, if they had one of those Lifestyle bikes in their gym that had the heart rate hand holds. I would go down about 2 to 3 hours before an event, and do a 30 minute ramp up to get my heart rate at what it would be during a race, Just for about 5 minutes during that 30 minute warm up, then cool down. I have found that works really well, even hours before a race. Of course that can be done with other equipment, but most hotels had one of those lifestyle bikes. I never found I could get a very good warm up before a towerrunning race. I think it is key to have your heart rate at a race level, and not go into a race cold. . Here is the link to the Stair Climbers International. You may have to copy and paste it from KZfaq. Take care, thanks for you questions interest, and your own incite into the climbing! Scott facebook.com/groups/1457336684553626

Great point Hal! Some of the more technical climbers get really serious with step count, to the point of making it a science. Personally myself, I never really worry about that, just keeping a good pace, works better for me.