Is walking my apartment stairs a real routine if I feel ridiculous doing it?

The most convenient place for me to move after work is the stairwell in my apartment building. It is indoors, free and twenty steps from my front door. It also makes me feel like a suspicious person who has forgotten which floor she lives on.

I started using the stairs during a week of cold rain. I put on sneakers, walked from the second floor to the sixth and came back down at an easy pace. The entire thing took fifteen minutes. No drive, no membership and no argument with the weather. Practically, it was perfect.

Socially, it was strange. On the third trip I met a neighbor carrying groceries. She stepped aside, then saw me again four minutes later and asked whether the elevator was broken. Another evening the maintenance worker opened the door while I was turning around on the landing. I explained that I was exercising. He nodded politely in a way that made the explanation feel worse.

Now I listen for footsteps and pause so I will not pass the same person twice. That defeats the simplicity. I know the stairwell is shared space and I am not blocking it, playing music or doing anything unsafe. Yet exercise in a place not labeled for exercise feels like a small public performance.

The obvious answer is to tolerate being seen. Still, I wonder whether there is an etiquette I am missing. Should I choose a quiet hour, do one continuous route instead of repeated laps, or mention it to building management? I do not want permission for ordinary stair use. I also do not want to become the neighbor whose routine makes everyone else calculate an escape route.

Would you keep going until it felt normal, move the routine somewhere less convenient, or change the format so the repetition is less noticeable?