Office Gym

Part of the difficulty of "Running in the Real World" is finding the time. I can come up with an excuse every single day not to workout, which means I have to put in a decent amount of mental effort before I even put in the physical effort.

The other problem is that my life and schedule is constantly changing, which is not super conducive to getting into a routine.

Last year when I was training for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon, my dog was just a puppy and needed to be let out in the middle of the day. My schedule during the week consisted of morning runs with the dog (about 3 miles), walk to work (approximately one mile), walk back at lunch to take him for a short walk, after work come home and take him out again followed by a workout in our apartment gym (longer run, cross train, weight circuit, etc.). On weekends I would have one rest day and the other day I would do a longer run (8+ miles), preferably outdoors. I LOVED having a gym in our apartment. Motivation to get to the gym is so much easier when its an elevator ride way.

Gym in my previous apartment

When I moved this summer, the apartment gym was no more, but neither was the pup's need for mid-day breaks. Also, my new place is not exactly walking distance to the office. Luckily, my office building has a gym with locker rooms so my training schedule for the Air Force Half Marathon looked like this during the week: Morning walk with the dog, bike to work, lunch-hour work out (45 cardio or weight circuit), bike home and walk dog again. On the weekends I would again try to take at least one day to recover and then use the other for a long run. I was able to convince a co-worker/friend to also sign up for this half with me, which meant I had a partner to hold me accountable for these lunch time workouts. I'll give the training plan we used in an upcoming post. (It was her first half and she ran 1:53!!)

Office Gym

I don't currently have any long races on the calendar (just a few 5k races here and there) but it is important for my sanity, self-esteem, and overall health that I make a priority to get workouts in. This is further complicated by my enrollment in graduate school, while keeping my full-time job. I am lucking that my school offers most of the classes in the evening so students can pursue internships/other opportunities during the day. I decided to double up my classes on Monday and Tuesday nights so those nights are extra long (2 classes each night) and the rest of the week is manageable. Because I leave work early on those days, I do not take a lunch break which eliminates them as workout days. I use wed-fri in the office gym to get cardio workouts in or do some weight training and save long runs for Saturday and Sunday.

This training schedule is always a work in progress, but it is important to remind yourself of why you WANT to exercise so it feels more like a reward than a chore. Remember, where there is a will there is a way :)