9 Months to Tri

Today I was up for an hour of cardio. I spent 15 minutes on 4 different machines and tried to maintain a heart rate of about 145 bpm. All in all, a tiring but low-impact work-out today. Makes me feel good that I can do this, considering that before I started this program, I generally only did a 1/2 hour workout.

Which leads me to this thought. One of the considerations I had when deciding to do this was that, unlike people who have the time and resources to leave work, family and life and head off to a fat farm, clinic or television program, I needed to be able to continue my day-to-day life. Its also better this way, because I’m learning to make it a part of my lifestyle, not just a one-time event. That being said, starting a workout program does take time out of your week and you need to be able to adjust to that.

How much time? Well, I can only use myself as an example:

I work very close to my gym; it only takes me a few minutes to make the drive from the office to the gym. Even so, when you consider time to get to the car, then the drive, then getting into the gym and changing, I might be looking at 15 minutes before I even start working out. After the workout, I generally shower, change and then make the trek back to the office, so add another 20-25 minutes. Since I do all of this at lunch, I often stop to grab something to eat, so add another 5-15 minutes depending on where I go. The swimming pool, by the way, is even farther. We’re already looking at 30-50 minutes w/out any actual exercise!

Here’s a typical day for me:

Travel to Gym: 5-10 minutes depending on parking conditions

Change: 5 minutes

Workout: 30-60 minutes depending on the day

Shower & Change: 10 minutes

Travel from Gym to lunch to office: 15-25 minutes

Total time: 65 - 110 minutes

Obviously your own numbers will be different, but you can see that I’m using more than the typical lunch hour on this. I also choose to do this at lunch so that the bulk of the time comes out of my lunch break, not my before or after work time. I’m fortunate enough to be able to expand my work day to account for the long lunch. You might choose to do this before or after work, but that means you’re keeping your lunch hour and the full amount of your workout time will be coming out of other activities.

I don’t want to discourage anybody. Remember, this is completely doable! Just plan accordingly. If you don’t SCHEDULE this time, it will probably be the first thing to disappear when the rest of your life tries to reassert itself.

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