You know what I mean, those things that make your family and friends roll their eyes, the things that cause other people to shake their heads and almost pity your obsession! What lengths do you go to in order to make sure you get your training session in, or you have access to the right equipment, or you achieve the goal you’ve set your heart on?
I have started a new temp job and am going through that phase of explaining to people what I do in my spare time. Inevitably, much of it is focussed on some kind of training. My nearest olympic weightlifting gym takes me about three hours to get to. That’s half my Saturday spent on a bus or a train so that I can go clean and jerk for a few hours (I’ll be honest, I don’t go every week).
I also remember when I first started filming my lifts at the gym. It was really embarrassing but I was so desperate to be able to see how I was lifting that I just had to grit my teeth and get over it. A lot of people have told me they’d never do it.
But I’m sure that stuff is small potatoes compared to the lengths some people go to. So go on, spill the beans!
 Stumble it!
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To get in my cardio, I went running for 60 minutes in a full blizzard last sunday. Was up to my knees in snow at times, but great workout. Wife just shook her head, but she is getting used to this stuff.
Having rings under the stairs and doing bodyweight exercises means that I usually dont have that much peer pressure to cope with.
To ensure I have time to workout and get to the hospital in time for ward rounds etc, I get up at 6am so I can get from Streatham Hill to Euston to gym (and I’m not a morning person!). I chop up all my weeks veggies on a Sunday so I save time during the week. They’re not really ‘lengths’ as such, but I feel more disciplined this way, and I still get the ‘you’re nuts’ comments
@ Rolfe: running in a blizzard? Super hardcore! Yes, working out at home can be a real boon as you don’t have to deal with other people’s reactions.
@ Rooroo: to me that just sounds mega-organised
I am particularly impressed by your gym routine. I am not a morning person either so I understand the effort you are making!
Sometimes I resort to straight up lying to my friends and family, just to avoid that roll of the eyes. I work out after work, and if friends are heading out to dinner, I’ll often tell them I will have to show up a little late because I’m stuck at the office. Truth is, I’m fitting in a quick workout either in my apt. or at the gym.
First of all, I love your blog! Just found it linked from stumptuous!
I keep much of my equipment (kb’s, barbell, bumper plates and a couple old tires for throwing and dragging) locked in the back of my truck. We have a “gym” on the university but it is a chrome-lined Spa more than a gym… So for “lunch” most days, several of my coworkers and I change in the locker room and then go outside to clean, jerk, carry and throw in the grass by the parking lot. I will admit that here in Ohio, the weights spend the winter getting tossed around in my garage rather than outside, though.
I usually get up at about 5am for my commute to work, but to make sure I get in my required dosage of pain and suffering, I now get up at 4.30am for a round of air squats and dive bomber push-ups. My company has a fitness center where I do a modified crossfit WOD.
I have also been reading up on the bodyweight exercises performed by prisoners behind bars…
I found that working at a gym, and training alongside my clients can give me hours and hours of training in a day, probably overkill, but it keeps me motivated, but more importantly the people I work for.
You guys really are dedicated!
Has anyone managed to convert any of their friends or coworkers?
Tracker47, sounds like you’ve got a good thing going at work. You’ve done well to persuade your coworkers to clean and jerk of a lunchtime.
I have the opposite problem from those of you who brave sub-zero temperatures: I have to endure 115F temps in the summer!! I am fortunate that my company has a well equipped fitness center and sports field/track on site. And my boss accommodates my 1.5 hour lunches when I work out. No fancy machines in airconditioning for me though! I’m out at high noon in the 115 degree heat (slathered with sunscreen of course skin cancer is a problem here!) slinging kettlebells, jumping ropes, and pounding out burpees. Plus a benefit of my recent painful divorce is that I have my own garage now…no junk stored, just weights, sandbags, kettlebells, and heavybag, floor covered in rubber mats…HEAVEN! My co-workers think I already have brain damage from heat stroke to be out there in the heat working out!!
I confess I find it much easier to cope with cold than with heat. Even I would probably think you were a nutcase if I saw you doing burpees in 115 degrees heat! Where are you based?
Tucson, Arizona…where “it’s a dry heat”
You just have to prepare yourself. Don’t just jump into it from cold air-conditioning. Wear plenty of sports grade sunscreen. Drink alot of water and gatorade (NOT ice cold). And accept the fact that its uncomfortable.
Then…get on with it!!!! (Shade doesn’t hurt either!)
Like the above commenter, I will resort to lying to people at times. I’ve said that I need to leave work at such-and-such time on certain days every week because of a regularly scheduled academic meeting that does not in fact exist- instead I go to the gym. Also, if I have academic commitments that try to infringe on my gym time, I just say I have to work. For me, gym=sanity and it’s non-negotiable.
I have to lie to my partner sometimes, if I am slightly under the weather or have the sniffles and am going to the gym anyway (I wipe down the equipment, fear not!). He doesn’t think I should lift when I’m not 100% healthy, so I will unabashedly pretend I am going somewhere else.
I have also gone to the gym in miserable weather- I don’t have a car, so I either walk or take public transit. Fortunately the walk from my house is about 20 minutes, so very short, but Pacific Northwest weather doesn’t exactly make it fun. Freezing rain, snow, regular rain, more rain- that’s winter here. Even so, I make the roundtrip walk three or four times a week, regardless of the conditions.
Mnem, your underhandedness and downright lying shows true commitment - I love it!
Because my knee hurts when I do long distance running, I resorted to doing hill sprints at a pedastrian bridge near my home. I carry my sandbag there to warm up and then do about fifteen minutes of pain. Every time I have at least three joggers tell me to “slow down” and that “running fast is not good for you”. Actually, I dream of a day where someone comes by and just joins in the fun.
Rereading this, it doesn’t really fit the question, does it? Oh, well.
Great story though! I can just picture the scene. Good on you for carrying on regardless in such a public place - it’s not easy putting your pain on display.
i travel on long haul flights alot, and one of the first
things i do when i get to the hotel is some light
calesthenics, to shake off the stiffness and go swimming
if there is a pool available. When i get on my drillship
after my first shift, i alway go to the gym no matter how
tired i am and do something, normally fast and brutal,
seems to get rid of jet lag a lot quicker.
when i get home i do pretty much the same thing.
then after that at work i always go to the gym after
the 12 hour shift, and at home normally fairly soon after i get up around 7ish- and thats even if i had a couple of beers the night before. (not a work though no booze for 28 days!!!)
I get odd looks at work, but my good lady is used to it
now!
What good discipline you have. I wish I had it! I’m too easily distracted…
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