Dev,

what about the obvious - group Zwift rides at a scheduled, routine time?

me, i have the luxury of running outside from home. Ironically, i now see more of my neighbours out running and walking than ever before.

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run well, run happy
george

I have found I have a similar experience - in that nothing is structured, I am used to a certain routine: get up at 5.30 - 1-2hrs training, depending on the day, event schedule etc, and get a train to work at 8.09. Now I am at home and having a load of extra time but no structure is really confusing things and life feels a little all over the place. I am trying hard to ensure that whilst working from home, I keep the same hours as I would in the office - and at 6pm, shut the computer down and make sure its my time. In theory I think I can get a tonne of training done in extra time, not spent commuting. This week it hasnt really been the case.

My advice - rethink your routine and write it down. We are likely in this for a while - you have a job, training, family time etc which I am assuming you fit in to a fairly well oiled routine prior to the madness that we are currently experiencing. What are the things stopping you from doing so now? obviously the pool being closed is a big one, but can you still run/bike/strength train? I am a big fan of spending 15 mins or so on a Sunday and just assessing what time I have for training in the upcoming week and blocking that time off to make sure I get some quality training in.

What about trying to keep to whatever schedule you had before, just in a different location?

If you worked between a set number of hours in an office, put those hours in at home and keep to them. If you worked out at set times, just modify the workout so its in a different place. If the pool is closed, replace it with a ride, run, or strength.

Put it in the calendar and keep to the calendar if you're finding that one activity starts bleeding into the other.

The working from home, combined with the reality that my race is cancelled and I have not trained at ALL this week. This after spending 5 days in Vegas and not missing a beat out there.

Going to re set next week though, no more booze on the weeknights, moving the workouts back to base mode since no reason to execute the last 2 build blocks for a race that isn't happening. Should help kick start it since the workouts are not as long.

As with most I’m working 12+ hrs a day because of the current situation.

What I’ve done is change my routine a bit: instead of getting up and working out first thing, I now get up around 5:30, watch CNBC and work for an hour or so, then get a workout in. Started doing a bike workout in the AM and then a shorter run in the evening. It’s more about stress relief as it is hitting key workouts etc.

Won’t work for all, but it is critical for my mental health to continue to stay fit

I transitioned to a work from home role with my longtime employer last year and I do exactly this. Wake up at 5:00 and it's foxnews and emails for about 90 minutes. 7am is a 90 minute workout of some sort. 845 is back to work with an hour workout around 1230, then wrap up the workday from an availability standpoint around 530pm, but probably spend 45-60 minutes planning for the next day or answering emails throughout the evening.

I don't mind it until the weekend rolls around and I'm unable to detach and end up working 5-6 additional hours. Beats a commute though.

Yeah, it feels like everything piled on from this virus. Economic worries (and the thought of selling bikes if I do get laid off), race cancellations (with no timetable on when the next race even may be), and not being able to swim has just destroyed my discipline. I should be getting ready to taper for IMFL 70.3 but I'm barely getting in an hour a day on Zwift.

Just seems pointless right now which I know exercise during this time definitely is not.

Seems like a very similar schedule for me when working from home. (including the extra weekend hours and Foxnews)

To Dev - sign up for a virtual 5k. I just did and now I have a competitive goal for next month after finishing the TAJI 100 in Feb. which became surprisingly "focusing"

I haven't started working from home, yet. But, I've been training-from-work for years. I set a scheduled time (blocked off in my calendar) and do my thing. Rarely, it gets pre-empted...and I get REALLY grumpy when that happens.

I guess we will see, how similar that is...once I'm on WFH status (assuming that happens).

Same with me. I'm breaking up my work day at home by running outside for an hour in the early afternoon most days. All I'm doing now is running and body-weight strengthening exercises. Installed a pull-up bar in the basement last evening which has been a high point of the week. Plan on keeping the training load below what it has been for the past couple of years because my overriding goal, as a 61-year-old, is to avoid getting seriously ill from the virus.

I find myself moving far less at home than the office. Which compiled with my gravel races being cancelled for April and extra working hours from days being filled with video conferences is going down hill. Today I tried some less technical duties while walking on the treadmill just to keep blood moving. Honestly I got a little less done while walking but am way happier about life.

I can't relate directly as I am still off-site at work now, but I can sympathize. You always think you're going to do some epic indoor stuff when at home, even if you dont' have much scheduled, but something ALWAYS seems to get in the way or slow you down.

My work volume is pretty light so I'm taking 90 minute runs in the middle of the day in lieu of lunch swimming. Vasa or bike in morning and even night.

I do find that when I'm at home not working, my best chance to get in that big workout schedule is to ironically, get OUT of the house for most or all of it. I actually love indoor training with my nice garage setup, but even I'll try my hardest to do one of my doubled scheduled workouts out of house since I know odds are high that I won't get the 2nd one done otherwise, especially if I'm tired from the 1st. It's weird that I drive to the pool when I have a Vasa sitting in my garage sometimes, but I'll drive there if I know I'm just going to half-azs the Vasa due to feeling sorry for myself whereas I'll do the pool workout legit even if it requires paddles+PB.

Maybe we need to re-instate some sort of frequency-based workout challenge. It's discouraging (but obviously sensible) to have races as the natural end point of training goals cancelled, and to have to fall back into some sort of indeterminate maintenance period. I find it easier to get in short workouts but harder to motivate the same training volume I was holding before. Also I'm now more motivated to do a plethora of training activities rather than focusing on run/bike (swim is out the window...).

What if, starting 1 April, we just re-ran some sort of modified 100/100 challenge? Surely that would help a lot of people structure their days and would be good for mental health as well as having training benefits. We could turn it into a multisport challenge, say 200/100 so that bike and swim activities count too, but make it so that just frequency counts? IDK...

I like this idea....the "Just Keep Moving Every Day" challenge.

Agree, as I sit here at 2:17 PM still in my pjs.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

I'm not understanding the bolded part, especially how moving to a WFH model increased your workload.. it's on you to maintain the discipline you had re: training when you were working from an office now that you're WFH. It does sound like you get that based on your last sentence though.

I switched from ~50-75% to 100% WFH just over a year ago and ensuring that training happened actually became easier because it removed the impact of things like a late-scheduled meeting or conference call messing up my commute time home, then having a knock-on effect on my subsequent dinner/training/bed time.

Hey thanks everyone for posting. I think my week is even more topsy turvy because we were closing and announcing a financing round for my company: https://finance.yahoo.com/...bed-3-120000452.html, I was reacting to all the external pressure on Covid19, transitioning the company to a remote operation and trying to make sure I was available for staff for 1:1 video calls, plus trying to keep up with the external customer world.

All of this compounded to take all "personal time" away, plus all the background stress of the economy and parents straded 10 time zones away overseas on a trip they left for in December and their flights to Canada this week being cancelled....and we're in the middle of a product release that is supposed to go live this week and on top of that the data sets used to train the AI models my company uses for energy patterns were never trained on a worldwide pandemic sp they will initially perform not that great until they get exposed to enough data....so there were a ton of gears in motion.

So roughly I THINK what I need to do is just get out of bed early do emails over coffee and have a hard time deadline to , crank out a run and not go a seccond past it and have a hard deadline to come back to work and then late in the day get on the bike for an indoor ride + rowing session or outdoor ride, have dinner and get back to work.

I think a 200/100 challenge would make sense, as it would force that second workout and would force structure to create that second session.

As others mentioned working from home is also less motion. My normal day seems to be 18000 steps between running and getting around. Now I am down to 13000 or so. That's around 4km of less motion in a day sitting in front of a screen

I'm a single dad with two small kids, so my training time is trying to not get fat and move my body a little every day. LOL, even my kids are begging for school to start up again and it has only been a week of dad's homeschool

I'm feeling the same way - thanks for posting and starting the conversation. Normally, on Tue and Thu, I prepare to teach (on campus) in the early AM, teach (on campus) in the late AM, take care of a few things (on campus) and get home for lunch. Then, writing, editing, emails, whatever at home until lunch settles and I'm ready for some bike/run/brick time. But now, it seems like I can't break away from work since I'm working/teaching from home. I know that I should be able to just say 'hey, 3.00p on Tue, run time', but the physicality of the situation doesn't support that. The old routine was a trained behavior and the new reality must adapt to a new trained behavior - but I'm not there yet. The paradox is that, even though I live close to campus, with kid drop off / pick up, my round trip from home to campus and campus to home is about 60 min per day. My current round trip from the espresso machine to my home office and back (no kid drop off, no driving) is about 90 seconds, I guess - so an extra hour per day. Still, it's not translating to more time for training or improved peace of mind...

I had one week of pity party. Not saying that’s what you are doing, but my work is tied almost completely to large running events and well we know what’s happening. No swim, I slept in, no going out for coffee with friends I didn’t shower until late.

I decided first thing to do is get back on regular schedule.

Up at 5.
Work 6-7 (No swimming)
Walk the Dog
Run-or Ride
Breakfast and shower including shave.
Dress for work.
Hit the office and work

I can’t control running events taking place but I can control my day and that’s what I’m committed to do. I have two events I’m working on that happened this year. I’m taking the time to really explore the data I collect to give the brands some things to think about as they deal with these issues. I’ve had a number of Aha moments which is a benefit of taking my time.

The puppy is up, time to take her out.

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Dave Jewell
Free Run Speed

I hate to say, but I'm knocking the training/fitness thing out of the park. Telework has freed up two hours per day, effectively.

I'm doing daily CrossFit classes in my back yard with Zoom, and a trainnerroad quadruple high volume plan (with some of the rides outdoor solo).

I'm going to come back in my first race and Mat Hayman the shit out of it.

I think getting dressed for work is also a key. Hanging out in my sweat pants is just prolonging the lack of structure. Great input!

On a plus note I just passed 81km of running for the week. My largest running volume in 7 years for a week. I guess since I was not on a structured plan when I got to the start line of training I chose outdoor running over indoor cycling since I wanted to make my time count and I can't go to the pool. 81km of running is not a ton of volume for me. Its barely 7.5 hrs which is easy to do without devoting time to the pool.

I was super on track for an early may marathon, had been swimming lots to get ready for Penticton in August

i'm currently about to start week 2 of my pity party, I think i'll do that for another week to deal with the stress (wife and I are both basically out of work and have 2 young kids, etc...)

I am only a cyclist and aging basketball participant.

Definitely Zwift group rides and races , although there is only a slight difference. They have a lot of morning, lunch and evening start time options. You can pick your run time. Don’t turn on the TV, stay informed but it is easy to dwell on it and get depressed, angry etc...
Swimming, unless you can go outside or buy a pool you are out of luck, but many are.

Your work situation was super stressful so keep that in mind with Virus worries added on.
It takes its toll that you can not see.

Try to walk away from the work thing and the damn news. If you watch in the morning, skip at lunch but stay updated later. Same with the stock market which is another stress if you are saving for retirement.

Try to revisit some abandoned workouts whether is yoga, core balance crap.
I have decided to start my BOSU workouts again tomorrow since the gym is closed.
I am grateful they were upfront and honest (ymca) with what had happened and decided to close a week earlier.

Hope this helps.