This weekend I registered for IMFL–my first ironman distance. I’m a PhD student and travel a lot, so I am going to have to be a little creative with my training–both while at home and while on the go. I’m sure you ST guys and gals have plenty of interesting training stories. With that said, what is the most creative way you’ve managed to sneak in training while balancing careers, families, travel, etc?
Bike to work, run home. Next day, run to work, bike home. Or run/run for a double in the day. I can take different routes to/from work, so I can vary the mileage from 4.5 -7 miles each way.
Either driving or biking, it takes about the same commute time. Running really only adds 15-20 mintues to the “total one-way commute” training time as then I’m done when I run in the door after work.
indoor trainer if you don’t already have one helps a lot.
Bike to work, run home. Next day, run to work, bike home. Or run/run for a double in the day. I can take different routes to/from work, so I can vary the mileage from 4.5 -7 miles each way.
Either driving or biking, it takes about the same commute time. Running really only adds 15-20 mintues to the “total one-way commute” training time as then I’m done when I run in the door after work.
x2 if you can make the logistics work.
This can be extremely effective if you have showers/a place to safely park your bike at work. Unfortunately, that isn’t always available.
I am a big fan of run commuting. But I am blessed to have a gym in the basement of my office building so that I can shower there and keep some work clothes in a locker.
I usually take my running stuff along whenever I go to family get togethers. I drive there with my family and I take off an hour or so before my family wants to leave for home. If I don’t make it home in time, they pick me up. I like the “race” aspect of trying to get a certain distance before they catch me. The double bonus is that you don’t overeat/drink since you have a long run coming up…
Brad
As other have said, running or riding to or from someplace you are going to anyway is a great way to get a workout in. Work is obvious but I used to time my weekend bike rides to end up at my kids’ sporting events then catch a ride home with my wife. Getting used to the idea that runs or rides don’t have to start or end at home and getting comfortable putting the bike in your car opens up a world of possibilities if you are busy. Some of my favorite workouts over the last few years have been one’s that basically revolved around me trying to figure out how to kill an hour or two in a strange spot waiting for my kids to finish whatever they were doing. Plus on the home front, “I’ll take the kids to practice, the birthday party, play date, etc” will earn you alot of brownie points.
Travel is easy as long as travel does not equal 18 hour days of work. Running in new places is fun.
Toss 5 tons of hay up into the loft…that’ll do ya for a while…I don’t worry about cross training at all.
I taught an Endurance Clinic for my swim team, basically the kids swam about half my workout with me. for some reson none of them ever took me up on the offer to stay past and finish the workouts.
The biggest thing to do is just to get used to a 5:30AM wakeup and a get used to working out first thing in the morning.
If you can knock out 3-4 hours a week of training before everyone else is up and your day gets busy - then filling
out the rest of the week is pretty easy as long as you can fit in some decent hours on the weekend for a long ride/run.
My one trick for a swim workout in the dinky hotel pools is to swim without pushing off the wall, and just go by time.
I can go for 30 minutes or so with just doing an ‘open water’ start at each lap and get a quality pool workout in. It is pointless
and depressing to figure out the real distance (200 laps to a mile? 300? ) but if you go by time it works out pretty well.
I also take advantage of the treadmills in hotel gyms for interval workouts…one again in 30-40 minutes you can get a quality
workout that is really more focused than what you can do out on the road or even at a track. Treat that as an opportunity
instead of a break in training.
Bike:
I bike to work on Monday morning (35 miles) and bike home on Tuesday afternoon (35 miles). I will do the same on Thursday and Friday but typically cut those shorter by jumping on the train 20 miles into the ride. Driving home or taking train is the same commute time as riding. I have been taking days off work to schedule my long bike rides instead of weekend workouts.
Run/Swim:
Run or swim on my lunch break and/or run to the pool to get both in. Long runs on weekends during daughters nap time and weekend open water swims before they wake up.
I have put in many 15+ hour weeks w/o taking ANY time away from family.
I have a good buddy who is a med student, He went 9:2X:XX to grab a kona slot and went like 9:31 in kona. He had to do all of his training on the trainer and in the biddle of the night, so he would go off call at like 2:30 am and go do his training then.
I have another buddy who qualifies for Kona every year out of the past 4 and hardly swims or bikes, basically he runs like 60 MPW all year, starts doing masters swim groups about 3 months before an IM, all year he bikes 2 times a week, once on the trainer, once out doors for about 3 hours, all with an SRM and he pushes all of these rides. come race time, his swims arrent that fast, like 1:10-1:15 but his bike times are in the 5-5:20 range and his marathons are like 3:20 so he goes to Kona. works for him.
I’ll second this. I get up most mornings at 4.45.
On the computrainer by 5 or in the pool by 5.30 and done my workout by 7. On the road for my 50k commute (driving that is… I’d love to ride but it’s mega highway and dark) and at work by 8.30. Work till 4.30, on the road and home by 5.30. Snack and run. In bed by 8.45-9pm.
If you aren’t commuting, you can squeeze in another AM workout, or just go into teh office/lab earlier, which is what I did in grad school. Then skip off a little sooner in the PM to log some more training and hit the books in the eve.
12-15hrs/wk done this way. You’ll be fine. Just be organized.
The wife and kids and I were staying with some friends in Palm Springs last Feb. in my buildup to two half IM’s in late March/early April. I would get up and run around the cart paths on the golf course out front of the condo before golfers were on the course, then I’d hop in the pool, which was maybe 20 feet long and swim in circles around the pool for 20 minutes. I must have looked like an idiot, but hey, I got my swim in!
What fishgo said, make commuting a chance to train. I am a grad student as well (though single, no kids) and it really helps make space in the day.
I tried to wear my HR monitor to ‘bed’ and log it as a workout. Wife was not thrilled.
I tried to wear my HR monitor to ‘bed’ and log it as a workout. Wife was not thrilled.
Perhaps if the workout had been longer?
I tried to wear my HR monitor to ‘bed’ and log it as a workout. Wife was not thrilled.
I’m a teacher. I coach track, XC and swimming. As well I teach fitness classes. I get paid to do some of my training!
Babies and small children are the perfect weight to be used in core strength workouts. You can do all kinds of crunches, torsional work, hip and lower back work while holding/playing with them. Obviously be extra careful, if you injure the kid mom will kill you. I did this quite a bit with my first and so far he’s as normal as a 3.5 year old can be, plus he seemed to enjoy it. A lot of it is really just movement awareness as you do routine things that you’d have to do anyways.
Used to live in a dorm room that was above a floor of classrooms.
Trainer + bike in the classroom next to an open window really, really early in the morning. Only time I could get away with it and the only place I could feasibly ride.
Will be inventing something like that again come this winter.