The Art of Organizing a Workout

I consider myself to be an organized person. And my Type A personality is a good fit (generally) for the triathlon lifestyle. However, I am consistently amazed by the amount of organization required to prepare for training and races. Take this morning...

The plan was to hit the gym for a strength workout, get ready for work at the gym and then drive home and get out to door to walk to the train no later than 7:05am. Easy, right? Well, in order to make this happen I needed to have the following prepared to be able to walk out of the house at 4:45am:

- Gym clothes (would wear most of these to the gym)
- Work clothes (would wear most of these to the gym over workout clothes, but would need clean socks and undergarments)
- Jewelry for work (which would replace the sportwatch I would wear to the gym)
- Shoes for work (packed in work bag), gym shoes (tied over gym bag) and boots for walking to the train in the snow (wear these)
- Work bag packed (with book for train, some papers I would need at work)
- Gym bag packed (with stuff to get ready for work - brush, makeup, etc)
- Nutrition and a water bottle for pre-gym and at the gym
- Post-workout snack (TJ's chocolate soymilk in individual container)
- Food for work (breakfast, lunch and snacks)

I used to have this down to a science and prided myself on the efficiencies of my morning (as I waited and waited and waited for Jonathan to get ready). But this morning was a nightmare. I forgot my work shoes. I got my pre-workout snack all over my favorite cashmere gloves. In my attempt to be efficient, I mistakenly left a hard-boiled egg in my lunch bag over night (ewwwww...). And this time Jonathan waited and waited and waited for me, sending me into a complete tizzy before the clock even hit 7am.

I know that I'm out of practice and the routine will come back to me in time. But with the amount of preparation and logistics necessary to get a good workout in early in the morning, it leaves me wondering if there are some good shortcuts I could take? Ways to be even more efficient? If anyone has any thoughts, I would love to hear them. Because it's only January 6th and I have a long season of early morning workouts ahead of me....

Happy Training!

- Her

Comments

Anonymous said…
I don't make lists. The more you write lists the more items you end up adding to the list making it more and more complicated.

I say wing it. Give it a week and you'll instinctively remember only what you really need and you'll never know what you 'forgot' on that list.

I know it sounds crazy and a little scary, but you can do it.

- Nathan
J2 said…
Wow. I'd like to see that. That's like asking Einstein to give up his cardigan or Super Man to ditch his cape.

- Him
Laura said…
Because I know I'm essentially brain dead in the morning, I do absolutely EVERYTHING the night before. Pack the bag, lay out the clothes, get the food together. Anything that can go into the car, gets put there. Anything that stays in the house that I can't forget, I put with my car keys (which oftentimes means putting my car keys in the refrigerator).

I also invested in those bags that you use when packing/camping to keep things separate. So, I've got a toiletries bag, a swim bag, a misc. workout bag... things that never change from workout to workout and that I never use outside of working out, if that makes sense. Makes it easy to have all that packed up and ready to go.

Of course, I still forget things. But since I drive to the gym, I also keep extras of a lot of things in the car, just in case. :)