By way of summary, I should mention that I like to work out, mostly by lifting weights. I’m currently doing a ‘five day split’, which is when you work out a single muscle group (arms, back, etc) each day, then rest over the weekend.

Until yesterday, I tried to get to the gym around lunch time. This meant I had to eat something energetic at about 11am, then digest a bit, drive to the gym, change, bust my ass for about an hour, then shower, changed back and drive back to my office. In total, the workout part was taking about an hour and 45 minutes – which is a really long lunch time. It also interfered with my work flow, interrupting anything I was doing in the morning.

So, I decided to change things around. Early this morning I drove directly to the gym, in gym clothes (which saved me my morning shower and prep time), worked out, then showered/shaved/etc, all in time to get into my office for my 8:30am meeting. As it turns out, it worked out perfectly: the traffic was fairly light, and the gym relatively uncrowded. Time from wake-up to warm-up was about an hour. On the other hand, I underestimated how long it would take me to shave, etc, so even though I skipped my last exercise (lat pulldowns, I hate ’em, so didn’t terribly mind), I barely made it to the meeting in time.

Pros:

  • Done with workout by 8:30am
  • Added at least 30 minutes to my day (save one shower, one undress, and one office-gym drive)

Cons:

  • Had to wake up at 6:00am, which is about 90 minutes earlier than I’m used to. This meant I had to go to bed earlier too. TANSTAAFL.
  • Only time for one delicious espresso. The rest of breakfast was eaten while driving.
  • My body needs to adjust – it wasn’t expecting to be mistreated before lunch
  • I need to adjust my eating habits – can’t exercise without some fast carb energy infusion.