Training: In Which I Drag My Lazy Butt To the Gym

Torrential rains and wet leaves kept me indoors.

It all starts innocently enough: the post-race slacking; the acquisition of the client with the daily conference call right in the middle of your traditional workout time; the winter weather. And then, suddenly, you realize that it’s the second day of December and you can’t remember the last time you ran.

Of course, by “you” I actually mean “me.”

So today, as the boys were challenging each other to a wickedly competitive game of Wii ping pong, I decided to venture out into the torrential downpour and hit the gym. Yes, I know that Californians have a different idea of downpour than the rest of the world, but this was actually enough rain and wind to topple a fairly significantly sized tree in my backyard. No outdoor workouts in this weather.

Every time I go to the gym, it reminds me of why I don’t like going to the gym. Today it was crowded cardio machines and TVs featuring nothing but football and Fox News. Nothing makes me less inspired to stay on an elliptical (the only machine available at the time) quite like football or belligerent news personalities shouting at me.

So I did the only sensible thing. I plugged in my headphones and listened to Dimity and Sarah’s podcast. Maybe it’s because I’ve met them in person, but it always feels like the podcast is somehow just the three of us sitting in a room together (or four, if there’s a special guest), gabbing about that week’s topic. It’s like going to the gym with friends. And while I don’t get the visual impact of an hour of Hugh Laurie* on House reruns, it still keeps me going.

There are 16 days left in the month before my official holiday shutdown. My goal, between now and then, is to try to get out of the house and run or go to the gym at least three days a week. Yes, that’s a huge dropoff from my usual five or six days a week, but right now I don’t need the added guilt and pressure that I feel when I can’t make the schedule work. And don’t think that I’m above doing physical therapy exercises during conference calls; if it comes down to to it, that’s what I’ll do. Either that or figure out some way to fit a treadmill desk in my office, like @delfuego.

So, how about you? Slacking or working hard?

* Full disclosure: I vastly prefer goofy Hugh with his actual accent from the “A Bit of Fry and Laurie” days, but they don’t exactly run reruns of that on gym cable, so I’ll take what I can get.