Workout Wednesday: The Lunchhour Workout Survival Kit

My time is eternally crunched.  What I wouldn't give to buy back a few hours every day.  And what's worse, is that I hate to work out in the evenings and can often find excuses not to (Ya - you sooo didn't already know that if you've been following me for more than a couple of weeks).  And all it takes is the girlies not going to bed nicely and suddenly that evening workout is getting to be a more and more distant possibility.

Then there are the mornings.  I leave the house at 6:30am nowadays - morning workouts aren't always possible either.  Ok - they are possible on a weekday...if I get up at 3:30am AND provided I haven't had a 2am wakeup call with a midget.  So - almost never possible.

But I do have lunch.  But...lunch.  That's when I read.

<insert virtual bitchslap here>

Lunch workouts have enough going for them that I decided to seriously consider them as a savior for the working momma.

1) Langdon is flat...but the neighbourhood where my office is has lovely tree-lined streets, hills and straightaways.  I can do pretty much any kind of run and build more efficient workouts into each run.
2) If I workout at noon - I can lay in bed and read in the evenings (HUGE for me - read? sweat? Read will always win)
3) I have many coworkers who also enjoy getting their workouts in - instant partners

So I decided to bite the bullet and put together a Lunchhour Workout Survival Kit to keep in one of my drawers at work.

• baby wipes - for the post workout "shower"
• packable microfibre towel (if you have access to showers at work)
• extra socks
• extra shoes
• deodorant
• hairbrush
• Tube of Nuun
• A couple of gels
• extra headband, hair elastics and clips
• several resistance bands
• extra yoga mat (I actually found super cheap, thin ones at Dollarama for $3)

With this in my desk - I pretty much only need to pack changes of clothes for run days. If I bring them in at the start of the week - I am set.

To facilitate quick clothing changes - I pack my "normal" underwear in my bag and wear my workout ones.  This way I can just slip on my capris, tank and socks and I am ready to go. 

Now, for the types of workouts I can do from my office:

• Hill training through the neighbourhood
• 400m repeats along the flat asphalt path near my office
• Running the stairs by the c-train station (on nice days)
• Running the stairs of my building (on not so nice days)
• Playground circuit on the playground that can be seen from my window
• Plain ol' run around the neighbourhood
• Lunchtime walks for crosstraining (great for getting less-inclined coworkers to join you)

The possibilities are endless.

My coworker and I also found that the monthly workout challenges at Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans are great "coffee break workouts"   You can usually complete the workout for the day in 5-10 minutes and they are super effective and use very little equipment.

Do you workout at work?  What kinds of things do you do?  Do you have any other suggestions for the workout survival kit that I may have missed?