As we continue to have wonderful weather here in Denver (and I continue to rub everyone’s face in it) I see more and more runners out at lunchtime pounding the Denver asphalt. I’m glad that they’re out there running while I’m filling up on Jimmy John’s and dollar cookies from the hole-in-the-wall bakery because they motivate me to get out and run when I get home. I envy them being out there running while I’m walking back to my office, trying to figure out how I got mayonnaise on my breast pocket and if it’s worth the condescending glances to untuck my shirt and lick it (it is). I do however wonder how it’s possible to run at lunch, so if some of you run during your lunch break then please let me know how you do it because I have some questions.
It seems like there would be a number of obstacles to overcome. First of all, do you change into your running gear at the office or do you wear your running clothes to the office? If so, do you keep wearing them all day even after they are sweaty from your run?
Speaking of sweaty, do you shower after your run? Is your work so nice that they provide you with a shower? Or are you the stinky person in your office that everyone avoids like the plague. Every office has one.
How far do you run? Unless you’re taking a long lunch or are a lot faster than me (in which case shut up) then it doesn’t seem like you’d have the time to run very far. After you add up the time you spend to change into and out of your running gear and the time you spend showering and the time you spend waiting for your Garmin to find a satellite how can you possibly have more than 30 minutes to run?
Why do you judge the guy with the mayonnaise on his breast pocket? He’s a runner too!
I don’t think there’s anyway I could become a lunchtime runner. I’m either wearing a suit and tie or business casual depending on the day so I’d have to find a place to change clothes. (I do have an office with a door, but it has a glass wall so that wouldn’t work, and I hate trying to change in the men’s room.) I’d also need a place to shower after my run and the only logical choice seems like a nearby gym, but a gym membership is way too expensive for the privilege of running outside at lunchtime. Besides, when would I make questionable food choices if I spent my lunch hour running?
I eat at Jimmy Johns all the time, love the place. My guess is you hit up the one on Broadway though? What's this "hole in the wall bakery" that you are refering to? I'm already addicted to the Chocolate Chip Cookies from Paradise, so I may not want to know.. well maybe I do if they are better.
ReplyDeleteI think most people who run at lunch have some kind of gym at their place of work. At least, that's what I always have imagined. I would love to be able to run int he middle fo the day, but alas, it's too freakin hot to run in FL in the middle of the day.
ReplyDeleteOff to run right now. All of your criteria are met at my place of work (locker, shower) Plus a flexible work schedule that allows for longer lunches. Not to mention the 'scenery' on the Boulder Creek Trail for motivation.
ReplyDeleteI have NO idea how anyone who works gets their run on during lunch. I'd be too afraid of stanking everyone out.
ReplyDeleteI've wondered the exact same thing. My work doesn't have a shower or locker room, but I'm not sure I'd even want to use it. The clowns here can't even keep the coffee pots clean. I don't even want to know what a shower would look like.
ReplyDeleteThree out of the four runs I do a week are at lunch. My employer is nice enough to have showers and a locker room on-site, so that is a huge help. I run 3-4 miles usually, but now that I am training for a marathon, I will be getting up to 7 or 8 miles in the next few weeks. At my pace, that will be an hour and ten or twenty minutes of just running. Fortunately, Work is very cool about it, so long as I put in my 40 hours a week. Nobody's looking over my shoulder, as far as I know, and if anybody ever questioned me I could say a) the company paid my registration for this marathon and b) if you still have a problem, bub, consider this extra time my "smoke breaks." We have plenty of people who take 20 minute smoke breaks and lunch and coffee breaks and.....
ReplyDeleteWe have a shower at work, and also very relaxed lunch breaks, so I do run at lunchtime from time to time. However, I certainly would not judge anyone licking mayonnaise from their own shirt. Just stay away from mine.
ReplyDeleteI used to run during my lunch hour, at a previous job. I could usually squeeze in 4 miles. I would change at the office and went through a lot of lotion and spray to mask the stink...
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's why nobody ever invited me to meetings in the afternoon.
My main question is about lunch itself. When do you eat?
ReplyDeleteI've heard people say they take sink baths. That's exactly what I want to walk into: Fred, with his shirt off wiping himself down with the paper towels.
No thanks.
Why do you judge the guy with the mayonnaise on his breast pocket? He’s a runner too!
ReplyDeleteLook, now that I know it was mayo, I'm not judging you anymore. At first, I though you were on your way back from a gay porn video shoot and that stuff on you pocket was ... something else. Still, I didn't judge you.
But then you licked it.
But now I know it was mayo, okay. I'm back to not judging you.
Unless you're lying and it WASN'T mayo!!1!
Glass office walls? Dude, you could pull a Harrison Ford in Working Girl. Though your co-workers perhaps would not respond the way you would want them to.
ReplyDeleteI have a running trail right across the street from my office and it pains me to see all the people from neighboring buildings heading out for lunch runs. They must have showers in their offices b/c I've already scouted out the public-access bathrooms in those buildings looking for facilities. The best I can do is go for brisk walks over lunch b/c I refuse to be the "sink bath guy."
ReplyDeleteI haven't figured out how to run at lunch for the reasons you mention (except the whole mayonnaise thing. I hate that stuff!), but I've found that running home from work is a good alternative. I even get my wife to carry my backpack for me when it's feasible (and reciprocate in kind), which works out quite nicely. Of course, I have the luxury of living withing running distance of work, and have no idea if that is the case for you.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, I've often wondered how people manage to run at lunch. I only get half an hour, and most days not even that, so for me it's not feasible. Oh well, the after work runs are great too.
ReplyDeleteI have walked in on the sink bath woman, and I think she was doing a little more than "bathing."
ReplyDelete*shudder*
At my old work we had a shower but it was too much of a hassle to get everything done in an hour (change, workout, shower, eat, not fall asleep).
I run at lunch and it only works because we have a very flexible schedule during the noon hour and we have a shower room.
ReplyDeleteI've run at lunch once so far and although our office has a place to shower, i wouldn't have time to deal with my hair so I used those disposable cleansing clothes (I wanna say Dove makes them maybe?) and left my hair in a pony tail the rest of the day.
ReplyDeleteI'd only consider lunch running in the middle of winter because otherwise it'd require a full shower and there's no time for that.
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ReplyDeleteMy job provides me with lockers and showers. I'm spoiled. And going out for a 30 minute run is better than no run...
ReplyDelete(I'm also close to bike trails and get to bike to work during the warmer months. Yay for showers at work!)
I run at lunch fairly regularly during the spring, summer and fall. In winter it is too cold.
ReplyDeleteThere are showers at my work, but like someone else posted, I must work with barn animals based on the microwave/fridge and even bathroom cleanliness (or lack thereof) so I do not typically use it.
I find the stench I create after a run really makes for more productive/faster meetings! This is good.
Oh yes and for days when I care about any person I might be meeting in the afternoon, Lever 2000 wipes are AWESOME. They really are pretty good at taming some of the stink.
My real worry is getting my "casual" cloths stinky. Finally, I guess I am also pretty lucky in that it takes about 85 degree's before I break a sweat because I am so slow and/or my sweat glands are so lazy.
Good luck!
I am lucky and have a gym provided by the company. We have dreadmills that I use for speed work during lunch about 3x a week. I don't have time to wash my hair after a run, but I usually find that re-applying gel or hairspray fixes the hair and I just shower without getting my hair wet to kill the stench.
ReplyDeleteMy last two places of employment (before staying home with kids) both had showers/locker rooms. I could get in a fast 3.5 to four mile run, take a quick shower, put my hair in a bun, and be back at work in an hour. Thankfully, I was a librarian, so the bun look worked for me, but I did try to schedule my reference desk duty before lunch, not after. ;o)
ReplyDeleteI have had the same questions plus the "when do I eat" dilemma (I do love to eat and really couldn't survive the afternoon w/o lunch). Mainly, for me, it's the distance. I average 6.5 miles per run, somewhere between 52 and 58 minutes, depending on how I feel. Add in changing before, showering and dressing after, and eating lunch and I end up with a long lunch hour. I think I'll stick with early mornings.
ReplyDeletei have thought about running at lunch, but all those issues are mine as well - no shower, change in men's room (though it is quite large), and afternoon stank. I could get 3 or 4 in at 10min pace, but then you still have to eat at your desk and pretend you are working at the same time. Work is cool and would probably let it slide until a server bombed.
ReplyDeleteI've done it. I used baby wipes to de-stankify a little bit. If it didn't work, no one told me ;)
ReplyDeleteah, I used to have a nice clean shower at my old work and I took the best lunch runs b/c my employer didn't care as long as we got our work done. now I have no such luck with a shower at work and therefore my lunch runs are nothing but a distant memory.
ReplyDeleteI work in DC and run during lunch often. We have a a gym in my building of which I'm a member as well as a separate locker room with shower for anyone to use. I have a flexible schedule and am allowed to take a long lunch to get my run in. I go anywhere from 3-6 miles depending on how I'm feeling. Then I eat at my desk afterwards while working.
ReplyDeleteI refuse to believe this was a post about running during lunchtime. You want a Jimmy Johns sponsorship, don't you?
ReplyDeleteA lunch hour?
ReplyDeleteWhat is that?
Baby wipes are the key for the no shower post lunch time run! Practice your transitions (I mean clothes changing) and you can squeeze a 45 min run in at lunch and not have to worry about getting mayo on your clothes!
ReplyDeleteI'm lucky I guess. I have a flexible work schedule and a choice between using the shower in my building or going to my gym, which is also in my building, to change and shower. Our managers are very supportive of us working out. I wouldn't do anything longer than an hour run though. Anything more than that and I fit it in before or after work.
ReplyDeleteI'm very fortunate that my boss allows me to come in earlier so I can take a longer lunch. My gym is 5 minutes from the office and I'm able to get in 35 minutes (4-4.5 miles) before it's time to go back to work.
ReplyDeleteOn days when I'm running late and a shower would make me really late...I have a package of baby wipes in my gym bag.
I'm addicted to my lunch run, it makes the rest of the day zoom by...
I do the run at lunchtime about once a week. I am a YMCA member and there is one 2 minutes from my office. Can normally fit in 5 to 6 miles, a shower and a sandwhich at my desk when I get back. Takes about 1:20.
ReplyDeleteWhile I envy the lunchtime runner, I keep telling myself they're slackers & gross. Yay for you to get in 3 miles on your lunch "hour." But you KNOW they didn't have time to shower off (stinky) and they probably took a longer lunch than I did (slacker!). ;)
ReplyDeleteThere are too many logistical issue for lunch running for me to actually do it. Issue #1 is that I can't count on always having time for lunch.
ReplyDeleteI live in DC and run during my 1 hour lunch break (no more no less). 5 minutes to get changed into my running clothes, 45 minutes to run around tourists and monuments (ends up being 20 minutes as far as I can one way, then 25 on the way back), then 10 minutes to get as sweat-free as possible back in the office.
ReplyDeleteTo get sweat-free: A towel, baby powder and dr. scholls foot powder to dry up moisture/odor, deodorant, a few spritz's of perfume/cologne, and you'll be good to go.
I run at lunch two times a week. The maximum distance I can get in is about 4 miles. Then I shower (I work in a hospital, with showers and lockers -- woohoo!)) and head back to work. Strictly speaking, we only get 30 minutes for lunch but I usually eat at my desk on the other days and work plenty of overtime, so there's really no time lost.
ReplyDeleteI don't wash my hair -- it would take forever to dry -- and this does sometimes cause me to be distracted during afternoon meetings when instead of listening to "the big presentation" I find myself musing about whether my hair smells.
Lunchtime running is a great pick-me-up ... I spend the afternoon incredibly energized.