Thursday, August 12, 2010

Building Exercise Into Your Commute

The past few days I've felt a little bit restless, sorta like a dog that needed to be walked.

I was wondering what was going on, when I realized that I am, in fact, like a dog that needs to be walked.

You see, I've had to drive to work the past couple days. And generally, I take the train to work, which involves about 5 miles of walking (.8 miles to the train station then 1.75 miles to work and then back again.) In fact, I walk to work, and then after work change into my running clothes and run the way back.

As a result, I'm in probably the best shape of my life.

When exercise is built into your commute, you can't procrastinate it, or avoid it. If I don't walk, I don't get home.

Now, it's not a pretty walk really. In fact, people who know the area are sometimes taken aback that I walk it. There are short parts of it where there is no sidewalk, and I'm forced to trespass through parking lots to avoid walking in the middle of the road. At these times, I channel my inner Beany getting annoyed at all the drivers and the wide swathes of the road we have allotted them, leaving none for little old pedestrian me.

And it makes for a long commute, especially in the evening where I have to wait a good while for a train.

But I can honestly say that I am so much happier with my commute than I would be stuck in a car in rush hour traffic. I love having time to read on the train. I love that I am getting good exercise. And I REALLY love that I don't have to pay an arm and a leg for a gym membership.

Once again: what's good for the planet is good for me. Funny how that works so much of the time, isn't it? ;)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

At this point in my life my "commute" consists of staggering down the hall from my bed to my computer! But I admit I'm a bit jealous of people who get to walk somewhere as part of their daily routine. Sort of like walking to and from school used to be in my childhood. When I was working it was never a possibility since I never got off work before 10pm after the buses stopped running, and 8 miles on foot at midnight seemed like a bad idea...

I guess I'll just have to content myself with trips to the grocery store and post office on bike and foot!

Clarissa said...

This is precisely why I never drove a car in my life. People like to think that it's somehow impossible to survive without a car and get very confused when I tell them that life without driving can be healthier and cheaper.

Since I moved to the Midwest, it's been harder to adapt to this anti-pedestrian lifestyle, but it's still doable.