“How do you make it to the gym in the middle of the day?”

Reader Alishia asks about my post from the first day of school, "I'm just wondering how you make it to the gym in the middle of the day?"  I answered in the comments, here's a lengthier answer.

1.  It's an established routine for Monday mornings.  Monday's the only day I go during the school day.  We're all quite used to it by now, which makes it not at all difficult.  We go there directly from music class and get home at lunch time.

2.  I keep my gym bag packed and ready — and in the car — at all times, and always prepared either to run or to swim.  Crucial.

3.  My children are comfortable with the child care at the Y, where they have all been spending time since they were babies.   Until each one was comfortable being supervised by the staff, between 18 months and 2 years old or so, my husband and I took turns playing with them in the child care room while the other one exercised.  Obviously during that time I couldn't go during the school day.

4.  My 4th grader brings schoolwork which he is supposed to do while I am exercising, so as not to waste the hour.  I give him a checklist before I drop them off. 

We have been doing it this way for at least a year, so it's very smooth by now.   But I still tweak the procedure from time to time to improve it.  For example, since we get home right at lunchtime, it occurred to me this week that I ought to have lunch ready before I leave in the morning — so Monday while I made breakfast, I put some hot soup in a thermos and set out the bowls, spoons, and plates of crackers before we left.  That turned out brilliantly — we walked in the door, dropped our stuff, the kids went to the table and I poured the soup in their bowls.   So as you see things can always be made smoother.

I have never tried a schedule where I get to the gym like this several days a week — I stick to 3 workouts per week, and only one of them has to be during the school day right now — but I can do it several days a week if I need to.  After our baby is born this winter, I'll have to stick to evenings for a while as I do not, as a rule, leave newborns in child care.