Running in Brisbane

I feel quite blessed to have my workplace in an area that is quite conducive to fitness. My office building is located near the Brisbane River. And along the riverside there is a bikeway/walkway that goes for kilometres right through to the various inner city suburbs of Brisbane.

View from the 3rd level parking lot

The track to the city

The gym used to be IT for me when it comes to fitness. My former workplace was flexible enough to allow me to have 2 hour lunch breaks. I used these times to go to the gym. Specifically, to attend group fitness classes. The gym was also only 10 minutes walk from my office building. 2 hours was more than enough for me to do my thing.

My gym bag and gear next to my plastic bamboo plant

But since I moved workplaces I have found it quite difficult to visit the gym. Not only is the gym far from where I work now but also I haven’t got as much spare time as I used to.

You might ask, why not do it early in the morning before work? I am not really a morning person, you see. So getting up too early to visit the gym is never going to happen. I might do it for a week or so but it will not be sustainable.

Why not after work, you ask? All I want to do is go home to my family after work. I spend too much time at work already. To add an hour or so of gym time to that is just not ideal. I prepare dinner most days. I can’t ask my family to wait an extra hour just because…

Lunch time is my only time to exercise. The answer then is to use what I’ve got, where I am! I’ve quit the gym! I have been running regularly since the beginning of this year. Again, thank God for the perfect location for this kind of fitness regime. I run approximately 8 kilometres at least 3 times a week. Being a neophyte, it takes me an hour to complete the course. Last week that was reduced to just 58 minutes. We’ll see how I go this week.

Walkway to the bike/walk track from the other side of the river. I do my stretches here.

My boss has graciously given me his old heart rate monitor to help me programme my running better. My new workplace also has a fitness check programme that regularly monitors the physical fitness of all employees. Some people might view it as a bit intrusive but I think otherwise. This program encourages me even more to do better at work.

Sign on the track showing distance to the two different directions you could take.