Running and fitness sure seems to involve a lot of stuff.
As a kid my two favorite things were pockets in my clothes and cubby holes for stuff. THIS is my fantasy apartment so as you can imagine I have been trying to figure out how best to organize my fitness gear for a long time. I finally came up with a two-step organizational system. I’ve actually been using if for awhile so it definitely works well for me but the topic keeps coming up so I figured I’d blog about it. It’s a two-part organizational system for running/workout necessities. I find when all my stuff is together I don’t make excuses and stick to my workout plan.
This sits on top of my dresser. It’s a Plano tackle box I bought at Walmart for around $9.
The top tray is gels: little pouches of sugar and carbs I take every 45 minutes or so during a race or training if I’m going for longer then an hour. These gels are all from Gu Energy but there are many other manufacturers out there.
The bottom of the container includes:
- Icy Hot stick
- A&D rash cream- for chafing
- Hand Sanitizer- just because
- Tylenol bottle
- Immodium bottle
- Ezy Dose Disposable Pill Pouches (because if you carry Tylenol and Immodium you’ll never need them. But if you don’t…LOL)
- Roll of Medipore Tape
(or Micropore Tape) it’s really easy to remove
- Duct Tape- this is a huge roll, I usually grab a half-used roll and pull out the middle cardboard section
- Sunblock
- Gum
- Chapstick with SPF
- Body Glide- prevents chafing
- Deodorant
- Black Sharpie
- Moleskine
- Neosporin
- Headlamp- for night running
- Extra batteries for the headlamp
The convenient thing about having everything in a portable container is that I can pull it out and throw it in my car trunk when I go for long runs. Since I tend to run alone if I have to go any farther then about 3 miles I park my car somewhere central and do three mile loops around it. If anything comes up like blisters, spots that seem “hot” and prone to chafing (particularly around my sportsbra) I can always pull over and adjust. My goal for races is to finish, my goal for individual runs is to work hard but still set myself up well so I can run another day. Blisters and chafe spots can really affect that.
You’re probably thinking this can’t possibly be everything. It’s not. For one thing I hoard sunblock like I’m preparing for the end of the world so this is just stuff I replenish from a Rubbermaid bin I keep inside my closet on the floor.
As for clothes, I have a pretty big drawer full of workout clothes. When the drawer starts overflowing I take that as a sign and start donating to charity.
Tags: CarbKiller, gu organizer, how to organize running gear, running fuel