A Personal Trainer for Cheap -- or FREE

I'm working from home this month. Which means I have some more time in the mornings that I'm not spending commuting.

Am I using those extra few precious minutes to have a lie-in in the mornings? Oh no, dear reader. I'm putting the time to much better use.

I'm Using it to Drag My Butt Off My Couch

I was at a conference in France last month, and expressed my admiration to one of my coworkers who went out each morning jogging through the countryside. I always wanted to be a runner. Burns calories like crazy, and it's my favourite kind of budget activity -- free.

My coworker clued me in to Couch to 5K. This is a 9 week program that takes you through an easy progression from couch potato to running 5k three times a week (that's about 3 miles for you Americans).

I first went and checked out the originators of the program at coolrunning.com. They sell a complete program for a very reasonable price.

But I, of course, prefer FREE. So I did a little search online and found a few people who had put together podcasts that take you through the running progression. One in particular, which I'm using is from Robert Ullrey. His music is paced to keep me running. His voiceovers help me to keep track of where I'm at in my run, and what I have ahead of me. It's like have a personal training jogging alongside every morning.

I've just completed week three of the program, so It's early days. That's 9 runs in, out of 27 to get to 5k. And I find I look forward to the runs every morning.

Looking forward to my workouts is a big improvement over the personal trainer I hired a few months ago to come over and torture me in the mornings.

I know what you're thinkging. This website - and my lifestyle - are supposed to be about all things frugal.

But I say no. It's about how to enjoy the little luxuries frugally. And living here in Argentina, a Personal Trainer is a bargain. My trainer comes out to the house and works out with me for an hour, and charges me a total of about $9.00.

For those of you living in places where the going rate for a personal trainer is NOT under $10.00 an hour, I recommend the following: look for a workout buddy, or place an ad at your local college to find a phys. ed. student willing to work out with you for a discount.