Hello,
I was wondering, those of you who travel for work/business frequently, say a few times a month or more how do you get your training in? What schedules or ideas do you come up with to get the training when visiting different cities, town, or countries? Does your training while traveling (business) still allow you to reach your race goals?
things that I try* to do:
Is it optimal, no. But if I can keep a decent diet on the road and log miles exploring the city then I consider it pretty successful.
I don’t travel THAT much. But, I always run. Either on the treadmill in the hotel “gym” or on the road—typically must be done early AM, because evenings almost always end up as customer meeting/dinners.
Road vs. treadmill depends on the location. Sometimes I end up in some pretty sketchy places…at least, places where I might not be comfortable alone in the dark at 5-6am.
When I was in Israel, I swam in the ocean, and there was a competition lap pool within walking distance. if I have a car, I will lookup a local lap pool and try and get in a swim or two. I’m always happy if I can get in ONE swim a week. Two is gravy. Swimming with the fishes in 40 ft deep water in the Mediterranean was a bucket list type experience. I got to do the same thing once in Northern New Zealand (Goat Island for any Kiwis).
I’ve ridden the exercise bikes in the hotel gym. I’ve never tried to rent a bike, or take mine with me. Although, I did consider renting a bike on my last scheduled trip to New Zealand…but, the trip was cancelled.
Running is by far the easiest thing to do when traveling. If you have a Garmin Connect account, you can look at a map for where you are staying and see where the most popular running routes are located.
Either way, traveling interferes with my training schedule. It’s a little easier when going west due to the time zone difference making it easier to get up earlier.
I’ve dropped into spinning classes if I have time. Just depends on how flexible the project is. You wind up with a bag of sweaty clothes but it’s easy to manage if you’re use to traveling.
I’m only on the road about once a month but here is what works for me:
Thank you for the ideas and suggestions
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I don’t do a ton of travel but I def am hardcore about using small hotel gym treadmills and bikes when I do.
YMCA works great for swimming.if schedule permits.
I too have started to travel every other week.
My solution so far has been using the hotel treadmill + packing/using stretch cordz for swimming. I also have done some strength training and “deceive” myself that traveling is good because it forces me to do strength training.
Not ideal, but not a disaster either.
As others have stated, get on the plane a bit overloaded. If I travel either Europe or Far East, I usually run after checking in to the hotel after arrival, as it seems to reset my body clock and I have far less issues with time changes. I love to run in other places and usually just wing it as I have a very good internal GPS, but Garmin is also great for that. For swimming, I have used the phone app SwimRadar with great success, as it give you pools locally, contact info and often links to websites. You can do that prior to a trip or when you actually get there as it uses the location on the phone to search. I’ve found some awesome pools! I have had some week long trips in the US where I actually opted to drive and took my bike and trainer and set it up in the room. Since I traveled alone, it was my option to ride whenever I wanted which was nice.
As others have said, running os by far the easiest and I have found it’s a great way to explore a new city. One of my favorite things, and I now regret I did not keep track of all the spots I’ve run all over the world. Hope this was of some help…
I travel every other week for 3 - 5 days.
It was easier when I had a gym membership at LA Fitmess and could select my hotel to be close to a gym. I could swim, bike and run on gym equipment.
The places I travel to most frequently don’t have LA Fitnesses or any national chain near them now. So, I dropped my membership.
For domestic travel:
I prefer red eyes so I can get in a big training day the day of travel and then a light spin or a few minutes of band work the evening of arrival.
I sleep on planes. I don’t do work. I don’t watch movies. I sleep. I think this is key. Blackout mask and if it’s noisy I put in ear plugs.
I run everyday. I usually will wait for the third day to do any intervals. Early mornings mostly. If I bag the morning workout I skip drinks at the bar, get a run in and meet for dinner. If it’s an early dinner I run late at night.
I will do hotel bikes most evenings (while watching Netflix) and maybe 10 minutes of bands. I bought a beater bike and trainer that I leave at my head office. But only because the hotel I stay at doesn’t have a gym.
I swim as often as I can while at home. In particular I will try to get a 3 or 4 day streak going before travel if I cannot find a pool in advance. Swimmers guide.com is helpful for finding pools. If I am within a week or two of a race I go out of my way to stay near a pool.
For overseas travel I do the same as above except I will run as soon as I land. Typically I can leave my bags go for a run and my room will be ready by the time I am back. It is harder to find hotels with gyms when I am in Europe (excluding Germany where it’s easy and you can find hotel/spas with lap pools). I will rent the commuter pay by the minute bikes just to get a spin in, but mostly I just run and do bands.
I will also shuffle rest days and recovery weeks around to coincide with travel. This way I don’t get too fussed if I downgrade or skip a workout.
It’s comoletely doable. Really if you are going to be away from family and friends, be more selfish than usual. Take it as an opportunity to extend a run or add a workout. Just avoid getting sick. I carry with me sanitizer and during cold season I contemplate being one of those people wearing a mask (haven’t yet).
Good luck!
Totally with you here. I enjoy running in new locations and it’s fun to go back to the training log to record a run in a distant location. If I have time, I’ll use Strava or Garmin Connect to examine heatmaps of running where I’ll be. Sometimes I’ll create some runs using tools that allow download of the course to my Garmin. Or, if I speak the local language, I’ll look for websites from local running clubs - they often have ready to go courses that can be downloaded to my Garmin. I use the hotel gym some, too - but I’d much rather be outside. Bigger picture? I don’t expect to get super specific training in while on travel - I aim for tempo pace runs compatible with sightseeing and, often, running in urban areas with crowded sidewalks, traffic lights, etc… For me, it’s too frustrating to aim for a detailed/technical workout in an environment that is unlikely to support it.
Totally with you here. I enjoy running in new locations and it’s fun to go back to the training log to record a run in a distant location. If I have time, I’ll use Strava or Garmin Connect to examine heatmaps of running where I’ll be. Sometimes I’ll create some runs using tools that allow download of the course to my Garmin. Or, if I speak the local language, I’ll look for websites from local running clubs - they often have ready to go courses that can be downloaded to my Garmin. I use the hotel gym some, too - but I’d much rather be outside. Bigger picture? I don’t expect to get super specific training in while on travel - I aim for tempo pace runs compatible with sightseeing and, often, running in urban areas with crowded sidewalks, traffic lights, etc… For me, it’s too frustrating to aim for a detailed/technical workout in an environment that is unlikely to support it.
I only wish Garmins existed the decades ago I started running everywhere. It would be an interesting career history…Cliffs of Dover to China Sea, Singapore, France, so many awesome spots. Too old not to even remember all the places…
I travel quite frequently for work. I’ve travelled 4 out of the past 5 weeks and tend to average at least once a month. If I have a bit of advanced notice of travel, I try to build my training around it so that it becomes a rest week. That way I can just do a little bit of running and use the hotel exercise bike/hire a bike.
When travel is frequent or at short notice I just do what others have mentioned and smash the training on the days either side of the training and do my best to run and exercise bike while away.
Preparation is really the key. Do some research about safe running and riding areas, make sure the hotel has a gym. Check if there are bike hire places nearby, some will even deliver the bike to your hotel prior to your arrival. For a longer trip consider the practicalities of packing your own bike.
For me the swim always suffers when I travel. Maybe I allow it to suffer because it is my least favorite training. I find often there is no 50m pool nearby and I hate swimming in a 25m pool. I also hate sharing a lane. I think I am just spoilt at my local pool.
I’m out 3 nights a week, every week. As others have said, find hotels with decent bikes or use my LA Fitness membership to visit area clubs (can usually find one). Most LAFs have pools, but I also carry a swim band to use in hotel pols as a last resort. Running is the easy part. Planning is the key.
Overall then yes it’s absolutely possible to reach your race goals while travelling. But does depend on just how much travel and what your goals are. I know people who have to do some serious amounts of long haul travel, and where wining and dining clients when you get there is part of the job. That sort of schedule simply isn’t compatible with training 15-20 hours/week and qualifying for Kona for example. But if your goals are a little more modest, and the travel is a bit more sensible, then you can manage it pretty well. Travel can actually be a good thing sometimes - no family or chores, hotel gym/pool on your doorstep, and typically little to no commute time (assuming you’re staying at a hotel next to where your work is) can mean more time for training.
I find travel isn’t to bad for training-as others have said I just smash the bike before leaving and have a day or two of hard runs, the swim is hit and miss. The hardest part is diet-if I see another scrambled eggs, bacon and mushrooms I’ll loose it.
The only other alternative is muesli which isn’t that bad I guess, but when your morning routine is a blend of oats, chia, fruit, protein etc it’s annoying to be faced with crap.
X1000 what has already been posted. Get your heavy volume Swim and Bike training in before your trip. Although some states like Florida, their hotels have great outdoor pools; indoor hotel pools are small and over-chlorinated. The Gaylord Palms in Florida has a 75-meter long outdoor pool. One day when everyone was at happy hour, I was happiest swimming in that. So if you’re visiting SoCal, Arizona, or Florida, doesn’t hurt to throw a pair of goggles and swim trunks in your suitcase, which take up little room.
But as stated above, Running is the best. Ask the concierge desk where the running trails are, or check Strava heat map for the area.
*** Many hotel gyms look clean BUT AREN’T! They don’t sanitize them regularly. I got a nasty ring worm rash on the back of my leg from a gym exercise bike. I’ve travelled all over North America the last 5 1/2 years and in a nutshell I can definitely say, business travel sucks for consistent Triathlon training. You just make the best of it.
Great advice here. I’ve been into fitness and healthy eating for 10-15 years. So when I would travel long ago I would have the same concept…research the area, restaurants, etc… nowadays you have some decent bars that you can take with you.
Hello,
Does your training while traveling (business) still allow you to reach your race goals?
If you are looking at it from a high performance / front of pack type goal setter…
Eventually you will be forced to take risks in your training that others don’t have to. Backing up multiple tough run workouts. Taking a chance on a hard workout with less than adequate recovery pre and post workout. Being in public spaces with a compromised immune system…
You can follow orthodoxy in training and simply miss a fair amount of training due to your travelling. But when you reach the max potential with those missing workouts, that is where the dice must be rolled. Backing up longer run with another longer run because you are on the road and can’t bike. Backing up a harder bike ME session with a longer bike AE session because you are on the road later that week. You get the drift. Those working with 7 days a week don’t have to make these decisions.
Good Luck, whatever your goals.