Staying Fit While Traveling

I received a great request for tips to stay fit while traveling.  I love to travel, and with a little planning ahead, and realistic expectations I have never had a problem fitting in reasonable amounts of exercise—even when training for a marathon.

I think it is important to note that I never expect to maintain a rigorous daily exercise regimen while traveling, I mean I would rather spend time with friend or seeing amazing sights that spend time with a treadmill.  So I typically fit in every other day workouts, plus daily general exercise of some kind.  Enough to stay in shape, and whole heartedly and unabashedly indulging in all the delightful regional goodies—but that would be an entirely separate post! Although, you may remember my delight to enjoy a calzone bigger than me on vacation this summer.

This post will cover:

-tips for short trip

-tips for staying with friends with limited personal time and space

-tips for your typical vacation

-My experience and tips for training for a marathon while out of the country

-cheat sheet of travel friendly fitness items

Short trips

When I go home for a few days for thanksgiving or winter break or the rare and random other occasion, I always make sure to pack sneakers and workout clothes appropriate to the weather.  I always pack a couple of my favorite workout dvds. My ipod. Below is one of my best purchases ever.  A plug in ipod charger.  I bought it for a trip to Europe and now I use it daily at work.  I kind of want another one for home!  It is faster and the ipod holds the charge longer than plugging it in to the pc. Mine is Griffin, and cost $40—you can probably do better.

In addition, I take advantage of the fact that they have fittv. A channel I don’t get at home.

So workout dvds, running, and in the summer, swimming and biking, horseback riding are all options.  My dad is Mr. Super athlete, so he is always good for golfing, basketball or if I feel like having my self-esteem stomped out, tennis.  (memories of “bounce, hit Melissa, any idiot can do this” come to mind).  I also like to walk the dog and if I am feeling incredibly generous, mowing the lawn (a killer workout)-this hasn’t actually happened in the last 10 years.

If my nephew is over, he is always down for a WI workout or dance dance revolution-my 60-something parents are similarly addicted.

Also, if you are craving more traditional workouts, see if there is  a local gym with day rates or if someone in your family has guest passes lying around.

Oh, if your mom belongs to Curves, I am sure she would be happy to take you.  I haven’t ever gotten that desperate, but my mom is a twig, so I guess it is effective.

Tips for staying with friends with limited personal time and space

While for these types of weekend trips, you may opt to relish the time with friends over sneaking in a workout, if you are training for something or have fit-minded friends, the best thing: do not to be shy, ask in advance.

Obviously, if you are crashing on your friends coach, you may not want to bust out a workout dvd, and you probably have lots planned. So don’t discount the fact that you will be walking, the best exercise of all.  But it never hurts to mention that you would love to get in a run or two during your stay.  Your friend might be happy that she/he won’t have to miss their workout either.  In fact, I got to try my first hot yoga class while visiting a friend in dc. Plus, I always find it fun to run with a buddy in a new place.

So aain, it never hurts to ask. My friend is staying with me in a couple weeks, and she immediately said, I am training for a half and I will need to get in a couple runs.  Of course, I am happy to oblige.

Bonus: rip out some magazine workouts that don’t require equipment in case you have privacy and down time.

Tips for your typical vacation:

Try to get a hotel with a gym for early morning workouts.

Run around the area, run on the beach (great for the core, legs and butt!)

Bring equipment free magazine workouts.  I bring my NYC Ballet Workout book with me pretty much everywhere.

Engage in leisure exercise: walking, mini golf, regular golf, shopping, water skiing, hiking, rock climbing, skiing, kayaking, the list goes on.  Make staying fit fun and social!

Bonus: run in the stairwells of the hotel for a quick calorie burning workout that will have you back on the beach in no time.

You can see my routine for a beach vacay, it is actually a lot more than usual because I was just chilling with my parents for half of it and had plenty of free time. Posts can be found here (days Th.-Sun.) and here (days mon.-tues.).

Tips for trips out of the country

It is my firm belief that the exercise you get walking around and sightseeing like a crazy tourist will far exceed any traditional workout.  This was certainly true while I was in Spain for 4 months with out a gym and rarely the desire to go running when I could be walking all over exploring Spain, France, Italy or Portugal.  The many hours spent on your feet will make up for just about anything, even if you are staying with a very sweet Italian woman who insists on serving you five course meals—each prepared with copious amounts of EVOO, followed by gelato and then brings truffles to your bedside, not caring that you just brushed your teeth!

My experience/tips for training for a marathon out of the country

Bottom line: aim for 30-40 minutes every other day. Know that the 8 hours you usually spend at your desk, that you now have to be on your feet sightseeing will really help your endurance and stamina.

A few weeks after I signed up to run the San Francisco marathon with Team in Training and committed to raising $3900—by the way that is why I originally started the blog, I got offered a once in a lifetime opportunity.

My sister-in-law offered me an all expense paid, first class trip to Europe (Germany, Venice, Austria, Switzerland, Naples, Capri, Positano and Sorrento) with my own hotel suite in exchange for nannying my adorable 5 month old niece while she was on business for a week and a half and then having a whole week of vacation to enjoy Naples and the almafi coast.  Obviously, I basically passed out, before she even threw in the part italian shoes, sunglasses and dresses!

Clearly this isn’t the kind of thing that will ever happen again; however, at the time I was struggling to run 5 miles (the longest practice to date) and literally would feel sick all day because I was so nervous the weeknight practices.  Throughout my training I would have to mentally psych up for practice and long runs days in advance.  Even though I was usually fine when I got there, I was always terrified beforehand.

So I went to my coach to explain the situation and see if he thought I would still be able to complete the marathon if I missed three weeks of practice.  At the time I wasn’t even sure if I could finish the full without missing any practices, and found comfort in knowing I could always drop down to the half.  Coach Ramon immediately offered to come with me as my personal trainer.  Oh Ramon, be still my heart!  Then he said as long as I could jog 30 minutes every other day, I would maintain the fitness level I needed to pick up right where I left off.

In case you missed that, you will maintain your fitness level even with a very reduced amount of exercise, a little is all it takes to stay in shape.

I then discussed the 30 minutes every other day plan with my sister-in-law, who fortunately, was a very competitive skier and understood.  However, I was in charge of the darling baby from 6:00AM to as late as 10:00PM some nights, so I had to get up really early or sneak in a very quick run between the end of her work day and the nightly business dinner. Basically the first portion of the trip I got in about 4-5 30-40 minute runs.

In addition to this, I did Fitness Stay Slim on the Road workout out almost everyday.  I also spent close to four hours every single day on my feet every day exploring the towns and countries along Lake Constance or hiking up and down the stairs of Venice.  Having a baby and backpack strapped on at all times does significantly increase your caloric burn, but that is optional

When we arrived in Naples I was pretty much on vacation as my brother met us their to help out with the baby and  business was over.  Plus, my s-i-l’s cousin and aunt where incredible tour guides showing and feeding us all the Neapolitan and Almafi culture we could absorb and ingest…and sometimes much more. I found it much more enchanting to go the Italian boutiques, check out the castles or to relax by the sea in Positano than to run in the near 100 weather, so I only got in a few late night runs during the last week.

However, when I arrived back at my first practice in over 3 weeks.  I magically met two TNT members who became my running angels and are to this day incredibly close friends.  In fact, I am staying with one of them in London next month.   So anyways, before I left I had struggled to get through an eight mile long run practice, my first long run back, I ran 12 miles easily!  I didn’t want to stop chatting with the girls. It was incredible.  I was right where I would have been had I never missed a practice!  While adding more than a mile a week is not typically advised, the additional four was natural and I went with it.

Moral of the story, plan to fit in enough exercise  (natural or otherwise) to stay in shape while away, but make sure to enjoy your time as well.

Checklist for travel friendly fitness:

-take advantage of all the time you have to be away from a desk and on your feet—walk, walk, walk

-sightsee rigorously—blasting hundreds of calories per hour at the same time—doing it on foot rather than on tour bus will help you in this effort

-plan fun natural exercise activities including, but not limited to: hiking, golf, mini golf, sailing, water skiing, surfing, rock climbing, basketball, tennis, swimming, scuba diving, volley ball, beach walks and runs, skiing, snowboarding, snow shoeing, etc.

Easily packable items:

-Ipod

-Ipod charger for wall outlet (I have a Griffin-best purchase ever)

-sneakers

-weather appropriate workout clothes

-bathing suit

-Dyna band

-workouts torn out of magazines

-workout dvds

-misc. books such as the NYC Ballet Workout

Other things to look out for:

-FitTV

-one day gym passes, guest or daily fee

-friends that want to get in their workout and will take you along for a run or exercise class

-hotel stairwells or football field stairs

-Wi Fit and an energetic nephew

-opportunities for power shopping

-turkey trots