How To Keep Your Training On Track While On Spring Break

By: Nikki Reiter

Most individuals will celebrate a vacation; however, along with catching the sights, going out for meals or keeping up with the kids’ activities, runners tend to feel a bit guilty about skipping out on their regular training routine. Getting in at least 30 minutes of cardiovascular activity each day should help you ward off detraining and allow you to return to your normal training schedule refreshed – isn’t that what a vacation is all about?

Try the following suggestions to help you feeling good about your training:

Plan Ahead – Try to use your vacation as a recovery cycle so you can be at peace with missing your runs knowing it’s time for regeneration.

Do Some Research – Check out where the locals run or talk to the concierge at the hotel. Better yet, search for the local running group to have someone to join on a group run and find out more about the area you’re visiting. Don’t be nervous, runners are a welcoming bunch!

Prepare – Headed to sunbathe and afraid it will be too hot? No problem. Try deep water running. Headed to a winter wonderland with poor footing? Try other aerobic activities such as cross-country skiing or snowshoeing. Worst-case scenario, find a hotel with a treadmill and practice running some intervals or a tempo at a goal pace.

Prioritize – Get your run done early in the day and get out of the way. With spending all that time with friends or family, it might be nice to wake up and have some alone time and then be ready for the day’s activities.

Mix It Up – Use your surroundings to switch things up. Running on the beach is much more difficult than the pavement, so you can go shorter and still get in a great workout. Try other forms of cross training to get your heart rate up. There are fitness gains to be made by changing up your workout

Race – Search the Internet to see if there’s a local race happening in your destination. You won’t feel as bad taking a few days off if you’re going to put in a race effort at some point during your trip.

In the end, remember that time away is great to regenerate both mentally and physically. Don’t worry too much if you miss a run or two – it’s vacation now isn’t it!

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Nikki Reiter is a Mizuno Running Brand Ambassador from Kelowna, BC.  She holds a master’s degree in biomechanics, coaches Cross Country at UBC Okanagan and is the founder of Run Right Gait Analysis Service (run-right.ca).