What I Tried This Week: Sticking to Training on Vacation

Sticking to my training schedule has become a force of habit over the course of a number of racing seasons. I have carved out non-negotiable times in my day where I ensure that my intervals, tempos and long runs are completed to prepare for my races. The only time this truly is challenged is when I go on vacation

I still stand by the fact that the best way to see a new place is to run it and I have taken this seriously, with some of my more memorable runs being on a busy Florida interstate because I missed a turn, up the Bright Angel Trail at the Grand Canyon at sunrise and through a field of cows in Wisconsin because I got lost. (It is a miracle I am able to complete adventure races with my track record with directions.)
Occasionally though, I will end up at a vacation destination with a tight schedule or an inability to run due to injury or unfavourable running trails. This past week, I had both – I found myself with a short beach line in Mexico with stress fractures and a flu.
The first day was a travelling with a 4 am start with a midnight ending so I wrote it off as a rest day. The second day, I was determined to get a solid workout session in and I grabbed my pool belt and my GPS watch and did an interval workout in the ocean. The third day, I came down with a flu and remained ill for three days with my biggest workout being the movement between the patio hammock and my bed.

When I returned to the land of the living again, I did a bit of rethinking of my vacation workout schedule. I had planned a number of quality sessions over the week and decided to scrap them. Getting a flu on vacation for me suggests I have been operating on adrenaline and neglecting rest, so I took the remainder of the week off.
I went hiking.
I went snorkeling and surfing.
I took walks on the beach, but they were all in bare feet and my running shoes were left in the suitcase, untouched.

I came home from vacation and resumed my training, stronger than ever. Rest is something that is such a key component of training, and it is often the first to be neglected. Progress is often measured by action, so it is extremely difficult to wrap my mind around the fact that doing nothing is occasionally the best thing I can do to prepare my body for racing.
Keeping a regular training schedule is vital in order to compete in races as a healthy athlete, but the biggest thing I took away from last week was that it is occasionally just fine to deviate from the plan and not ruin your season. It is such a common sense concept, but it is so easy to forget.

Wishing you all a wonderful week of training and recovery!