Travel is a chance to decompress, soak in new experiences, be present, and embrace everything around you that’s different from your day-to-day life. For me, it’s also an important opportunity to engage with movement in new ways. I don’t believe vacation is a time to take a break from movement (unless you’re injured or burnout). Why would I want to remove something that adds so much value to my life?
Here is what I prioritize when traveling and how I set expectations when I’m on the road.
1.) Move Every Day
Number one very simply is to move every day. I engage with movement every day. It seems a lot of people think about vacation, as a time to take a break from exercise or movement or from engaging with their athleticism. That’s something that’s really important for me. Why would I wanna take a break from something that adds so much value to my days and brings me so much joy?
I mix it up, I walk, I hike, I swim, whatever I have access to maybe some basic strength work. But I make sure to engage with my body. It’s good for my mind. Helps me stay active, and helps me feel good. It also allows me, to explore my athleticism. It doesn’t matter what the intensity is. I don’t necessarily chase, fitness during that movement. But I do engage with my athleticism and work to keep that as a stable, central consistent part of what I do on a daily basis, even when I’m on the road.
2.) Take a Break from Structure
This is something that athletes ask me all the time. When you go on a trip, what’s the training look like? What’s the schedule look like? I’m a big believer, and I’m pretty adamant about removing structure from the training schedule for the time period that we’re on vacation or traveling. And I think it’s important for a couple of reasons.
One, I think it’s important because there’s a certain mental weight that comes with executing a structured training plan. It’s an important part of our journey as athletes, and it’s an important part of reaching our goals. But it does carry a weight day in and day out, knowing that there are things in the schedule that need to get done, managing that time, managing those expectations. And so I think it’s important to give that weight the respect that it deserves. And when there’s an opportunity to take a break from that weight, it helps with sustainability. It helps keep you excited and keep you motivated when it is time to stick to that structured training plan. So that’s the first reason I like to integrate those breaks and travel is the perfect time to do that.
The other reason is that I think it’s a good opportunity to tap into how our body feels. When we have a structured training program, oftentimes we execute that because we know that it’s the right approach and we trust that training plan, but we don’t get the opportunity to check in with our bodies. What feels best for the day? What’s the type of movement that really satisfies my mood, and how I’m feeling? It’s a good opportunity. It’s healthy to wake up and think about what feels right today. And so when I’m traveling, I use that as an opportunity to really check in with myself.
3.) Embrace Change
What I mean by this is a couple of things. One, embrace what you have available. I can’t tell you how much time and energy I’ve spent and maybe even wasted on some trips trying to procure a bike, for example, and route, find and go through all these hoops to try to get in and stick to a training plan and schedule that is the same or similar to what I was doing when I was at home. Now, of course, if the objective of the trip is to experience that area, that terrain via something like a bike or runs or whatever it is, by all means, go to that trouble. But if it feels forced, that’s when I think we can embrace some change. That might be, again, switching up how we engage with our training, with our physicality, with our athleticism. Swimming, hiking, running, if you don’t typically run, walking around, seeing things, whatever it was or whatever it is, take a chance to just embrace it and know that it’s okay
The second area where I think it is good to embrace change is when we return. So if we take time away from training in the way that’s typically structured, then I think we need to make sure to set our expectations for what it feels like when we get home. We might feel a little rusty. So, for instance, I got back in the swing of things as soon as I got home and it took about a week to ease back into things. I knew that it was going to feel like maybe I’d lost some fitness. I was going to feel maybe a little stiff, maybe I was going to feel a little bit more winded. I feel like it took a little longer to get going and that’s okay. We’re going to embrace that change as well and know that things come back quickly. So I got back at it this week and things are starting to click again. It only took a handful of days to get things moving in the right direction, feeling like I was post-vacation. Part of that is because I committed to movement while I was gone.
I’m not as rusty as I would be if I had just taken that time completely off, I made sure to mix it up, embrace the change, engage with different activities, and check with my body in different ways while I was gone. I actually felt really good when I came back and felt rested and ready to hit it. So embrace the change, both when you’re there as well as when you come back and make sure to soak it all in, don’t put too much pressure on yourself, and roll with the punches.
Coach Taylor is the Founder of TEC and a lifetime endurance athlete. For more information on coaching services, or to schedule a free orientation call with an expert coach click below.
