I love family trips. We do some weekends at our family cabin and even more weekends at out of town sporting events for my daughter’s soccer and basketball teams, but once or twice per year, we do a real family getaway. This year, we did family spring break at a swanky all-inclusive resort in Jamaica.
While this is not necessarily the kind of trip my friends would necessarily associate with me (I’m typically more of a snowshoe racing in Quebec kind of guy), this was just what our family needed to recharge the batteries. The Hyatt-Ziva in Rose Hall delivered!
There’s one not-so-minor conundrum that I face each time our family takes an extended trip. If you are like me, and I know many of you are, you already know that finding time to run while on vacation stresses me out. Should it? Maybe not, but it does. I’m a dedicated runner, who used to be a little compulsive, but family and work life have grounded and moderated me in healthier priorities. I just like to run. I feel better and I’m a better traveling companion when I get in an occasional vacation run.
Handled poorly, I inconvenience my family and feel guilty about having people wait around while “Greg goes for his run.” If I go a week with no exercise beyond trips to the all-you-can-eat buffet or pool bar, I get cranky. Handled well, “it’s no problem, mon,” as they say in Montego Bay. This week I got it right.
In six days at the resort, I ran three times. Twice I ran on the hotel treadmill for 30 minutes. Once, I got up early and ran for 45 minutes. Nobody, including me was stressed out about my absence. I didn’t think about working out all day long or fixate on some predetermined workout. I just utilized the amazing hotel gym for the purpose it was created—sweating a little, generating a little endorphin buzz, and maintain some fitness that’ll ease the post-vacation transition back to “normal” running.
Since the fall of 1986 when I missed the first week of 9th grade cross country for a family road trip out West, I’ve been unintentionally refining my recipe for vacation running, learning hard lessons, especially in my early 20s.
Here are a few tips:
1. If you don’t feel the need to work out while on vacation, don’t. My friend Joey, a lifelong competitive runner doesn’t feel the urge to run while traveling and reminds me that there are zero fitness losses for the first five days of inactivity and minimal losses for the first ten days. Joey says he feels a little rusty the first three runs after vacation, but quickly regains his mojo.
2. If you’re training for a race, don’t plan any specific workouts during vacation week. Unfamiliar surroundings, lack of access to familiar roads, trails, or tracks are all likely to throw a wrench in your plans even if you have time to run.
3. Be spontaneous. If you’re travel mates need 30 minutes to chill out by a TV or take a pre-dinner bath, throw on your shoes.
4. Think short runs. It is much easier to find 15-30 minutes in the day than an hour. A 20 minute run is amazing!
5. Be creative. Run on the beach while your friends or family are napping. Jump into the resort’s spin class. Do a lap around the campground to scope out family activities.
6. Think higher intensity. While I normally like to do 80% of my weekly running at low intensity and no more than 20% at higher intensity, I throw this rule out the window on vacation. This week, I did two, thirty minute runs that started at a jog and got progressively faster every minute, maxing out at 5k race pace for a couple of minutes before returning to a jog. For my 45 minute run, I warmed up for a mile before building into what I refer to as my maximum aerobic effort (about marathon pace) for 25ish minutes. Then I jogged a little as a cool down. High intensity workouts are efficient at maintaining fitness and they leave me with a satisfied feeling heading back to vacation life. (Disclaimer: This kind of training is neither sustainable, sensical, or effective for more than about 10 days, and it requires days off in between workouts for recovery.)
7. Don’t be afraid to hit the treadmill if available. If you’re staying in a hotel, you probably have access to a treadmill. I use them because they are efficient. There’s no route finding, no getting lost, no stoplights, and no accidental turns into sketchy areas. My 15 year old daughter ran on the treadmill this week as well. She got to choose between running outside with her dad down a busy road with honking vans, free range goats, and marijuana salespeople and running on the treadmill. My point is that safety can be a concern for runners on vacation. I don’t advocate living in fear, but being smart is smart.
8. Sign up for a low key event. Bring the family, even if they’re not runners. Cool towns put on cool events. My last road race was on vacation. It was a downhill mile that took less than 5 minutes, had gourmet coffee, craft beer, an art fair, street performers, and pancakes. It was a good time for all.
9. Ask for a couple hours of solo time to explore on foot. Depending on the type of getaway you’re partaking in, it might be a worthy request to ask your family for a couple hours away to have a solo running adventure. I’ve circled Central Park at dawn, run up Boulder’s Green Mountain while my wife and daughter shopped, and zig zagged the cobble streets of San Juan in the time it took my girls to get pedicures.
We needn’t obsess about running while on family trips, but most getaways allow for a little aerobic therapy for those of us who depend on it.