Not to be confused with road running…
While 2020 was hardly the year for traveling, things are finally starting to look up, so we wanted to provide you with some tips to help make training while traveling simpler for when the time comes again.
Whether you’re traveling for work or for fun, trying to stick to a consistent training schedule while outside of your normal routine can easily throw a brick into plans. As the (mostly) Type-A people that runners tend to be, figuring out how/where/when to squeeze in a run can become a major frustration. Check out a few of our recommendations for how to make this task just a little more manageable:
- Location, Location, Location! — You may or may not not always have much of a say in where to stay while on the road, but if you do, let running play into that decision. Do some Google Maps recon before you book and see what the area looks like around the hotel/Airbnb/campsite/etc. And keep your eyes open while driving around for potential running routes. It’s way easier to motivate yourself to go run if you have a decent location to do it — neighborhoods, streets with sidewalks, and well-lit greenway trails are far more enjoyable (or perhaps just less miserable) than running around a parking lot or down a dark back road without a shoulder. Also, hotel gyms might be far from the most exciting places to exercise, but one staple piece of equipment they’re sure to have is a treadmill!
- Run in the morning — Trust us on this one. Even though you might be on a different time zone and exhausted from a long day of traveling, you will never regret getting your run out of the way in the morning before you start your day. In our experience, no matter how well you think you can plan out your schedule while traveling, something unexpected is almost always bound to come up, preventing you from running. Three things are always true: the mornings will always come early, the bed will always be warm, and you will always end up being glad you went out and ran anyway.
- Make a plan before you go to bed — Going hand-in-hand with the previous point, it’s always advantageous to make your mind up and decide what time you are running in the morning before going to bed. Don’t “wait and see how you feel in the morning” because that route nearly always results in sinking back into the covers.
Explore new places — Most importantly, use running in strange places as a way to explore new cities. Learn your way around, scout out new restaurants to try, and get a little (comfortably) lost. After all, some of the most unique and beautiful views come early in the morning before the city is awake. (Far from every city has made the list, but check out greatruns.com for some inspiration of where to run the next time you find yourself out of town.)
