Last month, I started panicking thinking about all of the upcoming travel I had on my schedule and what I could do to prevent it from unraveling my training. With my half ironman and Marine Corp Marathon just around the corner, I wanted to make sure I could still meet my training goals amidst weekends filled with airplane rides, road trips, social events and late nights.

During the last 4 weeks, I’ve been on 4 trips in 4 different cities.  I thought I’d take a look back and see how well I followed my own advice for running while traveling. My keys for success were to schedule my workouts into my itinerary, to research my running opportunities, to make my sightseeing active when possible and to not forget to have fun. Let’s see how I did …

First Stop: Chicago

I spent 4 days in the Windy City during the last week in July. I parlayed a business meeting into a short getaway with Mr. rUnladylike. And by all accounts, both the trip and my training were successful. I did 2 workouts while I was there.

The first was in the hotel gym. I did a short brick: 10-mile stationary bike ride and 5K progressive run (a progressive run is when each mile is progressively faster than the last mile). My miles were 9:15, 8:34, 8:09 and the last 0.1 at 8:00.

My second Chicago workout was an incredible 16-mile long run with the Chicago Area Runners Association. I contacted them before I left to learn where and when they were meeting, what pace groups they offered and how to get to the start from my hotel. You can read more about my awesome Chicago run here.

Second Stop: NYC

The following week I flew to New York City for 2 nights to attend BlogHer. I was there for work but was able to stay very active despite a busy schedule.

My first workout was an 8-mile mid-week run on Manhattan’s West Side Highway. This is one of my favorite places to run. You have the breathtaking NYC city skyline flanking you on the left as you run toward downtown and the Hudson River on your right. The sun was setting when I ran, so the sky was beautiful over the water.

My second workout was a fun brick. I ran 1.7 miles to Flywheel NYC, where I took my second Flywheel class. It’s 45 minutes of spinning on steroids. You can read more about my thoughts on Flywheel here. The class was insane. A really amazing workout. I then ran 1.7 more miles back to my hotel.

Third Stop: Indian Rocks Beach, Florida

My third adventure was to the Tampa Bay, Florida area, where Mr. rUnladylike and I traveled for his 20^th high school reunion and a wedding shower I was hosting. We stayed at a condo on the beach. It was relaxing, beautiful and HOT!

On the first day in Florida, I ran a tempo run on the treadmill. It’s what I’m calling my atTEMPto, because it was an attempt to run a tempo, but not a very successful one. I warmed up with a 10-minute mile and then tried to run 3.5 miles at 7:54 pace. I got through the first mile and a half and felt like crap. I stopped and walked for a few minutes and then finished one more mile at tempo pace before cooling down. I was a little dehydrated and a little sleep deprived … and it showed.

The next day I ran 4 miles barefoot on the beach. The views were spectacular.

Unfortunately, my feet weren’t too excited after the run. All the friction from the sand burned my feet and made it painful to walk for the next 24 hours. I got a blood blister on my second toe on my left foot (will spare you the picture!). But it was worth the temporary pain.

I didn’t work out at all during the weekend. I had planned to do a long-run on Saturday and even brought my bike to do a long ride on Sunday. But it just didn’t happen. I didn’t make it happen. Was that a success because I followed my rule about remembering to have fun on vacation,” or unsuccessful for not getting up early and getting it done? Sometimes even with the best planning and intentions, life just prevails and some fun must be had.

Final Stop: Highlands, North Carolina

This past weekend, I was in Highlands, North Carolina for a wedding. Even though it’s only about 2.5 hours north of Atlanta, it was about 20 degrees cooler there. Thank you weather gods!

On Saturday, we went kayaking down 2 miles of the Little Tennessee River. It was an active and beautiful way to enjoy our surroundings.

Today, I got in a 13-mile run, looping around the streets near the town square. 

We went to the Dillard House on our way back to Atlanta for lunch. 

Talk about a post-run meal. This isn’t the menu; this is everything they bring you. Looks like someone needs to go on another run tomorrow! 

So, what worked?

• Meeting up with a local training group in the city where I was traveling gave me the accountability to keep up with my long runs while removing the stress of planning a running route in a place I’m not familiar with. It was also great to meet other runners from a different city and hear their stories, what races they were training for and what they loved most about running in their city.
• Getting it done early. My most successful workouts were on the days that I got up early and got my training done and out of the way. However, that also was dependent on being able to go to bed at a decent hour the night before. While traveling, there were several days where social events and parties kept me up too late. Those were the mornings that working out would have been a complete bust, like in Florida. So I chose to just enjoy my vacation instead.
• Going with the flow. In the 4 weeks I’ve been traveling, I had some great workouts and some missed workouts. Even when I had the best of intentions of going for a 3-hour bike ride in Florida or a 15-mile run along the beach, not all of it happened. I tried not to obsess too much about the things I wish I had done. Instead, I’ve been trying to focus on going hard during the week when I’ve been in town. It can be mentally tough missing a big weekend workout, but I did the best I could, and that’s all any of us can do.

Have you run anywhere cool lately? Do you have any upcoming trips where you’ll be getting a long run in? What are your strategies for staying active on the road?