Training while traveling

This week, I had my first experience maintaining my training while on business travel. Although it took a little more logistical planning, it ended up being successful. Work brought me to midtown Atlanta from Monday through Thursday this week. On Monday, I completed my morning swim in Birmingham before getting on the road for a noon appointment in Atlanta. I completed my next swim with the Dynamo Masters Wednesday evening. With a variety of swimmers, including a couple with Olympic Trial cuts, the 3600 meter long course practice provided an excellent workout. I returned to Birmingham Thursday night, just in time to get a good nights rest for my normal Friday morning swim. Since my hotel was right in the middle of downtown, I decided to bring my indoor rollers instead of braving the Atlanta traffic on my bike. I maintained my cycling fitness with two one hour sessions on the rollers. Finally, I made great use of the hotel treadmill with two run sessions totaling about 10 miles. Although it wasn’t a tough training week for me, it was enough to maintain my fitness while traveling.

Proper Rest

The switch from daylight savings reminded me of another crucial part of training: PROPER REST. As a general rule, I try to get at least 7 hours of sleep every night. This means getting to bed before 10:00 pm on nights where I intend to work out in the morning. For reasons I have yet to determine, my body seems to be taking much longer to adjust to the time change than in years past. Since I haven’t been falling to sleep until 11pm to 12am lately, I have been skipping morning workouts and trying to make up for it in the evening. Rather than trying to work out on 5 or 6 hours of sleep, I feel that it is far more important to get a proper night of sleep and get the most out of one evening workout rather than two-a-day. Medical studies have shown how the body can break down very quickly without proper rest. Since day jobs and emergencies tend to interrupt evening workouts far more than morning workouts, I am looking forward to getting over the time change soon.