This was my best marathon training week on vacation ever! I also had my longest vacation run of 15 miles. This was even on a 90+ degree day on the strip in Vegas. So, among the heat I also had weaving in/out of constant crowds, up/down stairwells, and plenty of stoplights. That made it more challenging but I absolutely love running the strip. The other cool thing on this run was going down past the landing strips of the airport. I had plane after plane beggining to land right over top of me! After you get a little ways past the major hotels on the strip you also have a great view of the mountains off in the distance. Here is my Vegas 15 mile route if you would like to check it out. This route does not show the full 15 due to stairwell over passes and winding sidewalks but it gives you the idea.
I don't know about you but when I go on vacation it will always be significantly hotter than home. So, there are plenty of things you need to keep in mind for your vacation runs. You have heat, elevation, travel/schedule, surroundings, and atypical habits. Heat, not only is it hotter but what part of the world are you traveling to and how different will that heat effect you. 90 degrees at home may be a different 90 degrees somewhere else. What you plan on doing is beating the heat by waking up early to get your run in but lets face it this is vacation. Who wants to wake up any earlier than they have too. You could always reduce your pace or slightly reduce the distance of your run. Just make it comparable in effort.
You may not notice an effect from the elevation but just remember you could be working harder in an elevation that your body is not accustom too. You need to be realistic with your training on days of travel. You will need to deviate from your plan to account for these days.
For example, two years ago my wife and I traveled to the Riviera Maya, Mexico. On my plan I was supposed to run 18 miles the day we left. After a 6:30am flight and more than an hour van ride to our resort from Cancun. I set off to run my 18 miler at 2pm. Yes, I know the hottest part of the day and I probably couldn't be any closer to the equator! This was doomed from the start. I only got in 8 miles and that was a definite struggle. I attempted this on a couple of vacations but have learned from it. The best thing to do is to move your week around to either a easy or off day on those days of travel. This makes these days much less complicated.
You also have to remind yourself that the terrain and other surroundings are probably things you are not accustomed to training in either. So, again you will just have to compare to what you are used to and go off of effort.
This is not all cut and dry but just remember to make yourself a little flexible with your plan while traveling. Hopefully this helps in future with your vacation training plan.
No comments:
Post a Comment