You’ve been putting in the work this summer. Whether it’s leveling up for this fall’s cross country season, training for your next marathon, or staying sharp for a bonus track PB, you’ve been LOCKED TF IN through the hardest part of the year to train.

For weeks now, you’ve been waking up at 6am to beat the heat, diligently logging your post-run strides in the sticky humidity, and doubling down on abs to get a beach body improve your running form. You’ve got a medically concerning watch tanline, a hamper full of sweaty socks, and a Strava full of high mileage… and it could all be RUINED by one poorly-timed summer vacation.

We’ve all been there. We humans are fallible creatures of routine, and hitting daily doubles plus strengthwork comes a lot easier when you’re living your normal day-to-day life than it does in a short-term rental where the shower is funky and you forgot to pack your heart rate monitor. Countless neurotics summer warriors have found themselves in a panic when a few days away with friends and family threatened to derail an entire two-month training block.

Now, we could give you a measured, calming pep talk to remind you that one down week of training does not suddenly cause your accumulated fitness to evaporate. We could even remind you that, for many if not most hardcore distance runners, you’re probably closer to overtraining right now and this is just what your body needs. But alas, those rational arguments will surely fall on deaf ears because, let’s be real, here you are reading a running newsletter.

So instead, let’s meet in the middle and share some accumulated wisdom about how to train properly while on vacation.

Tip #1: Getting it done is better than getting it right.

It’s time to temporarily change the way you measure success. For one short week, let’s abandon silly questions like “Did I hit my mileage target?” or “how much time did I spend in Zone 2?” and instead embrace gentler, more forgiving metrics like “Did I run today?” or “Did I hydrate with anything besides White Claw?” In general, making the perfect the enemy of the good is never a recipe for success, and the key to enjoying your vacation while staying sane is shifting the goalposts a bit. If you laced up your running shoes and plodded around a little, you’re probably doing fine.

Tip #2: When traveling, workout splits don’t count.

Home versus away workouts are rarely an apples to apples comparison. Sure, you can easily lock into 70-second 400s on your neighborhood track and progress down to six-minute miles on your favorite long run route, but all of a sudden, you’re in unfamiliar territory. No one runs their best when they’re hopping a fence onto a run-down, 350-meter rectangle or dodging trucks on hilly country roads after six hours of laying in the sun… so don’t be surprised when your watch tells you you’re suddenly way off pace. Your VO2 max didn’t crater in three days; you’re just in the middle of Jimmy Buffett’s version of an altitude camp.

Tip #3: Don’t be afraid to tweak your schedule.

SUNDAY IS LONG RUN DAY… until it isn’t. Pretty much any two-to-six day trip can be carefully orchestrated so you only have to do one hard effort, max. Your body won’t know the difference if your workout happens on Wednesday instead of Tuesday or you get your long run out of the way Friday morning. And then your vacation training seems more palatable when you can tell yourself “well, it’s only an easy run.”

Tip #4: Peer pressure can be used for good.

No one likes the “hey, what if we went to bed early tonight then woke up early and got a run in?” guy… until they actually get their atrophying butt out of bed, breathe in the fresh mountain/lake/ocean air, and start the day with an endorphin rush. This works best when you—the tightly wound runner in peak training—downshift your expectations from a heart rate perspective. Don’t half-step your aunt. Certainly don’t launch into an off-the-cuff fartlek. Your high school buddy who occasionally plays rec soccer? They’ll appreciate it more if your short exploratory jog involves periodic stops to take in the scenery. Play it right, and your fellow vacationers might even thank you for inviting them to exercise, and you’ll seem slightly less crazy for doing it yourself. 

Tip #5: Take a chill pill.

At the end of the day, the type-A distance-runner urge to not relax when you’re relaxing is omnipresent, but you can conquer it! Fight the urge to get up from your towel and start doing A-skips in the sand. Tell yourself recovery is training every morning in the mirror until it sinks in. Arm yourself with non-running conversational fodder by breezing through a trashy beach read. 

It’s not realistically possible to win or lose a championship in a four-day span in August base-building. But developing a deserved and lifelong reputation as the extremely weird and annoying cousin/girlfriend/brother-in-law is shockingly easy! We hope you’re reading this from somewhere warm and sunny, and remember: you’re going to be just fine. Enjoy your time off!

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