How To Train While You Travel
Switzerland is a pretty nice place to ride bikes
Advice for finding adventure in unfamiliar locales
Endurance athletes thrive on consistency, but life on the road can really shake up your training routine. Whether you’re traveling for work or for fun, a little planning and research can help you identify options wherever you are headed. I traveled solo for 5 months in 2018 and many of my best memories are from running, biking, and swimming in new locations. Training on the road offers unparalleled opportunities to explore new places and see areas that tourists will often miss. Here are a few ideas on how you can make the most of your training when you’re away from home:
Websites & Apps
This app is the undisputed heavyweight champion of training on the road. Skip the features that encourage you to creep on your friend’s training and head straight to the Heatmap. The global heatmap shows “heat” made by activities that users have completed. The more people who have trained there, the darker the heat line will be. Enter your desired location into the search bar and watch as the map lights up. You can filter by activity (including walk, run, swim, cycle, and hike) to locate the area’s most used routes.
Don’t want to do the legwork involved with creating a new route? Open the app on your phone and select “maps” on the bottom navigation pain. Select your desired activity and the app will suggest a popular nearby route. You can filter by distance, elevation, surface, and difficulty to find an option that works for you. Don’t worry about getting lost, routes can be exported to your phone or device!
You’ll need a paid account to access street-level data, but in my opinion it is well worth the price if you’ll use this feature more than a few times a year.
This app shines for its ability to locate both on and off road runs, bikes, and hikes. Set your location, then filter by activity type, length, difficulty, and suitability. Under “more filters” you can narrow the choices to only the most popular, which provides great suggestions for an area’s best loved training spots. While the number of routes is more limited than you might find in Strava, there are typically more details about what to expect and you can read trail condition reports from recent users (and you can see their pictures!).
This is my go-to for finding walking directions to a route starting point, but it can be useful in planning as well. Lots of places have multi use paths that are closed to traffic, but they can be difficult to find if you don’t know where to look. Google Maps can help you locate them: just open the map on your phone, click the layers icon, and select “terrain” under map type and “biking” under map details. The dark green color indicates trails that don’t have auto traffic, the green color shows dedicated bike lanes in shared roads, the dotted green line shows bike-friendly roads that don’t have bike lanes, and the brown color identifies unpaved trails.
This website is a terrific guide to curated routes in over 1,000 unique locations. While they don’t cover every place you mind wind up, they have guides to the 50 largest cities in North America, 40+ cities in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Australia/New Zealand, Middle East, and Africa, as well as popular vacation spots. I always give them a look before I head somewhere new.
Not the best lap swimming pool in Portugal
Finding somewhere to swim in an unfamiliar town can be tough. SwimmersGuide provides an overview of local pools (including hotels) that will give you a starting point to locate your trip’s lap swim options. As always, make sure to check the pool’s website for information on hours and policies.
A Note On Bikes
Bike access while you’re traveling is incredible, especially if you’re going somewhere with a deep cycling culture, but nothing makes travel more difficult than lugging around an oversized bike box. It might be worth it to you if you are based in one location during your trip, but not if you plan to move quick and travel light. Consider bringing your pedals and shoes and renting a bike on your trip. You don’t have to resign yourself to slogging up an Alp in a cruiser, lots of companies are renting high end racing bikes. I had a terrific experience with France Bike Rentals when I was in Switzerland for Haute Route Davos - they set me up with a well maintained, generously geared, extremely pretty bicycle that made me feel like an absolute champion. Give them a shout if you are able to join one of the events they support.
Ask the Locals
Look up local teams and shops to see where they hold their rides and runs. If you do this well in advance, you might even be able to join up for a group training session! There is no better way to experience the sport culture in a new city than by immersing yourself in it.
Finally, remember that you are an ambassador for sport when you are traveling. If your planned session gets derailed, it isn’t the end of the world. Your fitness is built on more than any session. Adjust your expectations and revel in the experiences you’re having. The story will be worth it!
