The emailed question…
Joe:
I have been training for triathlon since 2010 and I use the concepts of your book for planning my annual and weekly training. I have a fundamental question about that. I'm an executive and usually travel internationally at least once every two months. When it happens, I try to keep up my training at a hotel gym, but it's definitely not the same. The consequence is that it's difficult to keep the training as it is planned especially if it coincides with a high volume training week. Any suggestions?
FS
My reply…
Hi FS,
I understand your dilemma. I also travel quite a bit. I’m currently in the UK for 2 weeks and just returned from 3 weeks in E Europe. I’m gone, on average, about a week in every month. So I miss a fourth of my training. It isn’t so bad for running and swimming – usually. But cycling is nearly impossible during such trips. I’m sure you can relate to that. I’ve had to give up racing in the last three years mostly because of this. Before the last three years my travel was much less than one week per month on average. Then I was able to keep my training going ok if I tried to work everything – travel timing and training periodization – out well in advance of trips. The idea was to arrange it so that the travel time coincided with a recovery week. That worked usually pretty well. But not always. There really is no simple solution for my current level of travel when it comes to race prep. Missed workouts can’t simply be “made up.” Inconsistent training has a greater impact on performance than any other training errors one can make. I’m sorry to tell you that there is no easy solution. About all you can do is 1) try to make travel weeks coincide with rest weeks, 2) do as much as you can before leaving on the trip, 3) do all you can when on the road, and 4) get right back to it as soon as you return home. “Crash” training, which you can read about in my Training Bible, may prove helpful for #2. This post from some time back may also prove helpful.
Joe
