Lets be honest. Most everyone reading this blog post is not a professional paddler. Family, work, and even vacations get in the way of your training. Before you freak out about missing workouts, this week we take a look at how our own Roch Frey practiced what he preached last year

The end of last race season was full with work and races for Roch. His plan was to race at Molokai and then recover for a (very) late season build getting ready for The Waterman Race in Tahiti. The only problem with this plan was that Roch was traveling as much as he was at home at the end of the year for work. In fact, he was on a 2-week business trip in the final few weeks before the Tahiti event. Roch needed to get a little creative with his training.

It was time for Roch to practice what he preached for the last 25 years. As an endurance coach working with age group athletes who traveled extensively for business, he would structure their training around their life and business schedule allowing them to keep their fitness on the road while avoiding burnout because of the compound stress of business travel and training.

To do this effectively, Roch designs “travel based” training plans according to the following principles:

1. Periodization based on travel schedule : Normally, we design training programs are periodized around races. If, however, there is a bunch of travel that will preclude the normal periodization plan you need to adapt by planning more training while you are at home and less when your are away. To some degree, if you can, design a program so your travel week is a recovery week from training. Do whatever you can to avoid putting yourself in the position of trying to do too much while you are on the road.
2. Don’t try to do long sessions while you are traveling – it just doesn’t work. Instead, focus on high intensity short sessions and short easy sessions. Save the longer and harder sessions for your time at home. This is not to say that you will only be doing long aerobic sessions when you are at home but if you are in a build phase of 3-4 weeks and two of those are when you are traveling try to get in your longer sessions at home and save the top quality sessions  (e.g. high intensity sessions) for the road. In most cases high intensity sessions are shorter.
3. Strength training is key when traveling: Traveling with a paddleboard is either a pain in the neck or impossible. Some athletes travel with an inflatable which is a great option if you can swing it. If, however, your business takes you to the corn fields of Iowa, chances are that you are not going to be paddling. All is not lost. Remember, cross training will yield benefits that translate to race performance. Take your travel time to focus on your strength training. If the hotel gym is just a bunch if treadmills consider getting a day pass at a local gym. If that isn’t possible you can design a full workout using a TRX and tubing. We will have more on this in a future post.
4. Exercise machines are  your friend: Your first option should be the spin bike. It is super easy for a non-cyclist and non-runner to get a good workout in a gym on a spin bike as the risk of injury is relatively low. Be sure to use a heart rate monitor to make sure you are not noodling around. Conversely, don’t go hog wild and hurt yourself on the spin bike. Keep things in control. If you are a runner (NOTE: this means that you run normally during the year) you already know you can jump on the treadmill. Be sure to add a little incline of 3-4% (running on a flat treadmill is not recommended) and don’t stay on there for longer than 45 minutes. Play around with the incline and do some intervals at a higher incline. Mix it up and do some intervals at a faster pace. Similarly, you might try a go on the spin bike.
5. Swim, swim, swim: with a little effort it is likely that you can find a lap pool. In most cases we tend to shy away from swimming as cross training to give your arms a rest from your paddling. In this case, however, swimming may be the ultimate cross training tool to keep you fit on the road.
6. Before you jump back to paddling when you get home – recover from your trip and ease into it. Too many athletes show up for a workout jetlagged and stressed from the trip and plan on a mega workout the first day back. This is a recipe for disaster. There is a risk for injury and you are probably going to be so tired you wont be able to hit your numbers. Maybe ease into it for a day and plan your big session a day or two later after you return. Let your body adapt to the time change so you are not a basket case. Avoid intervals and high intensity sessions right when you get back from a big trip. Although the following is based on experience rather than any science that we are aware of, it seems like athletes are prone to sickness after travel and anything you can do to let yourself recover and build back your immunity is beneficial.

Getting back to our story, Roch put all of these principles into practice in the weeks leading up to his Tahiti race. Before he left for the trip, his truck could be seen at The Reef for extended periods of time as he “put the bread in the oven” doing all of his distance training before he left. While he was on the road, he kept his aerobic system humming by doing short and intense sessions swimming and riding the stationary bike. Finally, he traveled with a TRX and hit the gym when he could. The result was a respectable 4th place finish in Tahiti at the Ironmana Kainlu XT Waterman event where he did 4 days of racing that included a 25k prone paddle race, 12km of swimming, 60min combo event consisting of prone, SUP, running and swimming, and a 42km SUP on the final day.

If Roch can race that much after traveling more than he was at home in the months before the race, so can you. A business trip does not mean the end of a race season.