How I Stayed on Track Without Following My Normal Routine
I've been writing this past month about summer challenges and tips for travel, so it seemed natural for me to recap my most recent summer vacation and talk through how I planned things out, what worked, and what didn't.
A little context for the trip first, I was going to be gone for 10 days, with my family, and planning for a laid back, relaxing trip hoping to take the time to just enjoy the company. But I still wanted to continue the momentum I had built up, without having to stress about all the little things.
My main anchor points for the trip were breakfast, my running, swimming, and probably the most important, not getting sunburnt.
I pre-made the dry ingredients for my overnight oats knowing that we were grocery shopping and I could get milk and yogurt to finish it off for my big training days. And then milk, bagels, and eggs would work on the lighter days for some good variety.
I brought my running gear with me and looked ahead of time to get a feel for the area, map out some routes, and understand what the options were. I also knew that schedule wise, I would be up, out, back, and cleaned up before most of the group was even up such that I wouldn't miss much of the family time.
Being out in the ocean, I wanted to be cautious so I brought my buoyancy shorts as well as my inflatable buoy for visibility and extra safety. I wasn't intending to get in anything especially long, more to keep up my swim consistency and get back into some open water.
As for the sun, I brought a couple of rash-guard shirts to protect, sun-screen, hats, and then the house had great patios such that I could be outside and enjoy everything, without being in the sun.
All of these anchors worked perfectly, I managed to feel good and strong on my runs, swam twice, and didn't get burnt one bit! I then was able to pretty much eat and enjoy whatever we were doing for lunch and dinners, and add in the occasional treats. My training volume took a bit of a hit as I wasn't biking, but that just didn't make enough sense for me to try and worry about a solution.
Now of course, no trip is perfect so there were a couple of things I could have done better, but honestly they were more "nice to haves" so I wasn't overly worried about them.
I brought my suspension trainer with me, but there wasn't a good place to anchor it. One week without strength training isn't going to make a huge difference, but it would have given me a fun opportunity to show some different options for my family.
I did a pretty good job making sure I was properly hydrated, but I'm pretty confident I was low on total calories, or at least not as many as I typically have at home. Lunch was the main "challenge" meal of the day although I probably didn't do as bad as I think as there were many days that I had multiple snacks - which probably equaled one lunch.
Probably the biggest aspect I "struggled" with was sleep as my mornings were pretty set but I didn't get to bed as early as I should have. Again, this was a trade-off I was happy to make to spend time with my family.
The takeaway is not that I did everything right. It is that I decided in advance what mattered and let go of the rest without guilt.
Biking was not realistic. The suspension trainer did not have a home. Sleep was a trade-off I made with my eyes open. None of that felt like failure because none of it was unplanned. It was just the trip being the trip.
That is the whole point of the anchor system. You are not trying to replicate your home routine in a different location. You are trying to protect the things that matter most and give yourself permission to release the rest.
If you have been following this series and want help figuring out which anchors actually matter for your summer — whether that is training, nutrition, sleep, or travel — that is exactly the kind of planning I do with coaching clients. Let's map it out before your next trip.
