I’ll be travelling for the next 6 weeks and won’t have access to a bike or anywhere to cycle.
What do people recommend for training to try and stay in some sort of shape? Clearly my cycling specific fitness is going to take a hit, but I’d like to try and keep some sort of aerobic base if I can.
First off, I don’t do running - I’ve tried many times before and it just ends in injury regardless of how careful I am or which approach I take.
There is probably the option to do some swimming. I can swim but I’m definitely not a competitive swimmer so where would I start?
There may be some opportunities to weight train. I haven’t done that in a while but that could be beneficial? Are there a set of simple exercises I can do?
Are you in hotels with a gym? Or could you have access to a gym?
When I’m in a hotel, I try to just do a maintenance workout. I’ll start with some body weight stuff to warm up (lunges, squats, core, balance, etc). Then I’ll hit the treadmill for 20 minutes. I usually set it to fast walking uphill to hit my upper Z2 heart rate. I’ll take a break with more body weight or balance. Then I might ride the treadmill again or the bike for another 20 if they have that, again targeting Z2 heart rate. If the hotel has a pool, I might try to swim laps for 20 minutes. You can put in a solid 60-90 minutes if you try.
If you don’t want to run outside, you can also speed walk. Basically walk as fast as you can and hit your Z2 HR.
If you are near mountains or trails, put on the hiking boots and go. Again, go fast enough to hit the Z2 HR or above on climbs. It’s a brisk pace.
I’ve done a couple of weeks of this kind of stuff and got back on the bike like I had zero break. Six weeks will be tougher but if you keep the aerobic engine firing on a consistent basis, the cycling specific neuromuscular fitness will come back fast.
If I’m on a road trip with no gym, I’ll bring my dumbbells. I do squats, walking lunges, and some arm exercises. That would probably be greatly expanded with a kit of resistance bands.
Hell, even just body weight would work. Squats, pushups, planks, burpees, mountain climbers, repeat repeat repeat. No need for equipment if your primary goal is to get your HR up.
Not certain where you are staying, but a TRX system is easy to travel with and set-up in different locations. This will give you an easy way to do some strength training.
Also, look into day passes at various gyms near where you will be staying. Ideally you could fit in some spin classes, but even access to ellipticals or other cardio equipment can help.