Hey all!
I’ll be going on a 2-week vacation in 2 months, where I won’t have access to a bike. While I do want this to be a true vacation I don’t want to see huge losses in fitness, as I’ve bumped my FTP up 40ish watts in the last couple months.
Is there anything specific you might do to minimize fitness losses? I’m not a runner, but was thinking light running may be a good way of maintenance? I’ll also be doing some hiking and stuff like that.
Thanks in advance!
If you are in a hotel, work the stairs for 30 minutes in the AM and PM. Make sure you stay as active as possible. Hikes, run, stairs, even body weight exercises (squats, burpees, etc. Just make the best of it.
Are you a sprinter @isaacdevoid ? That’s the only thing that may slightly suffer with a short break as the half life of muscles is massive. First use again the muscles might need to be re-woken but they are still there. I had a longer medically enforced brake in 2019 and I could only really do short slow walks at first, which gradually progressed into longer/ faster walks then hikes. When I got back on a bike after 6 weeks of that I was pleasantly surprised, so I strongly doubt you’ll lose anything at all, in fact you might end up being fitter given that things have had a chance to recover and adapt. In the longer term I think my muscles benefitted from the break. Enjoy your break!
Do you have access to a gym? When I was away most recently, I watched the below video and then spent as much time as I could on the Elliptical machine. Worked out pretty well…
Honestly, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Doubly so if you don’t have an important event in the ~6 weeks after your vacation.
If you don’t have a recent history with running that could be a bit risky. Lots of people injure themselves by running too much when they aren’t used to it. If you are staying moderately active through your vacation you should come back quickly. 2 weeks isn’t long enough to really lost much. You’ll be a bit flat for like 1-3 weeks after. But don’t panic, if you ease back into training it will come back.
I tend to stay very active during vacations but usually because that’s like half the reason I took time off work. But it’s a huge balancing act to not have it interfere with any activities with my wife or family.
I’d just line up a rest week in your plan with vacation…basically halving the amount of time not training right there.
I wouldn’t worry about it, other than building in a rest period into your plan. If you aren’t a runner, I wouldn’t contemplate starting that on vacation. But, if you want to be active, an easy thing to do is work in walking places over taking a car/bus/uber. Also, yes if you want hiking when it comes to sight seeing, particularly in hilly areas can be fun and it can certainly get the heart pumping. I find my first workout or two when I get usually feel a little sluggish, but after that it’s back in the groove.
Depending what my level of fitness was when my vacation started,taking two weeks off actually improved my general fitness once back on the bike.
I only have experience with 1 week off due to getting sick while vacationing in Hawaii. Coming back home I had a race and did extremely well. I doubt you will lose much if any.
I would say front load it to extent, and then just enjoy, relax and fully recover.
