how do you train/race around vacations?

Just like I did this past weekend.  I take my bike with me, and have my wife drop me off, 60 miles (or whatever) from our destination.  Then I ride the hilly route to meet her at the motel.  I get my workout, and she has the credit card...win / win situation for us both.

vacation? whatsis???

I usually go to MS to see family.  We usually run over the bridge and around while everyone is still in bed.  We take the kids to the pool and swim laps.  They like it because there's like, a 20 feet high diving board.   A pair of running shoes and swim stuff don't take much room. 

and oh yeah I always scout the race schedule for the area so I dont' miss any opportuniites. 

My body clock usually never adjusts to vacation time, so getting training in early in the morning makes it pretty easy to keep up with the regimen.  I do plan ahead when vacationing or going on business travel to identify pools, places to rent bikes, etc.

Vactions taken and planned in 2006:

Feb: Went to Tampa for a 1/2 marathon race

Mar: Went to Colorado for skiing ( swam and ran while I was there ) 

Apr: Went to St. Pete for an oly race

May: Going to Seattle for a hilly century ride ( running and swimming too ) 

June: Going to Texas for a 1/2 IM

September: Going to St. Louis for a 1/2 IM 

October: Going to Hawaii for this little race. 

So... all of my vacations except one have been to either go for a race, or go for training.  And on the ski trip ( which worked legs pretty good ) I found a pool to swim in and ran.

Unless you're on a boat ( ooops! ) you can bring a pair of shoes and run somewhere.  If you keep up some sort of activity level, you're not going to lose very much fitness, if any.  Structure your training schedule so that your rest week coincides with your vacationi.  That way, you'll have as little training to do as possible, and can enjoy the mental recovery that the vacation gives you. 

-Chris 

I just returned from a vacation with my husband to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. We went to Greece stayed on a small boat, and rode bikes on a different island each days. I brought my running shoes and ran in Athens, once in the morning and once after a ride. I brought my wetsuit and swam too. I was able to get my strength training in at the hotel gym.  But clearly this is a vacation as a triathlete I thought would be great...my husband enjoyed it too.

When we go on family vacations, I have my coach put our travel days in as rest days. I always bring my running shoes and swimsuit and can find places for both. If I go for a longer time, I try to bring my bike.

This summer we will go to MN for three weeks and stay at my parents cabin with them (me and my 5 kids in 1000 sq foot cabin...cozy). I'll bring my tri gear. We picked when to go so  while there we can do a tri. that will be my brother, nephew's, son's first tri..and I hope my daughter will do it to.

Like many life changes when the bug gets you so where/what you do on vacation changes, and you find creative ways to workout no matter the situation.

You can figure it out...lots of great ideas here.

Depends on the length of the vacation for me. I do not consider my long weekends to go race a vacation. When I do take a vacation (3-7 days), I will throw in some running gear and swim gear. To be honest though, on my vacations, they rarely get used. You are not going to lose a whole lot by taking a week off, so enjoy yourself. If enjoying yourself coincides with a swim, bike, run, or exercise then that's a plus. However, I do not go overboard with the vacation and start looking to see how many pounds I can gain while not exercising. I usually try to put in a really hard week leading up to my vacation so it is easy to convince myself that I deserve the break!!!!