Holiday travel leaves trail runners exhausted, and often hinders progress to reach their training and racing goals. Trail runners stress as they try to incorporate training into busy holiday schedules, they tire as they stand in airport security lines, and they often lose themselves to brain-fog induced by time changes and missed sleep. Most trail runners don’t have strategies to deal with this inevitable holiday energy depletion. In fact, most runners actively fall into patterns that make this fatigue worse, not better.
But, holiday travel doesn’t have to negatively impact physical and mental health. Listed below are solutions to five of the most common holiday travel mistakes that contribute to unnecessary stress and tiredness.
Relax and seek balance.
Balance yin and yang
Trail runners trend towards yang, not yin. In non-nirvana terms, most runners enjoy working hard and pushing their bodies much more than they do relaxing and recovering.
But without proper rest and recovery, it’s easier to become energy depleted or even injured. Holiday travel contributes to this rule of yang over yin and can often push athletes over the edge.
To avoid the problems of the yang yin imbalance during holidays, consider adding specific yin practices into your routine. Bring a yoga mat and do stretches in airports or rest stops. Sign up for a yoga membership during the holidays. Put a massage or spa treatment on your Christmas wish list!
Break from buzzes
Limit buzzes from alcohol or caffeine to stay sharp during holiday travel. Both of these compounds are generally encouraged during holidays, even revered for their ability to relax, energize or celebrate. But both are quick fixes to stress and tiredness, and often contribute to additional fatigue, anxiety and dehydration.
While moderate amounts of these substances are generally fine for health in the majority of the population, neither effectively aids in combating holiday travel fatigue. Consider swapping eggnog or peppermint cocktails and coffees for energizing and replenishing super-food drinks. Most major health food markets and stores carry a variety of mushroom powders, electrolytes, and vitamin drinks that have varying degrees of efficacy. The Morning Kick by Roundhouse Provisions (endorsed by six-time karate champion and actor Chuck Norris) and Match-Aid are two of the best when it comes to heightening focus, clearing brain fog and providing longer lasting energy during travel.
Dirty your apron
Most trail runners greatly increase fat and sugar consumption during holidays. From fast-food during travel to fatty meat courses and sugary desserts steeped in butter, the holidays provide more options than any other time during the year. This shift towards pies, cheesy casseroles, and to-go food during travels results in bloating, constipation, night-sweats, and other unpleasant sensations that go along with poor nutrition choices.
While the holidays are certainly a time to celebrate by eating this delicious (but not often nutritious) food, trail runners shouldn’t settle for only eating these types of foods. Trail runners need quality fuel for their training, not just pie and honey baked ham.
Trail runners should consider prepping healthy meals and drinks at home to take with them during travel. Don’t settle for gas station snacks and fast-food. Similarly, offer to cook healthy meals for holiday potluck-style parties. The people who bring vegetables and fruits should be applauded. Pass the pie, but first pass the salad!
SUPERPLUSH slides by Roll Recovery.
Crush the cush
Holiday travel inevitability increases time on one’s feet. Particularly when waiting in line at airports and bus/train stations, trail runners spend considerable amounts of time standing. Already exhausted and sore in their feet from consistent training, runners often feel the effects of standing for long periods of time even more than the average person.
While there might not be a way to completely eliminate the standing/waiting associated with travel, there are ways to make the experience easier on one’s body. The secret is in the footwear.
Wearing highly cushioned shoes, or even specific “recovery shoes” (read our article on recovery footwear here) can help runners who struggle with standing during travel. The additional cushion in these shoes will lessen the soreness from standing for long periods of time.
PROTIP: Those with occupations that require spending long periods of time standing (nurses, cooks, etc.), also benefit from wearing shoes with more cushion on a regular basis.
Waiting times at airports can be tiring.
Rest over miles
Holiday travel can make it more difficult to fit in consistent training. With unexpected delays and long waiting periods in airports or bus/train stations, runners are often forced to adjust their training routines. These changes can make it harder to achieve the ideal training schedule set by a runner’s coach or personal desired training amounts/intensities.
While it’s true that holiday travel can impact the scheduling or amounts of training, trail runners often stress too much about these changes to their routine. Runners wake up early to squeeze in runs and push their bodies to extremes at times when their body is already exhausted from travel. It’s respectable to adhere to training plans, but runners too frequently compromise their physical and mental health to train on days when they would benefit most by resting.
It’s better to take short breaks to reset and recharge during the holiday season than to push one’s body to limits that will leave one exhausted and unable to train.
PROTIP: Curious how to beat jet-lag during your holiday travels? Read A Trail Runner’s Travel Tips for Overcoming Jet-Lag here.
