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It’s difficult to be consistent and follow a structured training plan if you are on the
road a lot. Young swimmers can take a few days or a week off and return to the pool
without losing very much. However, many of us are probably familiar with the “I feel like
I’ve never been in the water” feeling one gets after a week with no exercise. Fitness
actually returns to normal fairly quickly after a short layoff. So how can you maintain
your conditioning when business or vacation travel forces you to miss workouts?
Expanding Opportunities
A few years ago, it would have been nearly impossible, but today, because of the
proliferation of aquatic facilities and increased pool hours, swimming can now be a viable
form of regular exercise for the frequent traveler. Here are some resources to seek out:
- A local YMCA or Masters swimming group with lap swimming times or organized
practices that fit your schedule. Consult The Swimmers Guide: Directory of Pools for Fitness Swimmers, which
contains listings for 3,000 pools throughout the country, with location, facilities, cost
and contact information.
- For an organized workout, the National Office of United States Masters Swimming (USMS)
produces a publication called Places to Swim, which can be viewed on their Web site
at
The Dreaded Hotel Pool
If you can’t find a local Masters group and you still want to work out, you’ll be stuck
with the pool available in your hotel. If you’ve ever tried to do a real workout in one of
those 10-yard oval hotel pools, you know this isn’t a viable option. And if size and shape
weren’t impediment enough, they usually feature a rope across the middle, cutting these
pools in half!
One solution to this problem is to bring along a swim tether made of a four to eight-foot
length of surgical tubing and a web belt that allows you to swim tethered to the side of
the pool. The drawback? Swimming in place is not conducive to good stroke mechanics.
What’s more, swimming in place for any length of time is mind-numbingly boring.
Even the hotels with a decent sized pool rarely offer the finer accoutrements, such as
lane lines, kickboards or pace clocks. Beware of the hotel that advertises an “Olympic
Size Pool.” Hotel management obviously doesn’t understand how big a 50-meter pool really
is.
You Don’t Need the Pool for a Quality Workout
A facility you will find in most modern hotels today is a gym with exercise machines and
weights. If you normally have difficulty fitting weights into your training routine, why
not make your travel days a time to concentrate on your dryland program?
You can get a cardiovascular workout on the exercise bike, treadmill, or stair stepper, do
your usual resistance exercises with weights or surgical tubing, and use the pool in the
way it was designed to be used, to relax. Because you won’t be stressed from completing a
predetermined number of yards, you can use the time to work on technique by practicing
streamlining, stroke drills and turns.
Since these pools tend to be fairly short, it’s sometimes possible to cover the entire
length underwater from a push-off if you streamline effectively. Make a game out of it.
Work on your underwater dolphin kick and long breaststroke pullout, too. You just might be
able to get some benefit out of that business trip after all.
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