This year is such a big year for me. Roxcycl ambassador, turning 30 in 4 days, a trip to Hawaii, following up with a trip to Sri Lanka for my amazing friends wedding! That’s all before the year is half way done.
Ten days in Hawaii didn’t quite feel like enough, and trying to incorporate training with a holiday can be quite difficult. I had organised my training weeks so that my “recovery” week coincided with Hawaii, allowing me to take it easy. However, I’m not really good at relaxing on holidays, I need to be doing things, I need to be active. As such, though it was a pretty chilled few days, I still managed to throw in a few fun activities, going with what was suggested, what was available, and leaving my week open to be active, to allow me to relax, and to go with the flow.
I managed to get in a couple of runs, demo-ed a specialised dualie 29er (so awesome!) for a couple of days, a few hikes and swims and taught a great crossfit workout (something completely new to me). It feels great to change things up. I barely rode my bike, realistically, and was able to get out running (so uncommon lately!) and even better I was able to get out hiking! I love camping and hiking, some of the most amazing experiences I’ve had have been out hiking and camping throughout Australia, especially with friends, multi-day hikes, it can be so rewarding. The scenery gives back so much, and being a biologist, finding gorgeous organisms that drive me to learn more about the surrounds is awesome.
One frustration I had whilst in Hawaii, and I’ve had it hiking in more “remote” areas of Australia is a lack of phone access. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love being unplugged for a few weeks to get back to what is really important, i.e. not social media, but myself, living in the moment. However, not being able to look up that species of cardinal and finding out if it was introduced to Hawaii as a way of making the place feel more like “home” to mainlanders (as many Europeans did when introducing species into Australia), or if the chameleon is native to Hawaii, I was pretty sure they were introduced but I wasn’t sure and wanted to look it up! I was also desperate to learn more about Big Island and the volcanoes whilst we were hiking around, but just couldn’t! I ended up writing down a whole lot of things to remind me to look it up later!
I am happy that I managed to be so active but to take it (mostly) easy on my recovery week. I am happy that I planned to be flexible whilst away on holiday, as I know that my next trip won’t have the same kinds of opportunities. When I go away again, I will plan for the time before and after, and enjoy my time whilst I am there. I won’t pine for my bike, won’t pine for my weights. I’ll enjoy the people I’m with, my surroundings, my time to reflect on what’s important to me and what I enjoy.
How do you deal with being active on holidays, or having holiday training? Any tips would be greatly appreciated, at the moment, my best time is to plan for either side and just go with the flow when the holiday comes around!
More holidays and hikes are planned in the future, hopefully you can join me on some.