Because of my job, I am on the road roughly one week out of each month. This means staying in cheap hotels, jet-lag, and unfamiliar locations. None of which help when you're trying to stick to an exercise plan.
First let me regale you with some history. Last year I did P90X leading up to my anniversary cruise with my wife. The first year of marriage had really done a number on me, and I had gained about 20-30 lbs over what I weighed on my wedding day. After finishing the 3 month exercise plan that P90X gives you (I did the "Classic" plan) I was a lot happier with my body. Considering that our cruise was a Caribbean one, that was pretty much what I was aiming for.
Once we returned home to cold Colorado, I decided I wanted to refocus my exercise regiment. One aspect that I was fairly disappointed in with P90X was the cardio program. I felt like the cardio program told you to do some slightly less strenuous strength training. It was a fine filler program in between days of hard-core strength training, but it wasn't going to be preparing you for any marathons. I found that even after completing the full 90 days of P90X that I was pretty wasted after running just a mile. So now I looked pretty good in a pair of swim trunks, but my stamina was lacking.
I heard about a fun little program called Couch to 5K from a friend and I decided to check it out. C25K is essentially what is called interval training, which is an excellent training technique that has been used for ages. Basically you intersperse high intensity exercise (anaerobic) with low intensity exercise (aerobic). So you'll be walking for a few minutes, then running for a few seconds, then right back to walking. This process repeats for about 30 minutes. The entire program is only 9 weeks long, and is only 3 days of exercise per week, so it is very easy to pick up by itself, or add to an existing regiment.
I started C25K on day 1, week 1 of the program, but found that to be a little too easy for me, so I jump-started myself up to week 3. From there on I just put myself through the program. The purpose of the program is to take someone that is a couch-potato and get them to a stage where they can run a 5 kilometer race in under 30 minutes (Hence "Couch to 5K", get it?). Overall, it worked awesome and I was really pleased with the results. I was by no means a couch-potato at the beginning of the program, which allowed me to skip the beginning weeks, and by the end of the program I felt a lot better after running for a mile.
I finished C25K about a month ago. I ran a timed 1.5 mile run shortly after finishing the program, and clocked in at just under 10 minutes. I'm not going to be winning any Olympic medals any time soon, but I'm a lot happier with my endurance now than I was at the end of finishing P90X. And so now I've gone back to P90X. I'm on week 2, doing the classic program all over again.
So, back to my present predicament, what to do when you're in an unfamiliar location, possibly at a cheap hotel that doesn't even have a gym? Well, if the weather outside is nice, go for a run! I still have the C25K app on my phone, so typically I'll just head out exploring. My last trip was to middle Georgia, and I found some excellent trails nearby that went through the forests, is was a pretty amazing trail compared to the dead grass and dry streams that make up most of the nearby trails here in Colorado. Another option is join a national gym, 24 Hour Fitness has a membership plan that gives you access to every location across the country, there will be no shortage of workout fodder if there's a gym available to you. My last suggestion is a bit of a stretch, but one hotel that I stayed at in Massachusetts had no gym, but did have an indoor heated pool, so check out your hotel online and see what kind of amenities they have, it might surprise you (especially if you forgot your trunks at home).
As a side note, I heard that one of the other Beachbody workout programs called Insanity is pretty amazing. But, you need to be in really good shape before even trying these workouts. The plus side is that they use absolutely no equipment at all, so this is a program you could load up on your laptop and take anywhere with you. Just hope the people under you don't mind all the bouncing around that you'll be doing.
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