A travel WOD of sorts

This past week, I was fortunate enough to enjoy a quick West Coast vacation in the Bay Area.  I knew I still wanted (correction: had) to get in at least a few workouts, and to make sure I was fully prepared, I brought a jump rope, my journal to record my exercise, a list of travel workouts, and two sets of workout clothes.

Why the preparedness, you may wonder.  Simple, really: if I didn't make a plan to exercise, I could find it all too easy and convenient to forgo much needed physical activity.  Plus, hotel gyms tend to be pretty abysmal, and I did not want to leave any room for excuses for either skipping a workout or just piddling around on the elliptical for a few minutes.

After our early morning flight, my husband and I walked around the beautiful (and steep) hills of San Francisco, and meandered up to Coit Tower to catch the views of the city.  That night, in the comfort of our hotel room, I broke into three rounds of sit ups, push ups, and squats at 10 o'clock at night, Pacific Time.  I felt like a champion.

The next morning, I decided to investigate the hotel gym.  With my jump rope and water bottle in hand, the exercise facilities were even more disappointing than I had expected -- a tiny room with a few free weights, a handful of treadmills, ellipticals, and bikes, and some weight machines.  I did my best to clear some space to practice double unders.  Double unders are a CrossFit creation, and are currently the bane of my existence.  For a "double under," the jump rope goes underfoot twice instead of once.  As a child, I was never too fond of jumping rope (I think I was too uncoordinated and lacked the necessary drive to practice said jump rope rotations, but I enjoyed singing "Cinderella/dress in yella/went downtown to kiss her fella" and cheering on my classmates).  I digress.  CrossFt has brought me back to the playground, but this time, it has given me the added challenge of trying to get two rotations of rope under my feet instead of just one.  As someone who has trouble jumping rope in succession, I often find myself tripping over the rope like a toddler first learning to waddle around.  My double unders are awkward, and I imagine I look more like a horse kicking its legs against a post than a graceful athlete who makes all  motions and movements look effortless.  I guess, however, that practice makes perfect, and I am determined to conquer the cursed double unders.
After twenty minutes of fumbling with the jump rope and taking frequent water breaks (my favorite stalling tactic), I decided that enough was enough, and it was time to get a WOD going.
My second vacation workout of the day was:

Four rounds of

1/4 mile run on treadmill, 1 percent incline
10 burpees

I forgot to time my workout, but it was fun.  I was even asked what sport I played by another gym goer.  My goodness, did my ego swell!  As the child who hid in the back of gym class praying the teacher would ignore my existence, it was flattering to be called "athletic."

The next day, I practiced handstand push ups.  I placed two towels on the ground, moved equipment out of the way, and went to town.  Next, I wanted to conquer this CrossFit workout.  But, my pull ups are still non-existent, and even though I could benefit from pull up practice, my infinitesimal hotel gym lacked proper pull up equipment; mainly, a pull up bar.  So, I modified it to fit my available resources.

I came up with:

1 mi run (1 percent incline)
100 push ups
200 sit ups
300 squats (broken into ten rounds of 10 push ups, 20 sit ups, and 30 squats)
1 mi run;

all in 40 minutes and 58 seconds.  My mile pace averaged 8:19.  The slowest part for me?  Sit ups.  I don't understand why.  But, it was a wonderful WOD, and I highly recommend it.  Modify it as needed -- switch up the exercises, cut everything in half, but try it out.  After this work out, I was asked if I was interval training to run a marathon, and was complimented on my push ups by a personal trainer who also happened to be weightlifting at the same time.  My goodness, I couldn't stop smiling.

The point of this blog post?  Even when traveling, you can still make exercise a priority.  My recommendations:

1.  Plan ahead.  Think about the workouts you want to try and pack any gear (like a jump rope, frisbee, etc.,.) to help you meet that goal.  Make a list of WODs ahead of time.  Bring a book to record your workouts so you can hold yourself accountable.
2.  Think bodyweight.  While traveling, workout equipment will obviously be limited, but you can run, walk, or do sit ups, push ups, handstands, squats, jumping jacks, burpees, planks, etc.,. anywhere.
3. Be creative.  Travel WODs can be monotonous.  Shake things up by playing outside if possible.  My husband and I turned park benches into box jumps and hiked up and down hills through park grounds.  Check out this link of travel WODs to get some creative juices flowing!