Seeking advice from those who travel a lot

[Amandana]

Happily, I'm about to start a new job. It's an exciting change, but it comes with a lot of travel, up to half of the time I'll be on the road, driving several hours by car, less commonly going far enough to justify a flight, staying in hotels/motels in small towns/cities for up to a week at a time.

I'm hoping to get some advice for how those of you who have experienced similar situations have kept on with running, any tips or tricks you have for finding routes, safety, packing, etc. In the smaller towns without a major hotel chain, I can't count on a treadmill. I'm nervous about the changes from home to on the road so frequently making it hard to stay in the habit of running every other day.

[ButtercupKid Graduate]

Lucky you - what a great opportunity ! If you’ve ever watched Michael Palin’s series “Around the World in 80 Days” you’ll have seen him going for a run in all kinds of places, so it definitely can be done. Hope it all goes brilliantly x

[UnfitNoMore Graduate]

Finding routes is easier than you’d think... Strava has running clubs all over the world on it... all you have to do is join the local one and you can see where the guys in it run. In the uk most of not all parkruns have their own dedicated “club” on there too.

Happy running travels!

[ItstheMarchHare Graduate]

Good luck with the new role. Walkit.com have the option of circular routes around many cities.

[ItstheMarchHare Graduate]

And I’ve stayed in many hotels for work that show jogging routes around them.

[MarkyD Graduate]

Yep. I travel a lot and every hotel I’ve stayed in has a recommended 5km loop, just ask at the desk. If you get stuck, look up the nearest parkrun course and run that.

Of course, it is coming up to winter and darker evenings. You may need to run in the “restaurant / pub” zone of the town you’re staying in.

[Amandana]

Thanks all! I should have mentioned I'm in Canada so unfortunately very few parkruns here but I will use the rest of the tips you've given! I'm realizing that rarely the locations may not actually be towns at all but rather remote mining camps which may work out nicely as they generally have great food and exercise facilities for their staff. And I'm looking forward to running getting me out of the hotel when it might be easy to just stay there and enjoy my alone time - I don't get much of that!

[Irish-John Graduate]

I literally could write a book

A very practical and easy safety tip - when in a strange town, buy and walk with a local newspaper. Those who target Tourists as a speciality will pass, and even other asshats will be less likely to mess with a “Local” who presumably knows the score.

Just another tip from my evil Uncle John back in the day