Staying Fit On The Road

I don’t know about you, but when traveling my exercise routine used to pretty much go out the window.  Combine that with a love – ok, obsession – with good (read decadent and calorie laden) food and a devil may care attitude toward calorie content when dining out and you have the potential for waistline disaster on the road. 

As the 1-2 pounds put on during a work trip or vacation don’t come off as easily anymore, I know I have to get more serious about exercising on the road.  To that end I’ve had two mainstays: hotel gyms and 24Hour Fitness. 

I bought my 24Hour Fitness membership back in the day when you could get the “any club” membership reasonably, and I generally only use it when traveling.  There’s a 24Hour by my office in Orange County and my office in Santa Rosa, making exercise on office visits possible, though not always probable.

When 24 Hour isn’t available (like in Indianapolis) – and sometimes even when it is – the hotel gym is my default.  Every one has a treadmill and that’s enough for me.

Yesterday, I slept in a bit too late and so headed to the hotel gym instead of 24Hour.  Every piece of cardio equipment was taken.  What?!  This is pretty much unheard of and given my time constraints put me in a serious jam.  I headed back to my room, figuring I would try to fit in a workout after dinner (yeah, right) and then I remembered the Shape Magazine Travelista iPhone app.

I read about the app in the magazine a month or so ago, paid the $2 fee, and downloaded it.  It then proceeded to remain on my phone unused.  The app contains 8 workouts including a “No-Machine Calorie Burner,” “Tube Toners” (for those smart enough to carry an exercise tube in their suitcase) and 3 “Hotel-Room Shape Up” routines. 

I chose “Hotel-Room Shape Up 1” expecting a mild routine of chair dips and lunges – the usual exercises one resorts to in a hotel room.  It kicked my butt.

The workout consisted of 3 circuits of 10-15 reps of 8 moves that together, target every main muscle group.  The standard chair dips, lunges, crunches and pushups are present, but there’s also some creative moves like triceps extensions with water bottles for weights and a one-leg plank that keeps you in position so long your arms start to wobble.  By the end of the second circuit my heart was pumping and I was starting to “glisten” (women never sweat).  By the end of the third and final circuit my arms were shaking.  This morning?  Sore, in all the right ways.

When I ended the workout, I tapped the “complete” button and discovered a nice little bonus feature.  The app tracks your time (30 mins 7 secs for my workout) and saves it for you with the workout name, time and date, so you can have an on-the-road exercise log. 

The Shape Travelista app is now a solid addition to my road warrior workout routine, adding in strength training in the convenience of any hotel room. 

What do you do to stay fit on the road?

Fine Wine, Fried Food and Fast Cars – I’m Off to the Races!

For my husband’s birthday this year, I took him to the Indianapolis 500.  Since it was a milestone birthday, we did the races VIP style (I bought the package to the Indy at the Sonoma Paradiso charity auction).  We had pit access the entire weekend up to a few moments before the race began.  We did “hot laps,” which means we were driven 110 mph around the track by 2 time Indy 500 winner Arie Luyendyk.   And we spent the weekend in Mari Hulman George’s suites (owner’s suites) at the track and attending her parties.  My husband being an amateur photo-nut took hundreds of pictures of the cars, the drivers, and the track (the pic below is mine, not his). 

We also had a chance to explore some of the local cuisine, which in addition to the swankier places, included Indianapolis’s oldest drive-in – Mug ‘n Bun.  If you’re from the West Coast, Mug ‘n Bun is a must – a fried food extravaganza the likes of which I doubt the West Coast could or would replicate.  There were the usual fried offerings – onion rings and corn dogs – and then there were the sublime – Macaroni and Cheese wedges – fried triangles filled with ooey, gooey Mac n Cheese yumminess.  Ironically, Mug ‘n Bun was recommended by my vegan Pilates instructor – for the rootbeer (which admittedly is delicious)!

We had an amazing weekend, especially because we met and got to spend time with a lot of really great people.  Fortunately, for us we managed to forge some friendships (something that would never happen so quickly in Seattle – more on that later) and this weekend we are reuniting for the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California.  How could we pass up wine country and races?  So, I’m off for a weekend of fine wine, fried food (a suite specialty) and fast cars!