5:00 AM: “Good morning, Mom!” Thanks to the two hour time difference, being in the anti-daylight savings state (Arizona), and excuses for blackout curtains my kids were up bright and early.
5:01 AM: Decision made: I had to workout. I had sat in one place for fourteen hours the day before driving half way across the country. I had been up all night with a sick kiddo. I am a notoriously horrible sleeper in hotels. I had another eight hour road trip ahead of me. A workout was calling my name. However, desperation had already started to set in. The night before my plan had been to head to the hotel’s small gym downstairs. The kids were up so blasted early my scheme was foiled. I had no husband along for the trip, and just didn’t feel good about leaving the kids for that long (yes, occasionally I do have a conscience).
5:10 AM: Put on the workout clothes. Just having the clothes on was motivating for me. Even if the how and what of workout was still murky, I still knew that I would find a way.
5:11 AM: Find Saturday morning cartoons. Hallelujah for the hotel TV on a Saturday morning. That’s all I can say.
5:15 AM: The warm up. I warmed up by jogging in place, doing jumping jacks, and knee raises for a minute each. I was also concocting my workout plan. It was another creative, “Plan A,B,C didn’t work so now I’m on about Plan Q” workout. Moms are pros at pulling another idea out of the hat.
5:18 AM: The stretching. I did ballistic stretches and static stretches for about 2 minutes. I also gave my kids the lowdown about how mom was going to leave, but be right outside of the room for a little while. We came up with a plan, made sure the cartoons were on, put the oldest in charge, and I was ready get my heart pumping.
5:20 AM: The workout. I just started running in the hallway on my floor of the hotel. The hotel I stayed in was fairly small, and I could run by our room at regular intervals every minute or so to check on the kiddos. All was quiet minus the buzz of the television. I started to throw in some sprint and recovery runs here and there.
5:25 AM: The stairwells. Ah, my gym away from my gym. At each end of the hallway there matching 3-story stairwells. I ran to one end of the hallway, went down then up the three flights of stairs, ran to the opposite end of the hallway, and ran down then up those flights of stairs. During the run/sprint down the hallway I could check in on my kids. All were still hypnotized by the blare of the cartoons. And I was breaking a sweat.
5:35 AM: Ran by the room. The three-year-old was crying and trying make a break for it (see why I didn’t want to head to the gym?). I knocked on the door, gave my kids our ultra-top-secret family password so they knew I wasn’t the Boogie Man, and grabbed the crying kiddo. I now had a new workout partner clad in camo PJs.
5:35 - 5:45 AM: Continued to run staircases and hallways with the three-year-old in tow. He was laughing his head off. So was I. My stress, lack of sleep, anxiety of the drive ahead was melting away.
5:45 AM: My other kids and their cousins could hear the fun that my little one and I were having in the hallway. Running! Stairs! Races! Yippee! For the last five minutes, we were wildly running and chasing each other up and down the hallways.
5:50 AM: I suddenly realized that it was not even 6:00 AM and my children were waking up the entire hotel. Yes, we were THAT family. As I herded them back into our room I smiled with relief. I had miraculously snuck in a 30 minute workout full of intervals and lots of sweat. SWEET! Plus, I had some fun with my kids during a high stress weekend. And woke up our entire floor, but we won’t talk about that.
8:00 AM: Breakfast. I overheard someone saying at the complimentary breakfast buffet, “Did you hear all those people running up and down the hallways so early this morning?” I felt guilty, OK, no I didn't. More than anything, I felt calm and ready to hit this last big travel day.
I’d worked in the workout.
Hey, Fit Mommas, how what have you done on the road to sneak in your workouts? Comment below to share WHAT WORKS!
For more "Traveling Fit Momma Style" posts, check them out here:
Traveling Fit Momma Style
Don't Leave Home Without...
Eating on the Road Trip
Eat With Me: Road Trip!
Travel Snacks for the Rascals
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6 comments:
I love it!
You make WORKING OUT look so FUN!
This post is soooo funny!
I kept wondering if you were waking anyone up! ;o)
Last summer when we traveled across the country from Alabama to Seattle I ordered a little dvd player.
Every morning I did a Leslie Sansome 4 mile walk/jog interval dvd!
Have you ever done any of Leslie's dvd's?
LOVE her dvd's!
Also brought the resistance band along for some arm work!
Great post!
Have a great trip and be careful!
xo
I should have done the DVD option since I had those little DVD players on the car. But, of course, I didn't get it together.
One time, I just dragged all the kids down to the hotel gym with me (I have travelled sans husband a lot over the past 9 years). However, once one other person comes in to work out, I have to make a hasty exit.
Desperation will make a mom do some crazy things :)
I LOVE Travel Fit by Cathe Friedrich. It's HIIT cardio with bandwork for the strength training intervals. It was designed for use in a hotel room with limited space, and is about 45 minutes. Killer!
I love it! I know the feeling of "i MUST workout". When I see stairs I get excited. While I was at my parents I printed off some different workouts I had been wanting to try and that was great motivation. I really want the TRX so I can take it when I travel and would also love the Travel Fit by Cathe. She has the BEST videos.
I really need to get on the Cathe bandwagon. Everyone raves about her. And I know if you two hard core gals recommend her, she must be great.
That was YOU????? j/k!
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