The Holiday Season is here already, sometimes it can be a bit challenging to keep up our training schedule and to avoid all the temptations, food, drinks and parties. With a lot of races coming up, it is very important to stay on track with our training schedule. We can still adjust our training to make sure we enjoy our Holidays with friends and family but also stay healthy and fit.

Holiday Season Training Tips:

1. Make a Plan: Write down your training schedule on your calendar. Whether you are travelling or staying home, you can include it in your schedule and make it more flexible. Being organized and planning ahead makes it much easier to just keep up with our training program.
2. Set Up a Routine:  Holiday schedules can be challenging, by setting up a routine, it will make it much easier mentally to keep up with the training If your family is sleeping in in the morning, go out early for your run, schedule it around the planned events. Do some research if you’re travelling to find a running route or a gym. Bring a “at-home” bodyweight workout. Establish your routine for the week, make no excuses!
3. Find a Running Buddy: Use your training runs to catch up with friends or family. You can chat, then push one another. It will allow you to spend some quality time with some loved ones and still train.
4. Include a Long Run: Endurance is the key to finishing a race feeling strong. Find a quiet time in your holiday schedule and go out for your nice long run.
5. Include One Intense Training Session per Week: Go out for a shorter run and include some speed work or Farklets. Even one intense run will maintain your VO2max level.
6. Use your Training to Release Some Stress: By the time we get to the Holiday Season, with busy work schedules and events, usually we get to our Holidays stressed and tired. Going out for nice runs will help to release our stress level and help with getting a better sleep.
7. Cross-Train: If you’re travelling use different activities you have access to, to cross–train; skiing, swimming, cycling. This will help to keep up your fitness level.
8. Avoid Food Temptation: It is the Holiday Season, we still have to enjoy some wonderful food, but overeating or consuming too much unhealthy foods might increase our fatigue and well-being, making the training sessions more challenging. Focus on eating foods you like, eating slowly, adding more vegetables to your plate and having some smaller portions of yummy treats. Before attending parties, make sure you don’t arrive starving, have a healthy snack before the event so you can control your appetite.
9. Go Easy on Alcohol Drinks: Enjoying some nice wine or beer with family and friends during the Holidays is a fun way to celebrate, but drinking excessively over a short period of time can affect our body, adding some kilos and again increasing our fatigue and lowering our energy levels. Limit yourself to enjoying one drink at each gathering. If you end up consuming more make sure you drink water along with your alcoholic drink to avoid dehydration.
10. Get Some Rest: With all the parties and events, the Holidays can cause a lack of sleep. Same as training, include some good night’s rest into your holiday schedule to feel healthy and energetic as the New Year is just around the corner.

Train Hard, Eat Right, and Feel Great!
Katia