After taking a big stretch break on the two day trip up to Haines and Skagway, Alaska (2 planes, 4 cities, 2 ferries, a truck, and a few mega hilly bike rides), I was able to start enjoying my vacation. The past ten days have been a whirl of meeting up with old friends, trying to pack in sight seeing, and enjoying the woods again.

I’ve never been one for mellow traveling. Vacations to me mean adventure, exploration, and excitement, so these ten days have been about running on new roads, hiking up familiar but dearly missed trails, and shimmying across cold, icy glaciers. Taking a break from work to head out on vacation is comparable to pressing the reset button, and it doesn’t mean that I have to take a break from running and training in order to be successful.

One of the many appealing factors of running is routine. All elements of my life can change, but I’ll always have running as my constant. This is grounding and gives me at least a little bit of structure. When that routine is disrupted training can get a little creative. Sure, I packed two pairs of running shoes, six pairs of shorts, who knows how many shoes, and a few too many t-shirts. Having the tools to run helped me get out of the door on my journey through Alaska’s inside passage, and it also prepared me to switch up the running with some cross-training in the form of hiking to the tops of the peaks around Haines, and Skagway, Alaska.

Here’s how my vacation running “routine” looked like (more or less):

Wake up to french press



Run to a meadow (6 miles RT, elevation gain: 3,100ft)



Replenish burned calories with fresh caught halibut

Loosen up for tomorrow’s excursion via a game of horseshoes

So there you have it, training “Alaska Style.” I’m ready to get back into it when I return to San Francisco in a few days, but for now I’m enjoying the challenge of adjusting my routine. But soon, I will be back on the hills of California crushing some miles.