Four years ago, I had been running consistently for some time and had just sent in my first application for a marathon. An old anglophile aunt had died the previous fall and left me with too much money to buy a breadbox, but not enough to change my life. I decided Aunt Molly wanted my family to go to England for two weeks that spring, where some cousins I actually liked lived on a farm in Northumberland, 50 miles from the Scottish border.
We spent a week in the mud and clouds. Northumberland has a raw, windswept beauty even in spring that appeals to fans of the Brontë sisters and Romantic poets, but must be sheer hell year after year. The farmhouses where we stayed were clustered on top of a gradual hill. Small villages and towns dotted the countryside, connected by narrow paved roads.
Prefer a hiking boot that enables individuals to be agile in rugged environments.
The deal was, I had to run before breakfast, keeping the day free for the castle and cathedral hopping. Each morning I got up earlier than the morning before, always wanting to reach the next farm, the next town. Soon I was starting in the dark. I could always count the number of cars that passed on the fingers of one hand. The only sounds were the wind, birds, crunch of my shoes and sheep bleats.
During that week I not only put in consistent high mileage for the first time, but enjoyed it. I learned that as you run you can also explore, poke about, get to know a place through pressing your soles against it countless mini-me. I almost certainly broke the golden rule of only increasing mileage by 10 percent per week, but I came through unscathed. I departed Northumberland with a sense that I had put in the first solid week of high quality running of my life, and since then I have never looked back.
Was this "breakthrough" vacation a matter of luck, a happy confluence of conditions as fickle as the English weather? Or is a great running vacation something that you can sit down and plan?
Reflection on this and other vacations, as well as discussions with other runners and coaches, suggest there are definite steps you can take to maximize your chances of having a breakthrough vacation, just as there are ways of maximizing your chances for a breakthrough race.
I suggest six key points to a great running vacation. The first three are: 1) Building a sufficient foundation as a runner before you go; 2) Setting the right goal based on this foundation, and, most importantly, 3) Ensuring any new level in running "sticks" when you return home. The last three points are location, location, location.
Goal Setting
A vacation can only be, at best, a next logical step in your development
  |
My goal for the week had been no more specific than to make sure I had time to run as much as I could. A goal for a vacation obviously can’t be as specific as a goal for a race, but you can have a general sense of what it is you want to accomplish during the additional free time. Vacations are the chance to focus on the things you care about, and to discover if these include running. It’s a time not so much to develop a special training plan, but to completely follow through on the one that you already have, ideally in a new setting that makes running a delight.
The ideal vacation perhaps comes early in the build-up phase in a training schedule when you want to increase miles, laying groundwork for a stronger running foundation. A vacation, in theory at least, gives you not only more time to run, but also more time to recover.
Of course, your vacation may come as you are sharpening for a specific race, in which case you can enjoy all that speed work in a fresh setting, or get in all the intervals you intended. The point is that a vacation is a time when you can really do what you intend to do. It’s a time of few excuses—working late won’t be keeping you from the trails.
The benefits of your solid training during vacation will only lead to real improvement if your better habits continue when you return home. I did not become a better runner because I put in a 60-mile week for the first time in my life. I became a better runner because 60 miles soon became my standard week, and laid the foundation for me to gradually build on this (almost unconsciously) to its current 70-80.
None of this would have been possible, of course, if my dramatic increase in mileage had led to an injury. Here again I would argue that a general goal such as "run a lot" for a vacation works better than a specific lofty mileage figure you swear on a Bible to achieve. Listen to you body, see how it goes, and then back off when necessary.
Was I lucky not to get hurt? An informal survey of some running camp coaches suggests that it is indeed possible to put in a significantly more intensive week than what you’re used to and get away with it—although they quickly add that more intensive training is not the real point of running camps, which are meant to be informational and motivational.
"I would advise as a vacation a week at home spent filling in the holes in the training program you already have," says Scott Simmons, director of the Mountain High Running Camp for high school students in North Carolina. "Vacation is your chance to be more consistent with everything. The rule of thumb is whatever you do, make it repeatable. A week or two of consistent running won’t lead to any breakthroughs—it’s keeping it up that will."
Simmons agrees such rules as never increasing your mileage by more than 10% in a given week are flexible. Greg Wenneborg, director and coach at the Craftsbury (VT) Running Camp, says that it does happen that participants are frequently inspired to significantly increase, perhaps even double, their usual mileage for a week at a running camp.
One reason Wenneborg says an experienced runner—someone who has been consistent in their running for at least two years—can do this at camp is that "they are removed from the stresses of work and family obligations and are able to squeeze in an afternoon nap if they like."
If you’re with family on vacation, stress may well increase proportionately with your time spent running. In Northumberland, I knew the ground rules concerning when I could run and I kept to them.
Wenneborg adds, "We warn our runners to return to their standard mileage after camp and not do any speed workouts until they have the chance to recover."
In retrospect, plane rides, work and family obligations probably made me back off more than I’d like. But within a week or two, I had no trouble returning to higher mileage—my body now craved it. I was already used to my higher daily dosage.
The fact that I focused on mileage and not speed may also have protected me. I would get injured that year, but only three months after Northumberland when too much speed work led to a sore hamstring that kept me cross-training for a week.
But the problem of overdoing it only arises when you run a lot in the first place. Can you, in advance, make sure you’ll be in a place that compels you to run?
Bright Crimson Volt Marathon Running Shoes Sneakers 526628-602
Location is everybody’s favorite topic, and there’s little
accounting for taste. Most runners polled for this story welcomed a change of scene, though ideas about what constituted runner Valhalla varied. One said it was anywhere with palm trees where he could put in his five miles, then jump in the sea (which sounds too hot to me). Another said runners’ heaven was any place where he could sleep enough. A third said that he liked to go some place where he could end his vacation with a race, leaving him with a sense of accomplishment.
Simmons advises against being too ambitious in choosing the location. "Keep in mind the body can have problems adapting and you may get less running done in a really new environment," he says. He cites the example of an East Coast runner choosing a place like Boulder, CO, where he or she may well spend the entire vacation adjusting to the altitude.
Obviously, a first step in choosing a location is to eliminate the places where the running will clearly be lousy. I knew, for example, that I would not be doing much running in a Zimbabwe game park when I was told a lion might eat me if I strayed beyond camp. But often difficulties are more hidden. Hopes for some decent running in the Dominican Republic were dashed by some unchained dogs that kept me from venturing beyond the first town.
  |
The devil or delight is in the detail. Don’t go to a cabin in the sky perched on a five-mile ski run of a road. Don’t go somewhere you’ll have to pound down miles of concrete just to take a quick loop around a soccer field. My usual vacation place in Maine is actually quite poor for running, for the simple reason that you must run along a busy two-lane highway for a couple of miles before you can access smaller roads. It’s okay, but it’s not inspirational, unlike Acadia National Park, with miles of carriage trails—arguably the best network of traffic-free, soft-surfaced roads on the planet.
One safety precaution is to look at the most detailed map possible as soon as you can. England has its Ordinance Survey maps, one of which my children accused me of staring at for hours each evening in Northumberland as I plotted my morning run. In the U.S. there are U.S. Geological Survey maps. Beyond logistical concerns, maps can also spark curiosity to explore that interesting network of roads or trails just beyond your hotel.
Finding a map and figuring out runs on your own is the male "I hate asking directions" approach to scouting a location. The more rational solution is, of course, asking other runners for advice and suggestions. Internet groups can help, as well as numerous running websites that post favorite routes or provide local club contacts.
With a little planning, you can maximize the chances that you not only run as much as you want, but want to run even more. It’s your vacation. Running should be another pleasure, not more extra work you’ve brought along in some valise.
Since his Northumberland breakthrough in the spring of ’98, Robert Cox has run nine marathons, with a current best of 2:48:10.
