Swimming/exercising while on, and after, a vacation. How do you go about it?
I just did my first swim in nearly three weeks after being on a European vacation (six countries, numerous cities — no more than two nights at any given place). Usually, in these forums, I’m the guy providing the “Find a Pool Anywhere” link for people asking how or where to swim while they themselves are traveling. I post the Find a pool link (https://www.places2swim.com/). But, because we were moving around so much…eight days of the trip were a river cruise on the Rhine River…I didn’t have an opportunity to swim. Fortunately, I can rely on a bicycling, and a bit of running. So, during our stops, I was able to get ashore and go for a run, or grab a ‘share bike’ and go for a long bike ride. (At one port I took a share bike for a 32 mile ride. Someone commented “That’s probably the longest ride that bike will ever be on!”) We were docked long enough on a couple occasions that a more industrious person could have identified a nearby pool, and made arrangements to get there for a swim. After the cruise, we were in Berlin for three days and I actually looked at the link, and ID’d a couple potential pools. My luck…they were closed for some German holiday weekend. But with language barriers and such…generally I just wasn’t up to the task with limited time. (FYI, those Viking river cruise boats are otherwise very clean and well appointed, but don’t even have a fitness room on them.) I did have my static line that I occassionally use for “stationary swimming” with me — when traveling I’ll use it in small hotel pools, and can at least do something it the water that resembles swimming. But, as is sometimes the case, the pools were usually too crowded with families and kids to do that. So, back home, I finally made it to the pool. For me, after a layoff of this long from swimming, my first swim back is essentially just getting back my ‘muscle memory’ for swimming. Not really “muscle” per se. But I always find that my breathing is just ‘off’ for that first swim after a layoff. And, of course, I don’t want to pull, strain, or otherwise cause an injury. Consequently, I don’t even try to swim at more than a moderate effort. So, that’s done. And, the open water should be warming up enough in the next couple weeks, and my summer swimming will get to its usual routine. — Dan
