I made it through my first week of multi-city travel for work, with two days in Detroit (MI) followed by two days in King of Prussia (PA). The only snafu was a doozie—a nine hour flight delay on Sunday meant I had to cancel my plans to meet a friend for dinner but I also got to finish the book I was reading (The Judge—highly recommend). My two hotels had very different hotel gyms and the fanciest was not my favorite.
DCA-DET
My flight was scheduled for 12:30 pm Sunday, so I had time for my “normal” morning routine—adapted to baby my hip. I took Jess Sims’ new-ish 20 min workout for the second time, subbing in some PT moves. I felt like I needed a cool-down ride after CDE’s 20 min class but I bikefess I didn’t realized I’d chosen a 10 min class until she “congratulated” us for opting-in to such a solid cool-down.
My firm puts us up at the Detroit Athletic Club, which is an old guard members-only space. The gym is well-equipped, but very crowded at 6 am on weekday mornings. It felt like we were all playing Tetris trying to find a space that wouldn’t interfere with someone else. Maybe it’s not so unusual, but I’ve never seen two people using different sides of the same cable machine at the same time before.
After checking in just after midnight Sunday, I was surprised at how ready I was to get up at 5:30 Monday morning. After warming up with a walk on the treadmill, I found a corner to do a core class and Tunde’s clamshell/glute bridge/leg lifts class before moving to another space to do a 10 min lower body class with lunges and squats.
DET-PHL
My 10:30 flight to PHL left me enough time for a full workout Tuesday morning. My hip was feeling really good (i.e., not “feeling” at all with walking, etc.) , so I decided to try some short, slow running intervals. My hip wasn’t thrilled, and flared up a bit afterwards. 😕
I stayed at a much less fancy hotel in King of Prussia, but the hotel gym was (almost) just what I needed—and spacious!
This is only 1/3 of the gym space!
I had called ahead to confirm they had Peloton bikes, so I was able to do a sweaty workout without annoying my hip—which seemed to have fully recovered from Tuesday’s brief attempt at running. The only thing missing from this hotel gym was 10 lb weights—how do they get lost? do people steal them?—so I had to modify my upper body workout to do the chest flies on the floor instead of standing.
The Peloton bikes were in good condition, but the calibration was off (on the easy side) so I got a Personal Record on this “low impact ride”.
The next day, I broke that record on the “rolling hills” ride.
PHL-DCA
By Thursday my week of travel and late night “networking” was catching up to me, so I hit the snooze button a few times before heading to the hotel gym. I brought my fitness band with me, and did some of my own PT exercises between Andy’s core class and Hannah’s ride.
Luckily my flight home Thursday afternoon was uneventful—there was a brief delay for storms in D.C., but they must have passed quickly. Friday morning I was excited to take Scooby out—I really miss my morning walks when I travel. Once again my quiet hip tempted me to sprinkle a few running intervals into my walk, but my hip changed its mind and complained about it immediately. ~sigh~
It was nice to be back in my basement gym with all the weights and the space all to myself!
Peloton dropped several Juneteenth-themed classes on Friday, and Saturday I took the “cookout” ride with Alex and Tunde—it was a fun class.
I’m obviously frustrated by my hip and getting bored with those PT exercises! I made an orthopedist appointment for July 2. In the meantime I need to suck it up and stick it out. Tomorrow I head to San Diego and hope the receptionist was correct when she said they have Peloton bikes in the hotel gym. I will miss running along the Embarcadero, but it’s also a nice place to stroll with my morning Starbucks. 😉
A huge thank you to Deborah and Kim for hosting the Weekly Run Down link up.
![The Ultimate Coffee Date](http://got2run4me.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Ultimate-Coffee-Date.png" "The Ultimate Coffee Date")
Sorry to hear about the hip. Hope it improves.
You are inspiring. I need follow your model to use my hotel gym!
Travel delays are a nuisance.
Where do you go next?
This my last nyc trip until October
It’s good to hear that your hip doesn’t hurt when you walk, but it must be frustrating to not be able to run, though.
Funny that you mention Peloton bikes in hotel gyms. My husband just realized that Hiltons often have Pelotons, but we rarely see them in Marriotts which is where we usually stay. As a result, he might be switching up a few of our hotels for this summer’s road trip!
Crowded gyms are my least favorite things in the world!!! Give me an empty gym any day, I don’t care how nice it is (as long as they have dumbbells- yes I guess people steal them! So annoying).
Sorry about the hip- I know, the PT exercises are SO BORING. Keep plugging away. I hope you get some good information at your upcoming appointment (although it could also be a lot better by then).
I’ll bet Scooby was happy to have you back!
Sounds like a good idea to get your hip checked out. it gives you a fab opportunity to do lots of upper body strength. I just restarted Tunde’s upper body series-summer arms! Safe travels
I’m glad to hear that you’re going to see a specialist about the hip. Hopefully, you’ll get some answers besides ‘time off’ and ‘PT’. Your travels make me tired just reading about them! What a trooper you are.
It’s nice that the hip lets you have some decent cardio on the bike. That appointment is soon, I hope they will be able to find the root cause.
Good luck in San Diego! Even without the Embarcadero runs, an early-morning waterfront stroll with a Starbucks sounds pretty good to me. ☕😄
OMG Coco, I feel exhausted just reading about all the travels, especially after doing some of it myself recently! That’s a bummer about the hip, probably a good decision to have it checked out. You need a good hip for your hiking trip too!
Way to go keeping up all the fitness while travelling! Coming home to your own gym must have been a great feeling.
Sorry your hip is still feeling grumpy. I hope that clears-up soon. I bet that class with Alex and Tunde was a blast! I forgot to mention my travel snafu from last week…our flight from Des Moines (Monday morning) had to turn around and go back, after 20 minutes in the air, because the landing gear wouldn’t retract. Never had that happen before…
Sorry your hip is keeping running off the table. Hope the Ortho has some answers for you. Ugh an overcrowded gym is just repellant. That is a super cute pic of Scooby!
I bet Scooby is excited to have you back for your morning walks together too! A coffee walk in San Diego will be a good excuse to get out, even though it’s not the same as a run. I hope you get some good answers from your upcoming Dr appointment. I have a new PT program with an app. I’m definitely more motivated to do it because I know my therapist will be looking at my results! But yes, PT is boring 🙁
Oh, so sorry to hear about the continued hip pain! Mine is hurting on and off and I’m trying to take time off as well as doing my PT. I really like the PT app I have because it’s so easy to do whenever I want and I enjoy the “stars” and “rewards” I get when I hit a milestone Nice job keeping up with your activity, even while out of your daily routine!
Nine hours is brutal! Your positive attitude about making the most of hotel gyms is inspiring. I ended up stuck in an airport once and used the time to edit travel photos with an AI image enhancer — turned out way better than the originals! The DAC gym Tetris situation sounds hilarious. Hopefully the orthopedist gives you good news on July 2. Keep up the great workout attitude despite the hip frustration!
holy traveling, batman! this made me real tired!! I’m so sorry about your hip. I know you have an appt coming up – hope you get some answers AND solutions.
Multi-city travel sounds exhausting but exciting! A nine-hour flight delay is brutal but finishing a good book makes it bearable. Interesting how hotel gyms vary so much – sometimes the fancy ones aren’t even the best equipped. Safe travels!