It was great to get such wonderful feedback from last week’s content. It means a lot to know people get value from my rambling! Your messages about how the athlete success stories inspired you really made my week, and it’s great to know so many of you find my “training tips” of value.
As I write this, I’m actually sitting in a hotel room after being on the road for a couple of days. This week has been a bit of a whirlwind with business travel, those that follow me on Instagram will probably have noticed I haven’t got to upload as much content as I’d have liked. Life sometimes gets in the way, doesn’t it?
This actually leads perfectly into what I wanted to chat about this week: how to stay active and maintain healthy habits when travel throws your routine out the window.
Wednesday was a classic example. I had a 9:30am meeting that was a good distance away. After checking my sat nav, I realised something interesting – if I left at 5am, I’d arrive at 8:30am. But if I waited until 5:15am, I wouldn’t arrive until 9am. Every 15-minute delay in my departure added an extra 15 minutes to my journey time due to building traffic.
So what did I do? I got in the car at 5am (the time I’d normally be walking anyway), arrived with an hour to spare, and used 20 minutes of that time to walk around – even if it was just the car park! Not my usual forest trail with the dog, but still movement.
The whole day continued like this. Despite spending nearly five hours in the car and five hours in meetings, I still managed to clock up 12,000 steps by day’s end. How? By identifying those small pockets of opportunity – a quick walk during lunch breaks, taking the stairs instead of the lift, parking further away than necessary.
Planning is absolutely crucial when your normal routine gets disrupted. Here’s what worked for me:
Hotel selection – I deliberately chose a hotel near the seafront here in Southend so I could get a morning walk in along the pier (though I was gutted to discover it doesn’t open until 10:30am!)
Food preparation – I packed a small cooler with water, breakfast (Greek yogurt with strawberries, blueberries and chia seeds), and lunch (salmon with salad). This meant I wasn’t reliant on service station food or hotel options.
Research facilities – I checked ahead about the hotel gym. While I’m not a massive fan of gym work, knowing what’s available helps you plan. I’ve had experiences before where the “gym” turned out to be a bike built in the 1960s and mismatched weights!
The takeaway here is simple: with a bit of planning, you can maintain your healthy habits even when life gets hectic. It’s about being proactive rather than reactive, bringing what you can control with you, and making the most of the environment you find yourself in.
For those of you who are predominantly cyclists, but have to travel for business, I’d caution against suddenly taking up running when away from your bike – you’ll be sore for days! Instead, think about resistance bands that pack easily, walking routes near your accommodation, or even quick bodyweight circuits in your hotel room.
Remember that something is always better than nothing. My 20-minute walk around a car park wasn’t my ideal morning exercise, but it got my body moving and my mind clear before a day of meetings.
I’d love to hear your strategies for staying active while travelling. What works for you? Drop me a message or comment on my latest post to share your tips.
Until next week, keep planning, keep moving, and don’t let disruption to your routine become disruption to your goals.
Best regards, Garry
P.S. For those interested in how I structure travel days to maintain nutrition and activity levels, I’m considering running a short workshop next month. Let me know if this would be valuable to you!
…..did you know we offer full biomechanical gait analysis at Sportstest…
Want an Injury-Free Summer of Running? Start With This…
🏃♂️ Smarter Strides. Stronger Running. Fewer Injuries.
If you’re running regularly—whether that’s training for a marathon, pushing for a sub-20 min 5K, or competing in events like Hyrox—one thing matters more than your mileage: how you move.
At Sportstest, we don’t just coach fitness. We assess movement, biomechanics, and performance to help you train harder without breaking down. And that starts with one of the most underused tools in endurance sport:Running Gait Analysis.
❗ Why “Assess, Don’t Guess” Could Save Your Season
Every foot strike sends forces of up to 2.5x your bodyweight through your joints. Let that sink in for a moment. If something is even slightly off—your stride, posture, foot position, or strength balance—it gets repeated thousands of times every week.
That’s exactly where problems start.
Are you running over 40 miles (64 km) per week? You’re in a high-risk category, whether you realise it or not. Your risk of injury increases dramatically, especially if your gait is inefficient or your strength isn’t supporting your movement patterns properly.
This is why I’m always banging on about getting proper analysis. Our detailed gait assessment gives you objective data, not guesswork. We pinpoint what’s working, what’s not, and what to fix—before you break down and lose weeks or months of training.
🏃♀️ Not Just for Runners – Hyrox Athletes, This Means You Too
If you’re training for Hyrox (and I know many of you are), you know the demands go way beyond a regular run. You need strength, power, and endurance—plus the ability to switch between movements under fatigue. That makes biomechanical efficiency even more important.
Poor running form in a Hyrox race doesn’t just slow you down—it bleeds energy, overloads your joints, and increases your injury risk, especially when you combine it with sled pushes, lunges, and wall balls.
We’ve seen fantastic improvements with our Hyrox athletes when they focus on:
Maintaining efficient running form under fatigue
Improving stride-to-strength transitions
Preventing overuse injuries from high-volume hybrid training
🔍 What You’ll Get with a Sportstest Running Gait Analysis with our Sports Therapist
- Injury Prevention Most overuse injuries aren’t bad luck—they’re the result of subtle flaws in movement patterns that compound over time. We detect these early and help you correct them, reducing the risk of issues like shin splints, runner’s knee, Achilles pain, and plantar fasciitis.
- Performance Gains Think you’re already running well? I can almost guarantee we’ll show you where you could unlock an extra 5% in efficiency—that’s more speed or distance, for the same effort. Who wouldn’t want that?
- Footwear That Works for You We analyse how your feet strike the ground and move through your stride—so we can help you choose the right shoes (or orthotics) for your biomechanics, not what the latest magazine review suggests.
- Post-Injury Recovery Coming back from injury? Our analysis tracks your recovery and helps you rebuild better movement habits so you don’t re-injure yourself. This is crucial, as we know that previous injury is the biggest predictor of future injury.
- Technique Correction We use high speed cameras and bespoke software to biomechanically look at stride length, cadence, vertical oscillation, ground contact, and more to identify inefficient habits—like over-striding or collapsing hips—and more importantly guide you on how to fix them. Small changes here can make massive differences.
- Targeted Strength Training Weak glutes, tight calves, poor ankle mobility—these all show up in your gait. We use the results to build tailored strength work that supports your body’s needs, not generic exercises from YouTube.
🎯 Whether You’re Running 5K, 40 Miles, or Through a Hyrox Course…
…if you’re not assessing your gait, you’re leaving performance on the table—and risking injury every time you lace up. It’s as simple as that.
📅 Summer Appointments Are Filling Fast
A gait analysis is one of the smartest 90-minute investments any runner or hybrid athlete can make. It’s what I recommend to every athlete I work with, regardless of their level.
If you want to make this summer about progress, not pain, now’s the time.