Fitness on the Road

Getting in a good amount of exercise while traveling around the Pacific Northwest in a trailer in the winter can sometimes be a challenge. We hike and walk in the rain (Gore-Tex) and that's fine, but sometimes you just don't feel like being out in the cold wet weather. I thought I'd compile a little list of the things we have and use for keeping in shape (or, trying to get in shape, whichever) while on the road.

We have two folding Dahon bikes that I bought for us after winning some money from a slot machine in Las Vegas. If you know me, you'll think that's funny. I'm not a big Vegas fan, and neither am I much of a gambler. We were in Las Vegas for a friend's birthday party, and we stopped spur-of-the-moment and decided we'd each spend $20 bucks on penny (!!!) slots. We were to either (a) double our money, or (b) lose it all and we wouldn't stop 'til either thing happened. I was playing one of those slot machines that has all the combinations lined up…straight across, diagonal, etc. and you bet a certain amount for certain rows or combos, and I had no clue what I was doing. I mixed it up every time, and just pulled the lever (or pushed the button for variety). Pretty soon at about ten dollars into this game, my machine lit up and started making noise. I'd won something!! What had I won?? I had no idea. But the machine kept going. I looked at the levels, and it looked as if I'd either won 4 dollars, 38 dollars, 160 dollars, or 1007 dollars (roughly). It passed the 4 dollar mark and kept going. It passed the 38 dollar mark and kept going. It took quite a while. The lady next to me looked over…I had my feet up on the ledge and I was texting my mom ("I won!") and I looked up and her and said "I'm winning." She asked how much and I said "No clue."

Anyway, with my winnings (turns out it was just over $1000) I bought us the majority of two really nice folders, with racks and upgraded tires….but no fenders. So we don't ride those much in the rain.

Wow, that was a long story to get to folding bikes. So we have a pair of these: Dahon Speed P8

Folded, they're small and fit nicely in the back of the truck (in sweet carrying case/bags):

We have these racks (but not these fenders):

Okay so those are the bikes. 

For the times when it's crappy outside and we want to stay inside, I got us this set of elastic resistance bands called Bodylastics:

It all fits in that black bag and stores nicely under the bed. There are two doorway anchors which work great in the door of the Airstream. It's a versatile, compact solution for resistance training. We also have one of these:

…and a yoga mat. Turns out trailer yoga is totally doable. 🙂

Perhaps our favorite fitness equipment, however, is the Fitbit. It's fabulous. You just clip it to a pocket and it tracks how many steps you've taken, how many flights of stairs you've gone up, how many calories you burn in a day/how active you are, as well as your sleep efficiency. It syncs to a web app (and/or iPhone app) and in the app you can enter any activities you do, what you eat, etc. using a simple, colorful, well-designed interface full of helpful graphs and charts.

It's so easy to just get sucked into work (or reading, or whatever) when we're traveling, and this cool little device (and its web app and iPhone app) all work together to remind you of the exercise you're getting (or not getting). Highly recommended.

So there you have it. Travel trailer fitness. 

(Posted by Laura)