The holidays have a funny way of turning even the most organized endurance athlete into a confused version of themselves.
One minute you’re cruising through November with spreadsheets, routines, predictable workouts, and the smug confidence of someone who “really has their training dialed in this year.” The next minute you’re wedged between a suitcase, a casserole dish, and a family commitment you didn’t remember agreeing to, wondering how many hours you’ve slept and why your running shoes smell like airport pretzels.
This is normal. This is the season. And yes, you can navigate it without losing your fitness or your mind.
Holiday training isn’t about perfection. It’s about staying connected—to movement, to your routine, and honestly, to yourself—during a time when everything around you gets a little chaotic and a little louder than usual. Here’s how to make it work without needing superhuman discipline or ignoring your people for the sake of a long run.
Plan Ahead and Adapt
Holiday weeks are rarely predictable. You know this. I know this. Yet every year, athletes still create training schedules that assume the universe will peacefully align around their 9 a.m. brick session.
A better approach is to assume the universe will not align. Build your week around the most realistic version of your life, not the idealized version you saw in a TrainingPeaks template.
Start by taking a look at your upcoming week with brutal honesty. Travel days. Early flights. Family gatherings. Work deadlines that magically reappear even though half your office is already on vacation. All of these things matter. Instead of fighting them, work with them.
When you expect interruptions, you stop seeing them as failures. You start seeing them as part of the season.
Once you’ve accepted that this week will be weird, the next step is having a stash of minimal viable workouts. These are your “in case of emergency, break glass” sessions. Short runs. Quick trainer rides. Bodyweight strength circuits in guest-room corners. Bike trainers in AirBnB laundry rooms, with the laptop ontop of the dryer (don’t ask).
There’s something oddly liberating about having a set of fallback options ready. It removes the mental gymnastics. It quiets the guilt. And it reminds you that training doesn’t have to be epic to be effective.
One of the best moves you can make is also the simplest: split things up. Ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes later beats zero minutes all day. Consistency isn’t about intensity right now; it’s about maintaining a rhythm that future-you will thank you for.
If you can stay flexible rather than fragile, you’ll glide through the holidays in a way that feels almost… mature. Athletic wisdom looks a lot like accepting the chaos and doing the best you can with what you’ve got.
Prioritize Consistency Over Perfection
Consistency is the quiet hero of holiday training. Not the dramatic version you see on social media. Not the “I woke up at 4:30 a.m. every day to get my two-hour workout in because excuses are for the weak” brand of consistency. That’s not the assignment here.
The kind of consistency that matters in December is much simpler. Regular movement. Daily touch points. Anchoring your days with even a small amount of training, the same way you anchor your mornings with coffee or your evenings with brushing your teeth.
There’s something powerful about waking up, lacing up, and getting something done. A short jog. A quiet spin. A strength flow that probably looks more like interpretive dance if anyone watched it. None of it needs to be perfect. All of it counts.
Fitness retention is less about heavy training loads and more about keeping the neuromuscular lights on. Your body remembers. Your habits remember. Your mind remembers. You’re protecting the system, not pushing it.
If you’re traveling, there’s always a moment when you land in a strange place, drop your bags, and everything feels unfamiliar. That’s the perfect time for a quick workout. Not because it’s the “disciplined” thing to do, but because it resets your internal compass. It reminds you that no matter where you are, you’re still you.
Social opportunities are also secretly training opportunities (shhhh). Family walks. Turkey Trots. Strolling around neighborhoods looking at holiday lights. Walking the dog after big meals. None of these are going to improve your VO₂ max, but they keep your body moving and your mood stable. Bonus points as they are good for everyone.
And honestly, they’re good moments. The kind you remember more than the perfectly executed interval session you forced yourself to do in a snowstorm.
Consistency, not heroics, is how you glide into January without feeling like you just spent three weeks inside a fitness black hole.
Integrate Rest and Mindfulness
The holidays are not just chaos. They’re also one of the few times of the year when the world eases its grip on your schedule. There’s a softness to this season if you allow yourself to notice it.
And for endurance athletes—who are world-class at not noticing softness—this can be a rare gift.
This is a good time to lean into sleep like it’s an old friend you haven’t talked to in a while. Travel downtime is perfect for this. Airports feel like purgatory when you’re stressed about lost time, but if you flip the script, they become ready-made recovery chambers. Grab a book. Close your eyes for ten minutes. Use the enforced stillness for something other than frustration.
And those later mornings? They’re underrated magic. There’s a tiny thrill in waking up without an alarm and realizing you’re not late for anything. It’s a teenage-level luxury—one most of us didn’t appreciate when we actually were teenagers. You can reclaim it now, but you have to give yourself permission.
Mindfulness doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be a quiet walk after dinner. A few deep breaths before bed. Leaving your phone behind while you step outside. A moment of reflection in the middle of a noisy house.
Some athletes feel guilty resting during the holidays because they think they should be “maximizing the off-season.” But this is maximizing the off-season. Mental freshness is performance fuel. Recovery is not the absence of training. It is training.
And if you can finish the year with a better sense of groundedness than when you started, you’ve already won something more important than any perfect workout.
Putting It All Together: Your Simple Holiday Blueprint
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Plan a “minimum viable week” based on your real schedule, not the one you wish you had.
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Anchor each day with a short session that’s easy to execute regardless of location.
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Keep a small menu of backup sessions on your phone so decisions are frictionless.
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Use family time and social events as movement opportunities rather than obstacles.
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Protect sleep, protect your energy, and remember that rest counts as work in this season.
Closing Thoughts
Holiday training isn’t a stress test; it’s a balancing act. A chance to practice being an athlete who can adapt with grace and humor instead of rigidity. A reminder that fitness is a long game, and longevity favors those who can move with the seasons rather than fight them.
When you embrace the unpredictability, something shifts. Training becomes lighter. Movement becomes play. Rest feels earned instead of stolen. You reconnect with your “why,” and you carry that forward into the new year with more clarity and more joy.
Make the holidays work for you. Not by being perfect—just by being consistent, adaptable, and human.
