I’m back in Blighty with the pavements, lifts and toilets after two and a half weeks of sidewalks, elevators and ‘washrooms’. I’ve been to Seattle, Vancouver and a few places in between, and while I was there I tried to fit in some training for my upcoming half-marathon.

Moving around a lot meant travelling light, so Lazy Boy wasn’t best pleased to see that as well as two pairs of shoes and a pair of boots, I was packing my running shoes. Now I might not be as fast as a fox but I’m twice as cunning so I made extra space by packing by socks, shorts, bra and t-shirt inside my shoes to economise on space. That’s today’s top tip.

Other advice for training while on holiday includes packing an understanding travelling partner. Lazy Boy was on board with my training but I didn’t do anything excessive. I did six runs in total while I was away each of just three or four miles. And although I was in some top settings for running I mainly stuck to the gym. It was quicker and simpler for me to pop down a couple of floors to the gym in the elevator and jump on the treadmill for half an hour than to get lost or carried away running in a unfamiliar city. We also discussed it before we set off so he knew what to expect – I didn’t just lace up my trainers on day one when he was reaching for the guidebook.

I had also planned ahead. I’d allowed for my holiday in my training plan so I didn’t feel too guilty about running a couple of low mileage weeks. My training plan called for lower mileage at that point – I just stepped it up (or should that be down) a bit.

But the most important adice for training on holiday is to remember its a holiday. For me, running a little is a way of relaxing so it was easy to feel like I was on holiday still. However, if I’d been trying to keep up the mileage I’d been doing the previous couple of weeks it would have been a chore and stopped me doing some of the holiday things I wanted. Half marathons happen every week somewhere or other in the country – if I don’t hit my target in this one, there’ll be another. But holidays are much rarer for me and therefore trump running every time.

You can expect a few holiday-related posts over the next week. Next time the differences between running in the US and the UK.