Trail Notes | Movement & Motherhood

for the mother who keeps moving when everything shifts

Training Through

school holidays.

School holidays do not need to take your training. They need a different version of it. One built for full days, shared time and the realities of parenting.

School holidays land for working mothers like a small weather system. The morning routine that protected your early run dissolves. The school drop that anchored your day disappears. The kids are at home, the snacks are constant, the noise level changes, the screens become a daily negotiation, and the long quiet window you used for training simply stops existing.

For most of the women we coach, holidays are not the season they look forward to in their training. They are the season they brace for. They try to keep the same plan, run on no sleep, feel like the version of themselves they do not enjoy, and arrive at the end of the break either exhausted or having let it go entirely.

It does not have to be like this. Holidays do not have to take your training. They just have to change its shape.

Trail Note  ·  01

Drop the term-time plan, redesign the week

The first mistake we see is mothers trying to run the same plan they ran in term-time, on top of a completely different life. The plan was built for school days. Holiday weeks deserve a holiday plan.

Start by looking at the actual two to three weeks in front of you. Where is the childcare? Where is the partner support? Where are the camps, the grandparents, the play dates? Where will you be travelling? Where will you actually have one to two consistent windows of an hour?

Then design your training week around those windows, not around a perfect plan that needs hours you do not have.

Trail Note  ·  02

Pick the two non-negotiables

In a normal week, you might have four or five sessions. In a holiday week, choose two non-negotiables. The two sessions you absolutely will run, no matter what. Usually one quality session, and one longer effort if it fits, or two steady aerobic runs if the longer one is impossible.

Everything else is optional. The third or fourth run becomes a bonus, not a baseline. A short jog, a treadmill, a stroller walk, a strength session in the kitchen, a hike with the kids. If you only nail your two non-negotiables, you have done enough to hold your fitness.

This is the difference between a holiday block that protects your aerobic engine and one that ends in burnout. Less, executed, beats more, missed.

Trail Note  ·  03

Lock the early run

For most mothers in holiday mode, the early run is the only run that consistently happens. The kids are still asleep. The house is still quiet. You can be back before anyone notices. The house is still yours for a little while.

Front-load the morning. Lay out your kit the night before. Pre-set the coffee. Place your shoes by the door. Sleep in your running clothes if it helps. The lower the morning friction, the more likely you are to actually go.

If late nights are tipping your mornings, choose earlier bedtimes for yourself across the week. The hour after the kids are asleep is quiet time that can work for you.

Trail Note  ·  04

Have a conversation with your partner before the holidays start

If you have a partner, the holiday block needs a conversation, not an assumption. Talk about which mornings you will run. Which days they will solo parent for the first hour. Which weekend morning is yours for the longer session. Which days you might swap so they get their own time too.

Decide it before the holiday begins, when there is space to talk well. Holiday afternoons, with overtired children and unmet needs, are not the moment to negotiate fair training time.

If your situation is harder, single parenting, shared parenting at distance, partner away for work, get creative. Childcare swaps with another mother, paid help, an older sibling, grandparents, friends. Ask for it. Plan it in advance. Build the windows.

Trail Note  ·  05

Bring the kids into the movement, when it fits

Holidays are also a chance to let the kids see your training, not just be excluded from it. A pram run while one is asleep. A hike together where you wear a small pack. A trail walk where they explore and you cover steady ground. A bike-and-jog where they ride alongside you. A trip to the park where you do a short loop while they play.

These sessions do not replace your quality work. They support your aerobic base and they show your children that movement is part of how their mother lives.

When it is age appropriate, give them a small role. Holding the timer. Bringing snacks. Choosing the path. They start to feel ownership of family movement, instead of seeing it as the thing that takes you away.

Trail Note  ·  06

Travel weeks have their own rules

If part of the holiday involves travel, expect everything to take longer than normal. Sleep is worse. Mornings are messier. Familiar gear is missing. Schedules shift. Run plans should shrink, not grow.

Pack your shoes, a small hydration pack, the kit you actually use, and one familiar fuel option. Choose a couple of simple sessions ahead of time. A 30 minute easy run. A short hill session of 6 by 60 seconds. A longer steady effort if a window appears. Do not try to nail a complex session in a new place with no recce and no sleep.

If the trip is short, sometimes the smartest move is to fold the travel week into your recovery week. The fitness will hold. The relationships will benefit. You will come home ready to absorb a proper training block.

Trail Note  ·  07

What you can still build during holidays

Holiday blocks are usually not the place to push fitness up. They are a great place to protect what you have, keep your routine alive, and quietly improve other things that often get neglected in busy term weeks.

A holiday block that protects sleep, builds mobility, supports your relationships and keeps two strong runs in the week is not a wasted block. It is one of the smartest blocks you can run.

Trail Note  ·  08

Watch the guilt trap

There are two common guilt traps in the holiday weeks. The first is feeling guilty for training, like you are robbing the family of time. The second is feeling guilty for not training, like you are losing yourself.

Both are exhausting. Both are usually unfair. A small, regular run is good for you, good for your kids, good for the home you come back to. Skipping a session because the day exploded is not a moral failure. It is information.

Reduce the noise. Run when you can. Rest when you need to. Show up tomorrow.

Trail Note  ·  09

A simple holiday-week shape

Trail Note  ·  10

When the wheels come off

Sometimes a holiday week falls apart. Sickness arrives. Sleep collapses. A child needs more than you expected. A trip changes shape. Three days disappear and you have not run.

When this happens, the move is not to cram. It is to reset. Pick the next single best session you can do, do it well, and start the next block from where you are. Do not punish your body with a sudden, undisciplined long run to make up for missed kilometres. That is how injuries and burnout begin.

A great long-term runner is not someone who never has a messy week. She is someone who knows how to get back on the trail with grace when the week settles.

Trail Note  ·  11

The invitation

School holidays are not the end of your training. They are a different training season inside the same year. Designed well, they keep you connected to your body, your goals and your sanity, while your life takes on more weight at home.

Drop the term-time plan. Talk to your partner. Pick two non-negotiables. Lock the early run. Bring the kids in where it fits. Take a day off without apology. Sleep more. Eat well. Be kind to yourself when a day falls apart.

You will end the break still a runner. Still strong. Still in motion. And ready to absorb whatever the next block asks of you.

train the week you are in, not the week you wish you had

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