Forget about boot camp – take ‘sweat leave’ instead

Ever wanted to tell your boot camp instructor to shove it?

Ever wanted to say “I’ve had enough of this pre-dawn madness, I’m going on holidays”.  If so, maybe it’s time that you did.

More people are now ditching boot camp and taking ‘sweat leave’ – combining their holidays with physical exercise and activities – and are reaping the health benefits.

And seriously, can there possible be a better way to get your body and mind back in shape than a holiday to some of the most beautiful and interesting parts of the world?

Jogging or bike riding is an efficient way to take in the sights and sounds of a new city, and to get your heart rate up at the same time.

This is the approach I took to preparing for the 2011 Sun-Herald City2Surf.

Or at least, that was the rationale I used to leave Heartbreak Hill behind, and to head to Europe for a week-long island hopping experience off the Dalmatian Coast with an organised sailing / cycling tour.

It all seemed to make sense.

The islands are perfect bike riding country – ups and downs, picturesque country laneways, and a consistent procession of charming little stone villages.

Not to mention the weather, the landscape, swimming in the Adriatic Sea, and the excellent Croatian beer.

While most travellers are familiar with Dubrovnik, there are many other historic towns and secluded swimming spots to discover along the Southern Dalmatian coast.

One of my bike riding companions, Haiko Buchholz of Stendal in Germany, was taken aback by the countless villages that dot the coastline and surround the islands.

“I’d never heard about the villages.  And I’d never heard about the city where we started the tour, Trogir.  It’s a very beautiful city, with ancient buildings.”

According to tour guide Stefan Vukov, the number of people being surprised by places such as Trogir, Hvar, Korcula and Brac has steadily grown over the past few years, as the bloody years of Balkan conflict recede into the past.

“Six or seven years ago most tourists in Croatia were from German speaking language countries – the Germans, Austrians, Swiss – but today we have a lot more guests from everywhere in the world.

“Australians come a lot, and from America, New Zealand.”

And increasingly people are not going for a holiday, they’re going for an outdoor Dalmatian experience.

“The type of vacation where you go to your hotel and stay there for a few days, and just laying on the beach, or just going to one town – it’s over, you know,” says Stefan.

“People want to do more, to get exercise.”

Part of this is getting out of the tour bus and hire car, and seeing the region from closer up.

“When you drive it with a car it’s the same distance, but you don’t feel it, you see really everything you can see on the bike.”

Experienced cyclist Haiko was not only surprised by towns like Trogir, he was also surprised by some of the steep hills.

“I think it was more difficult than I expected.

“It’s not too difficult for me to do this, to cycle to the top of the mountains, but I have my own business and I haven’t got so much holidays, so I don’t know if it would do such a thing again in the next year or so.  I like going with my caravan!”

Over the course of the week, the best (and most demanding) ride that we tackled was a 50-kilometre trek across the island of Korcula.

From Korcula Town we rode through the historic town precinct, and then along a road that clung to the shoreline for about four or five kilometres.

Turning inland at Kneza, we faced a thigh-burning, lung-bursting hill climb through terraced vineyards and olive groves.

A highlight at the top, apart from the breathtaking outlook back to the Peljasac Peninsula, was finding a small stone shrine to Saint Anthony – built by hand by a local farmer.

Stopping at a café in Ceva, a small inland village, was just the ticket to refresh some fatigued limbs, and prepare everyone for the exhilarating descent back down to sea-level.

We continued to ride through more vineyards, over cobbled laneways and quiet back streets to the fishing village of Vela Luka.

After a week of lounging around our boat, interspersed with a few short bike rides, tour guide Stefan called my bluff on my ‘sweat leave’ theory.

“It’s not really a trip where you can get better in shape.  You need a longer time than one week.”

More than one week? That seemed unfair.

But in truth, I’d spent more time reading than riding, my bum had been planted in a deck chair more often than it had been on a bike seat, and most of the cycling was fairly gentle.

Luckily however, time was on my side.  And what better excuse to stay in Europe a little bit longer, and to turn up the pace of my training routine a few notches?

By the time I got back to Sydney I was ready to tackle the City to Surf, and to knock five minutes off my personal best.

The moral of the story: bootcamp is for chumps, take sweat leave instead.

- Stewart Prins