Hej (hello) from Denmark!  One of the perks of working for a Danish company is the occasional trip to the motherland, and I’m fortunate to have enough time to explore the lay of the land over the next week.  After a couple days of work in Copenhagen, my colleagues and I are off to Zurich where we’ll be hiking through the Swiss Alps as part of our semiannual team-building event.  The team consists of computer scientists and managers – not the textbook mountaineering type, and my boss provided us with a detailed packing list that spelled out exactly what to bring to the mountains.  I’ve traveled a lot in the past few years, and I’ve come across methods that’ve helped me streamline packing and diversify my fitness outlets while I’m on the road.  Here are my top 5 (in no specific order):

1. Water bottle – Flying always tends to have a dehydrate me.  I make sure to fill my bottle on the way to the airport, and I down as much as I can in the gate before takeoff.  Although some airlines are now unwilling to refill water bottles, I’ve had better luck traveling abroad, and I’ve hydrated better as a result.

2. Smartphone – Despite the potential for a high phone bill when traveling abroad, the smartphone is a vital part of my workouts when I’m away from home.  It allows me to take pictures, find a route, look up places to refuel, and call Taylor for help if I run out of sour candy.

3. Stretching gear – I try my best to bring a stretching strap, lacrosse ball, and The Stick with me wherever I go.  San Francisco Airport has a yoga room in Terminal 2, and although not all airports can match that level of pretension, I like to incorporate stretching into my workouts whenever I can.  I’ve recently added cables to my repertoire and will be trying them out for resistance on this trip.

4. Running shoes – If I had to choose one of these items, it’d easily be running shoes.  Running’s my go-to workout away from home – it’s fast, efficient (oh so important in Denmark) and most importantly, it allows you to see a new destination on foot.  When the opportunity presents itself, I pack both road and trail shoes.

5. Nutrition – At a minimum, I like to bring enough to fuel me before and after workouts.  Taking fuel out of the equation saves a lot of time on the road – I can wake up, down some fuel, workout and know that I won’t have hunger pangs afterwards.

Honorable mention: compression socks – I don’t have any hard science to quantify it, but compression socks make me feel good.  I wear them during and after long runs, along with long plane rides.