One of the reasons that traveling for classes is good that never really gets addressed at the executive planning level is this: when you are in travel status for a class, people generally leave you alone to focus on the class work, if only because you are Far Away and staying in a hotel somewhere. The alternative is what my week has been - with people hunting you up on break or lunch and expecting you to do everything you normally would in addition to eight hours of class a day.
I'm luckier than that sounds at the moment, as my current manager understands the situation and helped arrange back-up for the majority of my day-to-day work. But that back-up couldn't do anything about the quarterly finance report that someone needed me to provide information for... which was where my lunch disappeared to for two of the three class days.