Travel and Training

[joanlinda]

I would like to train to row my first marathon on June 21st (as overkill for the Solstice Challenge). I will be traveling for two weeks in march, five days in April, and 5 days in May. Many of the places I am staying have exercise equipment, but (much to my aggravation) do NOT have an Erg available. What suggestions do you have to maintain my training while I'm on the road?

[jvincent]

I will either bike or run when I travel.

Neither are quite the same muscle groups, but you'll keep your cardio up.

[gregsmith01748]

Do a google map search for the nearest crossfit location to where you are. All of them have well maintained ergs and all that I have contacted have been willing to let me come in on a day pass or for free.

Just contact them by email in advance and ask. I've been thrilled with the response in Tucson, San Diego and Orange County.

[AnimalNige]

My travel training issue is jet lag.

Europe to West Coast is not too bad. The day after arriving, I get up early, and get on my USA bike (I keep a Trek Madone out there), and my West Coast rhythm is kicked off. I stay there a couple of weeks, and it's not that difficult to adjust. There's a gym at the office with every bit of kit imaginable, so I still train every day.

This is the guys on my wheel on West Old La Honda on the Tuesday:

But returning to the UK is a different matter. I'm floored for three days. Anyone have strategies to deal with west->east jet lag?

[jvincent]

But returning to the UK is a different matter. I'm floored for three days. Anyone have strategies to deal with west->east jet lag?

I used to do East Coast to Asia regularly.

The key on the return trip is to NOT sleep on the plane during waking hours at your arrival. The flights I typically took left at 2PM Asia time, which is 2AM East coast. I'd try to get a nap ASAP once the plane was airborne. The key here would be to make sure you were up late the night before so that once you got on the plane, you could get a decent nap.

Once you hit 10AM or so arrival time, you have to commit to staying awake until you arrive. Our flights arrived around 8PM local, so I'd get home and then go to bed normal time and wake up normal time the next morning.

Depending on the depature/arrival times, this should work. It has been tested and blessed by myself and many co-workers. The one caveat is that you need to be able to sleep on planes.

[AnimalNige]

Thanks. Seems like I have to wake up at UK waking up time while still over the Atlantic then, and just force myself to stay awake from then until I get home. Ugh!

[jvincent]

Ugh indeed. It's a good way to catch up on your reading or movie watching though.

[Citroen]

There's two strategies you can use.

1. Silicon Valley is (usually) eight hours behind. So if you normally get up at 07:00 when you're out there, on homeday minus five get up at 06:00, day minus 4 get up at 05:00, day minus 3 @ 04:00, day minus 2 @ 03:00 and on fly home day at 02:00 (yes that's stupid o'clock). Going to bed ever earlier on each of those days. When you drop back in to Blighty you're only three hours adrift of local time and that's easy to catch up with.

2. Or try melatonin, if it works for you, you can avoid jet-lag by carefully dosing yourself with that. My wife is the World's worst for jet lag and she now swears by it.

The other critical component is meal times. If you can eat at breakfast, lunch and dinner times (UK) in the last couple of days in the USA you can reset your circadian rhythm's quicker and easier when you get home. That may be less than practical with an eight hour zone change.

For me, I'm one of those smug b'stards that doesn't get jet lagged, the hard part of SFO to LHR is the endurance of eleven hours in an aircraft. Last time I flew with United I had the pasta and that made it worse. When I arrive at LHR at 11:00 GMT (or BST) it feels like 11:00 GMT it doesn't feel like 03:00 PST. I'm usually fully awake about four hours before landing.

BTW, when I was out there last time I bought a Trek bike from the shop in Los Gatos. On the first Saturday I was was in Cupertino and met a really nice couple of cyclists who invited me to ride with them on HWY 35 on the Sunday. HWY 35 is one of the nicest roads on the planet. The climb up HWY 9 is worth it. There's nothing to beat coming down through the redwood trees.

[jvincent]

, the hard part of SFO to LHR is the endurance of eleven hours in an aircraft.

Pfft.

YYZ to HKG -> 15:35:00.

It's "only" 14:40:00 on the way back. And those times are the new shorter ones since they've been flying the polar route for the last few years.

[Citroen]

I'll see your YYZ (Toronto) to HKG (Hong Kong) and raise you LHR to SIN & SIN to MEL.

That was 21:00 BST Friday to 04:00 AEST Monday and an eleven hour zone shift.

[jvincent]

Two legs to that. It's like cheating!

[Citroen]

Two legs to that. It's like cheating!

BA & Quantas didn't fly non-stop back then, it was a 747 with 1:45 on the ground in Singapore for re-fuelling.