Episode 152 - How to beat jet lag and maximise race performance

How to beat jet lag and maximise race performance

Jet lag can be a triathlete’s worst nightmare. We train for months to perform at our best but international travel leaves us feeling sluggish and out of sync on race day.

What if there was a way to outsmart jet lag and step off the plane feeling sharp and race-ready? It might sound too good to be true but it’s not. I’ve just recorded a masterclass about beating jet lag for my TNA athletes and I want to share some of those hot tips with you too!

So, what exactly is jet lag? It’s that horrible feeling you get when there's a mismatch between your body clock and the new time zone. It's a common issue when travelling overseas, particularly when crossing multiple time zones. Symptoms increase and adjustment times are longer the more time zones you cross. Living in Australia, where it often takes 24 hours on a plane to reach the other side of the world, we're well-acquainted with the feeling.

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Episode Transcription

Episode 152: How to beat jet lag and maximise race performance

Welcome to the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. The show designed to serve you up evidence-based sports nutrition advice from the experts. Hi, I'm your host Taryn, Accredited Practicing Dietitian, Advanced Sports Dietitian and founder of Dietitian Approved. Listen as I break down the latest evidence to give you practical, easy-to-digest strategies to train hard, recover faster and perform at your best. You have so much potential, and I want to help you unlock that with the power of nutrition. Let's get into it.

[00:00:00] Taryn: I've just finished recording a masterclass for our Triathlon Nutrition Academy athletes all about beating jet lag. So I thought I would jump on here and give you some of those hot tips to help you get over jet lag as quickly as possible. We have got Sunny Coast 70. 3 coming up next weekend, which is so exciting

[00:00:39] Taryn: masterclass for my athletes was because we have people flying from all over the world to come and do this at event. And I can't wait to see them. In the flesh, like in real life, you know how you meet people that you've known online for a long time and you see them and you're like, wow, you're way taller than I thought you would be.

[00:00:57] Taryn: I met Leanne in person recently and I was like, man, you have big feet. Cause you never see somebody's feet on zoom, you know, top half only. So I'm so excited to meet them. And you'll be pleased to know that my swimming is coming along. I have finally crossed the threshold of. like struggling, hanging on for dear life to being in the last swim only feeling like I could actually push myself.

[00:01:21] Taryn: So, you know, no time like the present to find some fitness. Uh, and I still hold that I can beat them on not a lot of training, but we will see next weekend. And what I might do is actually do a bit of a sunny coast race recap with all of our athletes that did come and do their race. We've got people coming from Canada, from the U S.

[00:01:41] Taryn: All over Australia. Oh, it's going to be so good. So the masterclass that I did for them all about beating jet lag is to really help those internationals flying in because often it happens when you travel for a race, we often don't have a lot of time to adjust to the new time zone.

[00:01:58] Taryn: We are flying by the seat [00:02:00] of our pants, you know, pun intended, and getting to a race venue only a couple of days before. And depending on how many time zones you've crossed, that's not really enough time to get into the new, uh, Time zone and get over jet lag.

[00:02:16] Taryn: So there's lots of interventions that you can do before, during, and after you travel to try and maximize your adaptation to that new time zone. And I'm going to talk through some of that for you today. So what actually is jet lag? If you've ever traveled, you will know exactly how it feels. It is a horrible feeling, but it's a mismatch between your body clock and your new time zone.

[00:02:39] Taryn: And it always occurs with overseas travel. In particular when you're crossing those multiple time zones. Your symptoms will increase the more time zones that you cross and it takes longer for the body clock to adjust the more time zones that you cross. Now living here down under in Australia for us to get anywhere it's a good 24 hours in a plane to get to the other side of the world.

[00:03:04] Taryn: So we are well adept with the feeling of jet lag.. Some of those symptoms can include poor sleep on the other end because you're all out of whack, that feeling of fatigue, and there's nothing worse than jet lag fatigue where it's two o'clock in the afternoon and your body just wants to go to sleep because it's night time where you came from and you can't, you've got to muscle through at least another sort of six hours to a reasonable bedtime.

[00:03:29] Taryn: That fatigue is next level. Gut discomfort is something else that people do report. And your little gut microbes, the little bugs that hang out in your gastrointestinal tract, they interestingly have their own circadian rhythm. So we need to keep those dudes happy to help us adjust to jet lag quickly as well.

[00:03:48] Taryn: And if you're feeling like that, if you are jet lagged, your performance is decreased. So we want to make sure that we're turning up to a race with, with as much time as you can to adjust to the new time zone, but [00:04:00] if you are, scraping it in only with a couple of days before, then you want to do everything you can to maximize your body's ability to adjust as fast as possible.

[00:04:09] Taryn: This can also be useful not just for racing, but if you travel a lot for work. then this can help you perform better at work when you do arrive at your destination. And I think all of these strategies can be useful if you do overseas travel from a holiday perspective too. Not just racing, but we do know that jet lag and travel fatigue reduces performance.

[00:04:31] Taryn: So how do you beat it? I'm going to go through some of the strategies that I helped my athletes with before travel, so pre travel, during and after. But what I did for my athletes was help them with a complete jet lag adaptation plan, like all the things from start to finish before, during and after travel.

[00:04:50] Taryn: So if you want that, then, well, you're going to have to join the Triathlon Nutrition Academy program to get that. Because I won't be diving into that much detail today on the podcast. So on that note, our final cohort for 2024 does start soon.

[00:05:04] Taryn: I'm actually opening the doors next weekend at Sunny Coast, but our class starts on October 5th. So there's about four weeks from doors opening to when we actually begin our Triathlon Nutrition Academy program and kick it off with Phase 1, Module 1, Recovery Nutrition, which is one of the biggest things you need to get right as a triathlete.

[00:05:24] Taryn: So if you jump in early in that window, Then what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you free access to my Triathlon Nutrition Kickstart course. valued at 367. It is a great warmup to get you started before joining the Triathlon Nutrition Academy program. So it gives you a full month to get in and do that course.

[00:05:45] Taryn: The earlier you join us, the longer you have access to it for, which means that you can go through it systematically without having to rush and go through all of those things to get yourself ready and in a nice place to begin the bigger program.

[00:05:57] Taryn: So if you are interested, [00:06:00] you can register your interest at dietitianapproved.com/academy to jump on our list for October,

[00:06:06] Taryn: or if you've been playing along for a little while and you've been thinking about it, this is your gentle kick in the butt, you will have quite a few weeks to you know, hit the big red button. But if you go to dietitianapproved.com/academy, you'll be able to read about all of the details about what we go through, how the program works, how much it costs, what time things are, all the things are on that page dietitianapproved.com/academy

[00:06:28] Taryn: All right, beating jet lag. Maybe you've thought about it before and how you can beat the system, or maybe you've actually never considered the things that you can do to beat jet lag. But there are actually loads of strategies and evidence based strategies that you can implement to get over it faster.

[00:06:48] Taryn: So let's go through some now. Before you even go to travel, you need to set yourself up for success. Now, I know there's a lot of travelers out there who are quite adept at travel and, you know, have all the boxes that they need to tick and all the things that they like to travel with, but you could also be that person that's running down the gate because you're late for your plane every single time.

[00:07:11] Taryn: So a jet lag perspective, you need to make sure you get on the plane with minimal sleep debt, so don't go out partying like a crazy animal the night before you go and do a big long haul flight. A lot of people do that strategy, I see it everywhere because I think The methodology behind their madness is that they think that they'll be tired so they'll sleep on the plane, but that is not a great strategy when we're trying to beat jet lag faster at the other end.

[00:07:40] Taryn: You are not going to sleep that well on a plane unless you I have paid for first class tickets and can lie flat, but you want to set yourself up for success so that by the time you get on the plane, you don't have a massive sleep debt. That is like tip number one. You can try and bank sleep. I know that they say that you can't bank sleep, and as a sleep deprived parent, I can tell you that you can't bank sleep, but try and be in bed for maybe another 30 minutes or so beforehand before your usual bedtime to try and get a little extra sleep.

[00:08:13] Taryn: That may or may not work depending on how rhythmic you are as a sleeper, but is there a way that you can extend your time in bed or your sleeping time by just a little stretch heading into a big long haul flight? So again, you don't have a big sleep debt and we've got a little bit of wiggle room with our sleep.

[00:08:28] Taryn: We've banked a little bit for a period of time where we're not going to get a lot. As always, you should be aiming for somewhere between seven to nine hours of good quality sleep a night.

[00:08:39] Taryn: Sleep is so important for so many different things, but seven to nine hours generally covers most people. If you are an insomniac or somebody that doesn't sleep very well, then there are so many different things that I would suggest you do to try and increase your sleep time to hit within the seven to nine hours.

[00:08:58] Taryn: So if you're like, whatever, Taryn I'm a five hour sleeper and I'm totally fine. I would argue that you might think you're okay, but you're not. Just like with nutrition, when you start to dial that in, you won't know yourself if you get more like the seven to nine hours sleep a night.

[00:09:12] Taryn: you are just used to only having five hours of sleep. So you're functional, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's a good thing. And also, as always, practice good sleep hygiene. That goes for any time, anywhere, but particularly important to beat jet lag is that you have your good sleep routine, you have a good cool environment, a dark room, it's not noisy, you're comfortable, you've got a really nice pillow, you're not too hot, you're not too cold, all those types of things that go into having good sleep hygiene, as well as a good sleep routine, so that we're not scrolling through Instagram in bed.

[00:09:48] Taryn: And watching screens right up to bedtime, all of those things that emit blue lights. Make sure you've got the warm hue on so that you've got night time or night mode enabled from about six o'clock at night. as [00:10:00] early as you can to make sure that blue light is not affecting our melatonin production.

[00:10:04] Taryn: Because that's really important for going into good sleep easily. There are also some nutritional interventions that I would do with my athletes heading into travel, but we're not going to go through that detail today. I don't know you very well to do that, so I don't want to dive too deeply into those specifics today.

[00:10:23] Taryn: Okay, during travel. This is good tips for anyone, anywhere, anytime. When you are traveling, COVID has taught us quite a number of things around travel safety and hygiene. And I think we need to continue doing those forever more because it is so important to prevent the spread of viruses and bacterial infections and all the things that you generally pick up from flying.

[00:10:47] Taryn: I don't know about you, but every time I fly, I pick up something. And I think COVID has made mask wearing the norm and I think that should continue forever. We should just wear a mask on a plane. All that recirculated air is just gross. When it comes to being hygienic, things that you want to do are wear a mask, try not to touch your eyes and mouth and nose while you're traveling, or if you do, do it right after you've washed your hands with hot water and soap or used hand sanitizer.

[00:11:20] Taryn: And you are doing frequent hand sanitizing. in between hand washings. hand wash as often as you can. Sometimes that's not as easy on a plane. And the other thing that we teach kids all the time that we seem to forget is adults is you want to sneeze into your elbow. So instead of sneezing into your hand and getting all those germs all over your hand and then touching everything and then touching your face, sneeze into your elbow or sneeze into your shirt so that we're not one, spreading those germs, but two, they're not going on your hands, which you are then using to touch everything.

[00:11:52] Taryn: Mobility is also really important on a flight, so getting up as often as you can in your wake period.  So, if you need to, set yourself in an exit row or on an aisle seat so that you have the ability to get up when needed. you need it and when you want to rather than being stuck in the middle and then you've got two sleepers on either side and you, I've done this, had to like climb over on the armrest quietly to get over people to get out to pee.

[00:12:18] Taryn: So set your seating in a way that maximizes what you want to achieve on your plane flight as well. Sleep hygiene on the plane is the same as when you're at home. Do everything that you can to get comfortable. I know it's very difficult to sleep sitting up. I've done it many times and it's. It's the worst, but, invest in a neck pillow that's comfortable, even a blow up one so you don't have to carry it around all the time, uh, eye mask, ear plugs.

[00:12:44] Taryn: anything that you can do to make yourself comfortable in a flight to try and go to sleep. You also need to be mindful of the blue light that's coming from all of the screens in the plane. They don't make them a nice beautiful warm hue that you can do with your own phone or computer or, or tablet. So if you're watching movies, maybe it is your own tablet or computer or phone or something that you are using if you're trying to watch things as you head towards sleep.

[00:13:11] Taryn: And the timing of your sleep on the plane is also really important, but that depends on what your jet lag adaptation plan is to get you in the right time zone for where you're going. Where you've come from and where you're going, there is particular sleep windows that will help maximise your getting over jet lag faster on the plane as well.

[00:13:31] Taryn: Same as from a nutrition perspective, there are lots of little interventions and strategies we can use on a plane to help either go to sleep or stay awake. And also, hot tip here, make sure you are hydrated. It's really difficult to stay hydrated on a plane. You get very dried out from all the air conditioning for such a long period of time.

[00:13:53] Taryn: And you also don't have any easy access to go to a toilet whenever you want to. So sometimes I know people don't drink a lot because they're like, Oh, then I'm going to have to get up and pee and I can't get out of my seat and all those things. So hydration is really, really important on a flight. And I would also, I also have to say this, don't hate me, but alcohol is like one of the worst things that you can drink while flying.

[00:14:17] Taryn: All right, there, I said it moving on. Okay, post travel, this is where like all of our specific adaptation plans come into play with light exposure, use of melatonin, exercise, like getting the right timing for everything based on the time zone you're trying to adjust to becomes super important.

[00:14:36] Taryn: So that's something we dive into the Academy is how to set up that adaptation plan for yourself based on where you've gone and where you are going. It's something I learned about. In my time at the Australian Institute of Sport, it has come a long way in the last 10 years, those plans since when I first started using them.

[00:14:55] Taryn: Uh, and there's so much cool research in this space. So definitely something to consider if you are traveling for a really key event. Like I know we've had worlds here in Townsville, then we've got New Zealand later in the year. You know, there's Kona, there's Nice, there's always going to be travel for racing.

[00:15:12] Taryn: So it's definitely something that I would upskill yourself in if you are doing a lot of travel racing or travel for work so that you can maximize your performance on race day. Maybe you never thought about it. So how cool is science, yo? Okay, so when we get there, just some general advice here would be don't day sleep.

[00:15:35] Taryn: Oh, I know how hard it can feel to just like want to lie down for five minutes and then you're like, Oh crap, I've just been asleep for two hours and then you can't get to sleep that night. So try not to day sleep. And if you are going to have a little nap, like keep it super, super short and keep it before.

[00:15:52] Taryn: You know, a particular time of day based on your adaptation plan. But generally, you know, before lunchtime, we want to avoid having a nap at like, you know, three, four, five o'clock at night. If you're trying to go to bed at eight or nine, that's not going to help our whole sleep onset and our fatigue build to get into sleep really easily.

[00:16:12] Taryn: Caffeine we can use to our advantage. there's particular dosings and frequencies that we can harness there. And again, it depends on your adaptation plan, but caffeine can be a good lever to pull to help with getting over jet lag. But again, we want to be mindful that we're not having it too late in the day.

[00:16:27] Taryn: We're not having too much, and we've got that timing right To help us adjust to the time zone quickly. Sleep hygiene is also key. Like it's always key, right? But just drumming it in that if you want to have a really good sleep when you arrive for those first few nights, help you beat jet lag faster than all of the things apply.

[00:16:46] Taryn: So. Cool room, dark room, nice and quiet. Make sure you've got your own sort of sleep routine happening at your new destination that you would would at home. And we're trying to be in bed for the same duration of time with jet lag. Often you'll wake up at. You know, one or two o'clock in the morning and be awake for hours and can't get back to sleep.

[00:17:08] Taryn: And then you'd finally get back to sleep and then you sleep all day. So we want to set an alarm, get up at your normal time and just go out and start the day rather than slothing about in bed and oversleeping and putting yourself on the back foot. So it's the first few days that you've got to muscle through and then it does get easier.

[00:17:25] Taryn: Nutrition here is also super key. There are lots of strategies that we can implement with our nutrition at arrival at the destination. I would suggest getting your meal time synced in to whatever the meal time is at the destination. What are you trying to adapt to and do that.

[00:17:41] Taryn: Now I know that can be really difficult because you're not hungry at the right times of days and so you miss meals or you end up eating at weird times and remember right in the beginning I said our gut microbes had their own little circadian rhythm. So we kind of want to get those little dudes onto the same rhythm and eating at the [00:18:00] meal times at your destination can help that whole process happen easily.

[00:18:05] Taryn: If you are somebody that suffers from gut upset with jet lag or travel, then there are things that you can do to minimize that as well. Meal timing and maybe even more like little and often so that you are eating, but you're not having this big gigantic meal and then exacerbating your symptoms. So that's case dependent. There's a few things that you can implement there, but not everyone needs to, it just depends if you are somebody that does suffer through that. I can tell you that there is a few things you can do to help minimize that. And then of course when you get there, particularly in a new environment where the water's got different bacteria in it, The food supply is different, , lots of gut issues can arise when you do go to a different food supply.

[00:18:49] Taryn: So just be mindful of that, that, you know, travel and being in a plane in that pressurized cabin for ages and food that is, well, plane food's not great, but food that when you get to your destination is different to normal, your little tummy might go a little bit haywire for a little bit and that's okay.

[00:19:08] Taryn: It hopefully should get better. And the final thing I wanted to say about post travel is that things that we do pre and during with our illness prevention still hold here. You are likely to get sick coming off a plane. I don't know what the percentage is, but it's quite high. And particularly being exposed to new bugs in a new environment.

[00:19:30] Taryn: So do everything that you can with all of your sleep and food hygiene and illness prevention. So again, sneezing in your elbow, hand sanitizer like to the max, washing hands constantly, don't touch your face. Make sure you, the food that you're eating is safe. I probably shouldn't have to say that, but I will say it, , if you're traveling to Asia or somewhere and you're eating street food, just make sure it's fresh and it's hot and all those sorts of things.

[00:19:57] Taryn: Like, particularly if you're racing in those [00:20:00] countries, worst thing that could happen would be that you get some sort of gut bug or bacteria and have gastro pre race that would not end well on race day. So there you have it. Some general beat the jet lag tips and suggestions from me.

[00:20:15] Taryn: Let me know in the Dietitian Approved crew group if this is something you've ever even considered or looked into before because there are so much cool research in this space that you can dive into. There are so many different strategies. What's important to understand though is your journey, your particular journey.

[00:20:31] Taryn: Where are you leaving from? When do you arrive? Like all the different plane trips to get somewhere. That is what the information that can help you have, you know, customs and specific advice for you and your plans. But those are some general tips and suggestions. Let me know in the dietitian approved crew group, though, if jet lag is something that you really struggle with, or if you've got any tips and suggestions for us that you would do yourself that work really well, even if it's like a brand of a cool neck pillow that is, you know, super light and folds up easily.

[00:21:05] Taryn: any of those sorts of things come and have that discussion with us in the DA crew group around jet lag. I think it is a really cool area of research. All right, legend. Thank you for wrapping me around your ear holes today. Next week we will probably be tuning in from sunny coast 70.

[00:21:21] Taryn: 3. But yeah, I will let you know how we go. Wish me luck for my swim. My kids worry that I'm going to go get eaten by a shark out in the ocean. I was like, no, it's okay. I'm just going to swim super fast and get away from the sharks. There's no sharks. We'll be fine. All right. Have a great week.

Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. I would love to hear from you. If you have any questions or want to share with me what you've learned, email me at [email protected]. You can also spread the word by leaving me a review and taking a screenshot of you listening to the show. Don't forget to tag me on social media, @dietitian.approved, so I can give you a shout out, too. If you want to learn more about what we do, head to dietitianapproved.com. And if you want to learn more about the Triathlon Nutrition Academy program, head to dietitianapproved.com/academy. Thanks for joining me and I look forward to helping you smashed in the fourth leg - nutrition!