I find it is quite individual- myself I would need two weeks forkona coming from aus and that's a10hr difference for me here in the west. I seem to cop jet lag pretty bad So I wouldn't rule it out, a week isn't a long time coming from Europe.

Yep. I do the opposite. Come from US west coast to Europe. I'm lagged, jet and every other kind of lag, for about 5-6 days or so.

Make it a 2 week vacation. Come in 2 weeks before the race. Leave day after the race.

Thanks for advising. If I read this ^, do I understand that being on the Island (you call it vacation) for a minimum time is more important than training there?

I'm not sure how much of an influence jet lag is. I've done arriving one week before and also 3 days before.
Had ok races both times.

Coming from a cool european autumn you def need to keep on top of your hydration and rest up in the days up to the race. Nap during the day if you can't sleep all night.

I also stayed in places without air con.. mainly because it was cheaper but I also think it helps with acclimatization.

Brett Sutton wrote a blog on the subject not too long ago. Will see if I can find it.

EDIT: http://trisutto.com/...ast-acclimatisation/

Coming from Hawaii, I’m used to dealing with jet lag pretty much wherever I travel in the world. The 12 hour difference to/from Europe is really tough. The thing that I’ve found that works best is stopping halfway (for example in NYC or Chicago) and spending a night or two. Breaking up the travel into two shorter days with a good night’s sleep in between is much less jarring than one giant trip with no sleep and a huge time difference upon landing.

Thanks Baron for taking the effort in finding this Brett Sutton blog.
There it says
„The 7-day option is the killer.“

Seems that I exactly stepped in that trap.

Brett Sutton has talked about this before what he does with his athletes and I tend to agree. Either come in like everyone is suggesting two weeks before to get out the grey zone of fatigue through jetlag you enter or fly in just before the race before you enter the grey zone. Kona you most probably need the acclimatisation so I like to try and get there closer to two weeks before.

I don't know if it was jet lag, but I was spectating and also carrying on with my marathon training, and I could barely run for the first four days. I chalked it up to the time on the plane rather than jet lag, but I was awkward and bouncy and just awful all over.

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The point is, ladies and gentleman, that speed, for lack of a better word, is good. Speed is right, Speed works. Speed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

I don't know if this is relevant for everyone, but I travel a lot to California from London and the general rule of thumb is that it takes one night/day per timezone to fully adjust when going East to West (eg: London to CA). I think Kona would be like 7-8 timezones from Europe. I almost always feel pretty good for the first few nights and can train super early in the morning (b/c I'm up very early), but days 3-5 get a little tougher before getting over the hump. Basically it's b/c you haven't slept normally for 3-5 nights in a row.

Going back East, I think the rule is about 1.5 days per timezone. I just accept the fact that I won't feel great in the morning coming back to London, so the first week back, workouts are usually pretty easy and I try to do them later in the day (b/c it's hard to wake up).

Given this information, I usually avoid doing any races in the US coming from Europe. I've never had a good race - IM, marathon, etc...I'll go to Continental Europe for races which are only 1 hour difference and usually like to arrive only 1 or 2 days before a race. Just like sleeping in my bed as much as possible.

If you can afford it, I would go to Kona as early as possible. Getting over jetlag is the biggest thing that would help. If this is too expensive, maybe you go to California first for a week. Go to Kona the 2nd week to ease into the timezones.

That's pretty spot on. 1 day per hour when traveling west, and 1.5days/hr when traveling east seems on par with my experience. so if you're dealing with 10-12hrs, you're looking at closer to two weeks before race day to deal with it. If that's not possible, you can try to gradually shift your hours a few days before you leave in terms of bed times and meal times, to cheat a few days... You can usually only compensate for a couple of hours like that, because of differences in sunlight, but with that method you can knock the first hour or two out of the time difference before you step on the plane (I also adjust my watch to destination time as soon as I board the plane... that might mean multiple adjustments if I have multiple connections, but I find that helps to get the brain to start adjusting.

That 12 hours is a killer. I did a lot of business trips from East Coast NA to Taiwan/Korea/Japan/China. I would train every day 2x per day. Workout number 1 was normally a run at 6 am before work. Workout number two was hotel gym bike and weights in the 6-8 pm or swm+weights. The morning workout was really easy because it was in my north America dinner time (6am = 6 pm). My morning business meetings were awesome....I would be full of energy until around 2 pm. I got in the habit of putting high pressure meetings in the morning (that's your Kona swim + bike). Afternoon was always really bad (this is your Kona run).

I actually don't understand why everyone in Kona would be out training at 6 am....actually I do because they are on North America or Europe time and already have been up. But that's what people are screwing up on. You just want to lie in bed no matter how awake as late as possible. The performance at the Kona race on the swim no matter how good or bad you feel will be around 1-2 min. On the bike, maybe 5 min. Then coming from Europe you are doing the run course in your REM sleep.

If I was to advise European athletes coming over, I'd tell them to not work out at all in the morning. Get out in the sun at 2 in the afternoon and have the sun beat down on your skin during your REM sleep time every day. I found 6-7 days is really not enough to get accustomed to the time change. Basically the day after you arrive in Kona you do everything you have to do in the sun during Euro REM sleep time and accelerate your body's flip over to the new time zone. Whatever you do DO NOT TAKE NAPS IN THE AFTERNOON. If you can get there 10 days early it would be better. Before you leave if there is any way you can sleep in till 9am in Europe and remove 3 hours of the time change that would be fantastic.

If you can afford to come to Kona or US West Coast 2-3 weeks early that would be a huge bonus. US West coast guys have the best advantage (3 hours). Aussies have it pretty decent as they are only coming backwards east 4 hours (no your body does not know 20 hours, it just knows 4 hours), so not bad.

For the record my worst track times on business trips are when I run in my REM sleep time. This is when I go 6 hours east from Canada East coast to Europe and have to get up at 6 am to run before work. 6 am europe is midnight Canada, so by the time I am launched into my run around 7 am, it is 1 am back home. My mile times would easily be 20-30 seconds worse for several days before I settled into the new time zone. All you Euros, you're doing the Kona run in your REM sleep period, so it's like the worst time you could possibly pick for an IM marathon

I think that jet lag is a REAL reason performance could decline. It wasn't for me (I had a personal worst day), from California I felt like every day was like sleeping in; because I went to bed at a early HI time. Even race morning was easy-peazy.

So for anyone from Europe, I could see a few weeks before. Really though, for anyone a few weeks to acclimatize to the heat and humidity, should be important. I'm good in the heat, but it started to cool a bit about 3+ weeks before race day and I lost some of my heat tolerance. At least that's my current theory/excuse.

enjoy the journey (just get there early :-| )

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I saw this on a white board in a window box at my daughters middle school...
List of what life owes you:
1. __________
2. __________
3. __________

This is great detail in adjusting to different zones and likely exactly why you suffered so much in Kona. If you should be asleep (in Europe) during the hardest part (run)..it'll be 5x as hard than usual! I did Kona once and was throwing up all over the place on the run.

Further, on top of getting more Sun during your normal sleep hours, try to adjust your stomach. Like start adjusting in Europe a few days before you leave (eg: eat closer to Kona times). I know this is hard, especially if you have kids, etc...But, shifting my stomach schedule is usually the indicator that I'm adjusting to the timezone. I hate it when I get back to Europe from CA and I don't have my normal toilet routine in the morning, then go for a run only to have bad stomach issues.

People always ask me if I just adjust to jetlag easier b/c I'm relatively fitter than others, but I tell them it's the opposite. I'm worse b/c my body is so used to a routine...wake up, toilet, eat a little or workout, work, lunch workout, eat, etc...

I agree with what Trauma said. I used to fly to Asia for work 2-3 per year from the US, so roughly the same distance and number of time zones.

One thing that always seemed to help me get acclimated more quickly was the timing of the flights. I would leave California around noon and force myself to stay awake until I got the hotel in China at 8p local time. I might snooze for an hour or two on the plane but I tried to keep it to a minimum. I was basically staying awake for 20+ hours and would arrive exhausted but would sleep well, 12-13 hours, the first night. It seemed to help me get on a good sleep pattern quickly. Granted, I wasn't preparing for an Ironman, just meetings and factory visits. I would go to the gym and work out and would feel fine.

Going home from Asia...that's another post for another time.

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Shawn
TORRE Consulting Services, LLC
http://www.TORREcs.com

Hi Trousers,

I am in an international airline pilot flying some of the longest routes in the world and doing training on my layovers so I believe I have established some cred here. Over a decade of doing this.

#1) Yes, people coming from a closer time zone will have less problems. People travelling west for the race will have an advantage over people travelling east as a general rule.

#2) No one can rule out jet-lag as your problem for this performance. However had you arrived 2 weeks before the race then I can assure you jet-lag wasn't your problem.

Bonus Tip: The more you travel and deal with jet-lag the less it will affect you and the quicker you can adapt to time zone change compared to the non-traveller.

If you want to do your best in Hawaii, looks like your next trip just got way more expensive!

Good Luck!

First of all what are you comparing your performance to? Almost no one beats or gets that close to their qualifying times at Kona, for a number of reasons. Is that what you are basing this on??

Jet lag is a myth made up by people who have never worked shifts.

With my questions I wanted to get some information about jetlags, which I, to be honest, had not considered so much beforehand and I am greatful for all the information I got here.


If however in the end the jetlag has indeed influenced my racetime negatively is another question, although I tend to think it has.

Although I blame it on the jetlag that I had a weaker performance as I expected, and although I arrived indeed a week before the race which seems to be too short if I read the posts above, to be fair I must add the following:

As I read from the interview of Herbert Krabel with the fastest agegrouper Christian Haupt on the front page of slowtwitch, he arrived also exactly one week before the race in Kona (I presume from Germany). Obviously that did not work out negatively for him.
Hmmmmmm...

I thought exactly the same thing as you did. Perhaps, jet lag only affects people once they turn 50, and, not before :-|

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I saw this on a white board in a window box at my daughters middle school...
List of what life owes you:
1. __________
2. __________
3. __________

My wife said the same thing to me, that I being 56 years old would cope worse with jet lag than younger people. Of course I'm reluctant to hear things like that.

As others have indicated, gut biome lags along with sleep rhythms. It's possible a carefully crafted nutrition strategy could be spiked by secretions/bacteria/digestion being out of kilter.