Summary • Athletes often need to undertake long-distance journeys for competition or training. Any long journey will be associated with "travel fatigue", the symptoms of which are due to sleep loss and altered meals, the general hassle associated with travel, and disruption to an individual`s routine. • Planning a trip well in advance will minimise many of these problems but other factors, including sitting in cramped conditions and dehydration, require targeted actions by the traveller. • If flying across several time zones is involved, there will also be the problem of "jet lag". This is caused by a transient desynchrony between the "body clock" and the new local time. • Travel fatigue and jet lag are inevitable consequences of travel. • Though similar in some of their symptoms, they are caused by different aspects of travel. • Travel fatigue wears off after one day, but jet lag takes longer (about 1 day per time zone crossed). • Advice can be given to minimise the problems associated with both these negative effects of travel. This is summarised in Figure 28.5. • To be fully recovered, individuals should reach their destination some days before important activities and engagements.
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