Jet Lag

[viennese]

How do international competitors cope with jet lag?

you often hear that skater x or y arrived early" in order to adjust to a different time zone. how early? the current schedule of int'ls wouldn't allow much more than a few days.

has anyone ever heard top skaters or coaches talk about how they deal with all this travel?

(frankly, i'm hoping to get some good tips for when I travel.)

[Gaela]

I've wondered about that, too. I can't even handle a two hour shift back going from Vancouver to Winnipeg, but then I'm not a morning person, and I'm not young. When I was young I could spend the night on the train travelling through Europe, to save on hostels.

So, they've got youth on their side. I imagine a two or three hour change in time would be relatively easy to adapt to, but a huge shift, I dunno--I would think get their early enough to be totally tired for one day by purposely losing sleep, and then you would probably adjust. Skaters probably are good sleepers given how much they exercise. That's the only way I can understand how they perform under such a grueling schedule.

[Proudmom]

I know one skater who says she stays up all night the night before she leaves packing and then is able to sleep on the plane and has little trouble with the time differences.