Most busy athletes don't miss their marathon or 70.3 target because they're unfit. They miss it because the plan assumes work, travel and sleep don't exist. Your body doesn't keep separate accounts for a threshold run and a brutal week at work.
Total load, not just training load
Sleep loss, long flights, time-zone changes and work stress all add to the recovery you need. Pile a hard interval session on top of a sleepless overnight flight and you're unlikely to get the fitness benefit — and more likely to feel wrecked, get ill or pick up a niggle (Kellmann et al., 2018; Janse van Rensburg et al., 2021).
Around the flight
- Match the session to how you've recovered: if your morning resting heart rate is clearly up (around 5+ beats a minute) or HRV has dropped after travel, swap the hard session for easy aerobic work, mobility or a rest day.
- Drink steadily: cabin air is dry. Sip water regularly — roughly 150–250 ml an hour is a sensible guide — and go easy on alcohol.
- Time your caffeine: use it to stay alert in the destination's morning, and avoid it in the hours before you want to sleep.
- Shift to local time early: eat and sleep on destination time as soon as you can. Light exposure is the strongest signal for resetting your body clock; meal timing helps too (Wehrens et al., 2017; Janse van Rensburg et al., 2021).
Fuelling a heavy work day
- Don't skip meals through meetings and then eat most of your food late at night. You'll train and recover worse.
- Spread protein across the day: around 20–40 g per meal, every 3–4 hours, supports muscle recovery (Jäger et al., 2017). Pair it with carbohydrate on training days.
- Plan travel weeks as lighter weeks: a planned easier week works far better than forcing peak volume in a hotel gym.
Quick checklist
- Work stress, poor sleep and travel all count towards your load.
- Skip hard intervals straight after a sleepless or long-haul flight.
- Get on local time quickly: light, meals and sleep.
- Schedule business trips as planned lighter weeks.