Long Flight Protocol Results

In my last post How to Fly and Live to Tell about it, I described a new protocol I was going to try on a long haul flight. I have the results of the first test. My results say you should try this the next time you fly.

On Sunday I woke up early, ran the Carlsbad 1/2 Marathon and then headed to the airport for my flight to Frankfurt. I highly suggest you don't attempt this. The running puts you in an inflamed damaged state and unless you are ultra diligent about hydration and recovery the flight could do more damage. I consumed about 50 ozs of water along with a good solid food intake and my recovery drink before the flight. At the airport I had more water and 800 milligrams of Co Q10. I used Premier Resaerch Labs. During the flight I drank roughly 30 oz of water and had 200 mg every 2 hours outside of the time I was fast asleep. Monday when we landed we got moving straight away. We landed at 11:00 am and had a meeting at 5:00pm. My body felt rested and most important there was no swelling in my feet or legs. I was able to get up the next morning and run for 60 minutes no problem.

After two nights in Germany it was back to the airport for another flight across the water back to the USA. I followed the same protocol with 32 oz of water prior to boarding and 800 mg of CoQ10 and then 200 mg every two ours. I drank 32-48 oz of water as well. The only issue with drinking this much water on the plane is that I had to get up to use the bathroom 5 times on the flight. Yes that seems like quite a bit but the flight was 9 hours so not too bad.

I had a long layover including a 2 hour delay in Chicago so I decided to continue with the 200mg every 2 hours until I finally landed in Salt Lake City for stop #2 of my trip. After a good nights sleep and an easy morning, I got outside and had a great run in the SLC sun. Again, no swelling of the feet or feeling of thick blood trying to pump through.

Some other thoughts.

1.  I used upgrades on all the flights so I flew business class. I believe the flat seats help to keep the blood from pooling in my feet. If you can't do that than it's more important that you get up an move around often. I will have to do that test at some point. 
2. I had a glass of wine on each of the long haul flights but kept it to one glass. I am constantly amazed at the amount of drinking that goes on during flights. For instance on the way back from Germany the guy next to me drank 6 - 8 cans of beer in a 9 hour flight. I am sure he did not go for a run the next day. 
3. I did eat the first meal on each of the long haul flights. Staying away from bread/gluten or over eating. They serve Ice Cream Sundaes in business class and I declined. I always skip the meal just prior to landing. I have enough snacks with me and I surely don't trust food that's been prepared the previous day and then zapped in a micro wave. 

Again this was the first test. It's the best I've ever felt coming off long haul flights so I'm convinced it's good protocol. If I do it again with poor results I'll comment on that too. Neither flight offered Wi Fi so I chose not to test the grounding of my bare foot to the seat stay in front of me. I'm sure there will be plenty of chance to do this in the near future. 

It's a good life...