Trenton ·May 11, 2026 · 5 min read
Traveling for a HYROX race sounds exciting until you actually do it.
Long flights.
Time zone changes.
Bad sleep.
Airport food.
Delayed luggage.
Jet lag.
Swollen legs.
And somehow you’re supposed to show up and perform at your absolute best.
After years of competing internationally, Rich Ryan, Meg Jacoby, and Ryan Kent have learned the hard way what works — and what absolutely does not — when it comes to traveling for HYROX competitions.
Whether you’re racing at HYROX World Championships, flying overseas for your first major race, or simply traveling across the country for competition, your travel strategy matters more than most athletes realize.
Because once you reach a certain fitness level, performance often comes down to recovery, preparation, and minimizing unnecessary stress.
Here’s how elite HYROX athletes approach travel, recovery, nutrition, and race preparation while competing internationally.
The biggest mistake?
Trying to train too hard immediately after landing.
A lot of athletes feel pressure to “run off the jet lag” after a long flight. After sitting for 8–12 hours, it feels logical to head straight to the gym or force a hard workout.
According to the RMR crew, that’s usually a terrible idea.
Ryan Kent explained that after years of international racing, he now prioritizes:
instead of trying to squeeze in a quality session immediately after travel.
The body is already stressed from:
Adding a hard workout on top of that usually creates more fatigue instead of helping performance.
Instead, athletes should focus on:
before worrying about hard training.
Jet lag affects more than just energy levels.
It impacts:
All things that directly influence HYROX performance.
Meg Jacoby explained that she now refuses to travel internationally without giving herself enough time to fully adjust before competing. Her rule of thumb is simple:
roughly one day per hour of time change.
That means:
While not every athlete has the luxury of traveling that early, the takeaway is important:
The more recovery time you can create before your race, the better.
For athletes on tighter schedules, the group recommended prioritizing:
over sightseeing and extra training.
One of the biggest travel mistakes endurance athletes make is underestimating dehydration.
Flights are incredibly dehydrating.
Especially international flights.
The athletes discussed how important electrolytes and fluid intake become during travel. Meg specifically mentioned aggressively increasing hydration before, during, and after flights to minimize fatigue and recovery issues.
Hydration becomes even more important because dehydration can:
For HYROX athletes preparing for high-output racing, that can become a major problem quickly.
Simple strategies include:
Travel nutrition is one of the hardest parts of international racing.
Especially in unfamiliar countries.
Ryan Kent talked about struggling to find familiar foods overseas and accidentally buying rice pudding thinking it was cottage cheese because of language barriers.
It sounds funny — until you’re trying to prepare for a race and suddenly your normal nutrition routine disappears.
That’s why one of the strongest recommendations from the podcast was:
bring your own food.
Elite HYROX athletes often pack:
to reduce uncertainty while traveling.
This matters because consistency helps reduce stress.
The less guessing involved with nutrition, the easier it becomes to:
One of the best practical tips from the episode:
Never pack your race nutrition in checked luggage.
If your bag gets lost and all your:
are gone, your race week can unravel quickly.
The group strongly recommended keeping all essential race items in your backpack or carry-on bag, including:
Because while airlines lose luggage all the time, you can still race if you have your essentials.
Without them?
Now you’re scrambling.
Long travel days create stiffness, swelling, and inflammation.
That matters in HYROX because:
all suffer when the body feels locked up.
The athletes discussed several strategies they use during travel:
Ryan Kent specifically mentioned how swollen his ankles and feet can become during travel and how important movement is during long flights.
Even simple habits like standing up every hour can make a huge difference.
One of the smartest points in the entire conversation had nothing to do with physiology.
It was mindset.
Travel almost never goes perfectly.
Flights get delayed.
Luggage gets lost.
Sleep gets disrupted.
Schedules change.
Rich Ryan emphasized how important it is to stay adaptable and avoid wasting emotional energy fighting things you can’t control.
That’s a huge lesson for endurance athletes.
Because stress itself affects recovery and performance.
Athletes who spiral emotionally over travel problems often arrive at race day mentally exhausted before the race even begins.
The best competitors learn how to:
even when travel becomes chaotic.
Another underrated factor?
Who you travel with.
Meg Jacoby talked about how important it is to protect your energy around race week and avoid unnecessary stress from travel groups, social dynamics, or trying to make everyone happy.
That’s something many athletes learn the hard way.
Sometimes the people around you can either:
during an already stressful week.
At elite levels, small energy leaks matter.
That includes:
Performance often improves when athletes simplify.
Traveling for HYROX competition is part of the sport now.
As the races become more global, athletes need to treat travel preparation as seriously as training itself.
Because once you’re fit enough to compete, performance often comes down to:
The athletes who perform best while traveling are usually not the athletes who do more.
They’re the athletes who manage the chaos better.
Sleep more.
Hydrate better.
Simplify decisions.
Protect their energy.
And stay adaptable when things go wrong.
That’s what allows them to show up ready to race.
The RMR Training App gives athletes structured HYROX programming designed to improve:
Inside the app you’ll get:
Whether you’re preparing for your first HYROX or traveling internationally for competition, smarter preparation leads to better performance.
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