In this week’s installment from the Rock Star Triathlete Academy’s Kona prep series, coach Kerry Sullivan offers his top tips to help keep traveling to Kona pain-free. Anyone who’s raced the Big Island knows that the race will be tough enough. Nobody wants to start the experience off with a bout of food poisoning or airplane-induced swelling.

If you can’t watch Kerry walk you through each tip, read on for a quick overview of his main points. With these tips, rest assured that your body will arrive less beat up from travel and primed to race!

Compress, compress compress: Swelling and blood pooling happens most often in the feet and ankles when traveling, and the right compression gear helps to prevent it. Socks, in particular, keep both areas compressed. For longer travel, compression tights can also be effective.

Soap and sanitizer: When traveling, you come in contact with many people. Most of them seem harmless enough, but remember, you have no idea where their hands have been. Be sure to keep your hands clean, especially before eating.

Bye bye bacteria: Bring natural anti-fungal bacterial products such as oil of oregano and garlic pills. When traveling, you are exposed to more germs then normal, and both these products can help to kill those germs that may make you ill.

A pantry in your suitcase: Bringing your own food will enable you to have more control over things like food poisoning. Often when traveling, the food options are not the healthiest. Check out Ben Greenfield’s review of the LivingFuel SuperGreens in the July-August issue of LAVA. It’s a great “real food” powder you can throw in a ziplock bag and pop into your carry-on.

Early bird: Leave one day of heat and environmental acclimation for every time zone you travel across. Example: Five hour time difference = get to the race five days before the race. If you can’t get to race as early as needed for acclimation, set your clock at home to the time zone of the destination you are traveling to, using the same day/hour rule above. Then, do your best to go to bed and eat according to the time zone you’re going to race in.