So it is a week before your big race. You are getting nervous. All of the questions start flooding your brain.
How do you keep from getting nervous?
...
...
The only way is to quit.
...But you aren't a quitter, are you?
YOUR SYMPATHETIC SYSTEM
Your sympathetic system is telling you that you are about to try something bigger than yourself. Just like the time there was a noise late at night that you thought was an intruder, your sympathetic system flooded your body and brain with hormones to prepare you for battle. This flood has been much slower and has occured as your anticipation for the race increases.
Your nerves are telling you, "You are going to need a miracle to get through this!"...and let's face it. Your nerves are right. That is why we all sign up for these things...to share in the victory that we don't deserve, but we continue to fight for.
So if you are nervous in the week before the race, you are in the right place. Your Sympathetic system has engaged and is preparing for the big event. Everybody feels it...Every race. Top Age-groupers feel it, pro's feel it, Olympic athletes feel it. Your nerves are not telling you that you are going to fail. They are preparing and band-aiding every weakness that they can find in your brain and your body.
...But he still enters the ring...
So take a deep breath, and imagine yourself at the finish line before reading any further.
You have trained. Your sympathetic system is quickly 'band-aiding' any minor weakness that it sees. Your thoughts sense the large number of band-aids and will tell you that you are weak and damaged. Regardless of what yourbrain has been telling you, you have trained as much as you could and as hard as you could, and those band-aids are for tiny wounds.
Unfortunately, there is no magic pill to make the nerves disappear. All that you can do is recognize it when it occurs so that you don't panic. Here are some things to look forward to:
YOUR BRAIN
In the 48 hours before the race is when the race begins. This is when the negative self-talk steps in:
-I am not ready
-I did not train enough
-I am a weak _______ (fill in the blank)
-My gear is not as good as my competitors
-I undershot all of my goals
-I am going to look like a fool
-I hurt my _____ walking up the stairs earlier this week. Will it affect me?
-I am not an athlete. I am just a person trying something. I don't need to do this.
-"What if I throw up on my bike?"
-"What if I throw up on the swim?"
-"What if I throw up on the run?"
-"What if I have to go to the bathroom?"
-"What if I get cramps that immobilize me?"
-"What if I pace myself to high and burn out?"
-"What if my nutrition plan fails and I end up failing on the bike?"
"WHAT IF I CAN'T REALLY DO IT?"
This, to me, is the real challenge of the race. The more negative self-talk that you can conquer, the less weight you will be carrying with you at the start line. As the negative self-talk starts, destroy it.
You can expect to spend 15 minutes packing up all of your gear. After it is all packed, you will tear it apart and spend the next 2 hours re-packing it and going through EVERY SINGLE DETAIL in your head. Plan for success, and keep the negative self-talk out. You are trained and you are prepared. In this moment, you are an athlete and your sympathetic system is functioning no differently than any professional athlete. It is preparing your body to go to war.
This is a good time to tell your support crew how to best support you. Show them the course. Show them where they can wait for you. Tell them what your estimated times will be. Tell them if you need anything after the race. You will want them there to support you at the right times. Once you have given the important details of the weekend, expect to no longer be in charge of decision-making.
You can expect that your body goes on autopilot and you can no longer focus on higher-thinking processes like work, math, or any kind of problem solving. At this point, your brain is preparing for a battle. It is releasing copious amounts of hormones and preparing for a fight/flight scenario. Just as you have been preparing your body for the last several months, your body has been preparing itself on how to handle this situation behind the scenes. Now is the time that it puts it's own plan into play.
This is what causes your nervousness: Your brain flipped the switch to go into autonomous mode while flooding the body with hormones. Just like your first kiss, or that noise you heard late at night that had you get out of bed...Your brain and body are now ready to rock and roll. You could start the race at any minute.
...Too bad that clock has slowed down so much. Tick.Tick..Tick...Tick....Tick.....Tick.........Tick...............................Tick
This is a good time to take another deep breath.
YOUR BODY
You will want to do one last hard run, or a hard ride, or a hard swim. Your brain and your body are asking you for it...BEGGING YOU FOR IT.
...But you know what? You aren't going to do it. You are going to cage up all of that anxiety. You are going to cage it, and poke it with a stick and make it ANGRY. Let all of those chemicals pile up. Let all of your muscles fight you for one last work out.
...And when the gun goes off? Open up that cage and watch your brain and muscles explode; Doing what they know how to do best- Survive.
These are the following physical things that you can expect in the week before your race:
1) You will get an irrational urge to 'cram in' extra miles and speed work
2) You will fear that your goal was way too ambitious
3) You will feel great strength and fitness midway through your taper
4) You will find a totally new pain in the foot, knee, hip, back, or insert-any-body-part here that strikes for no apparent reason.
5) Every time you feel an ache or start to think about some aspect of the race, you jump to a doomsday conclusion.
6) A tired, heavy feeling centered in the legs, but affecting your whole body, that you get late in a taper.
7) A feeling of malaise, depression, and hopelessness, which often accompanies the physical sluggishness that intensifies at the end of a taper.
8) A couple of additional pounds that show up on the scale at the end of a taper.
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244--10201-2-1X2X3X4-4,00.html
Your body is on overdrive. It wants to rock and roll. It has become the machine that you have been training it to be.
and in the meantime....have a listen to the song that I will be listening to while I pray before the race begins...It is what calms me down, while preparing me to race...
How do you keep from getting nervous?
...
...
The only way is to quit.
...But you aren't a quitter, are you?
YOUR SYMPATHETIC SYSTEM
Your sympathetic system is telling you that you are about to try something bigger than yourself. Just like the time there was a noise late at night that you thought was an intruder, your sympathetic system flooded your body and brain with hormones to prepare you for battle. This flood has been much slower and has occured as your anticipation for the race increases.
Your nerves are telling you, "You are going to need a miracle to get through this!"...and let's face it. Your nerves are right. That is why we all sign up for these things...to share in the victory that we don't deserve, but we continue to fight for.
So if you are nervous in the week before the race, you are in the right place. Your Sympathetic system has engaged and is preparing for the big event. Everybody feels it...Every race. Top Age-groupers feel it, pro's feel it, Olympic athletes feel it. Your nerves are not telling you that you are going to fail. They are preparing and band-aiding every weakness that they can find in your brain and your body.
Imagine for a moment how nervous this athlete is...For the next 15 minutes every muscle in his body will be fully engaged and his brain will be 100% engaged. He is only leaving the ring through victory or possibly a paramedic. If anybody knows nerves...it is him.
...But he still enters the ring...
So take a deep breath, and imagine yourself at the finish line before reading any further.
You have trained. Your sympathetic system is quickly 'band-aiding' any minor weakness that it sees. Your thoughts sense the large number of band-aids and will tell you that you are weak and damaged. Regardless of what yourbrain has been telling you, you have trained as much as you could and as hard as you could, and those band-aids are for tiny wounds.
Unfortunately, there is no magic pill to make the nerves disappear. All that you can do is recognize it when it occurs so that you don't panic. Here are some things to look forward to:
YOUR BRAIN
In the 48 hours before the race is when the race begins. This is when the negative self-talk steps in:
-I am not ready
-I did not train enough
-I am a weak _______ (fill in the blank)
-My gear is not as good as my competitors
-I undershot all of my goals
-I am going to look like a fool
-I hurt my _____ walking up the stairs earlier this week. Will it affect me?
-I am not an athlete. I am just a person trying something. I don't need to do this.
-"What if I throw up on my bike?"
-"What if I throw up on the swim?"
-"What if I throw up on the run?"
-"What if I have to go to the bathroom?"
-"What if I get cramps that immobilize me?"
-"What if I pace myself to high and burn out?"
-"What if my nutrition plan fails and I end up failing on the bike?"
"WHAT IF I CAN'T REALLY DO IT?"
This, to me, is the real challenge of the race. The more negative self-talk that you can conquer, the less weight you will be carrying with you at the start line. As the negative self-talk starts, destroy it.
You can expect to spend 15 minutes packing up all of your gear. After it is all packed, you will tear it apart and spend the next 2 hours re-packing it and going through EVERY SINGLE DETAIL in your head. Plan for success, and keep the negative self-talk out. You are trained and you are prepared. In this moment, you are an athlete and your sympathetic system is functioning no differently than any professional athlete. It is preparing your body to go to war.
Now is a perfect time to click "PLAY" on the video above.
This is a good time to tell your support crew how to best support you. Show them the course. Show them where they can wait for you. Tell them what your estimated times will be. Tell them if you need anything after the race. You will want them there to support you at the right times. Once you have given the important details of the weekend, expect to no longer be in charge of decision-making.
You can expect that your body goes on autopilot and you can no longer focus on higher-thinking processes like work, math, or any kind of problem solving. At this point, your brain is preparing for a battle. It is releasing copious amounts of hormones and preparing for a fight/flight scenario. Just as you have been preparing your body for the last several months, your body has been preparing itself on how to handle this situation behind the scenes. Now is the time that it puts it's own plan into play.
This is what causes your nervousness: Your brain flipped the switch to go into autonomous mode while flooding the body with hormones. Just like your first kiss, or that noise you heard late at night that had you get out of bed...Your brain and body are now ready to rock and roll. You could start the race at any minute.
...Too bad that clock has slowed down so much. Tick.Tick..Tick...Tick....Tick.....Tick.........Tick...............................Tick
This is a good time to take another deep breath.
YOUR BODY
You will want to do one last hard run, or a hard ride, or a hard swim. Your brain and your body are asking you for it...BEGGING YOU FOR IT.
...But you know what? You aren't going to do it. You are going to cage up all of that anxiety. You are going to cage it, and poke it with a stick and make it ANGRY. Let all of those chemicals pile up. Let all of your muscles fight you for one last work out.
...And when the gun goes off? Open up that cage and watch your brain and muscles explode; Doing what they know how to do best- Survive.
These are the following physical things that you can expect in the week before your race:
1) You will get an irrational urge to 'cram in' extra miles and speed work
2) You will fear that your goal was way too ambitious
3) You will feel great strength and fitness midway through your taper
4) You will find a totally new pain in the foot, knee, hip, back, or insert-any-body-part here that strikes for no apparent reason.
5) Every time you feel an ache or start to think about some aspect of the race, you jump to a doomsday conclusion.
6) A tired, heavy feeling centered in the legs, but affecting your whole body, that you get late in a taper.
7) A feeling of malaise, depression, and hopelessness, which often accompanies the physical sluggishness that intensifies at the end of a taper.
8) A couple of additional pounds that show up on the scale at the end of a taper.
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244--10201-2-1X2X3X4-4,00.html
Your body is on overdrive. It wants to rock and roll. It has become the machine that you have been training it to be.
and in the meantime....have a listen to the song that I will be listening to while I pray before the race begins...It is what calms me down, while preparing me to race...
Good luck on your race. And remember...You have finished all of the hard work. The rest is just a 3-sport day with a bunch of other people.
Try to enjoy the "nervousness", as it is the very foundation for your race. It is your body flooding with all of the chemicals it needs to excel.
Imagine the finish line.
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