Another excellent front page article from Erika.
https://www.slowtwitch.com/Lifestyle/Pre-Race_Anxiety_More_Common_Than_You_Think_8617.html
She's a good writer and she shares some wisdom. (Plus I am always on the Erika bandwagon; I am from Montana and we share important people.)
Anxiety can eat you alive. Sometimes it can help flip the on-switch for an event. But if there is no off-switch, anxiety turns into a toxin.
When I was younger, I dabbled in pre-visualization. That was like adding kerosene to a cooking fire; out of control and not useful. (Probably I was doing it wrong.) It seemed to help with motivation and task-completion but I felt negative effects in 2 main ways.
First, uncomfortable thoughts about racing started invading my sleep routine, especially the drowsy interval. I don't need hype at bedtime. Second, I started to merge feeling emotional uncomfortable with feeling physically uncomfortable. That was especially bad in bike races and draft legal triathlon. During any easy portion, I would have increasing dread about the inevitable suffering ahead, then when the intensity changed the physical pain took a shortcut to the vulnerable parts of my brain. Even when I was the architect of the attack! Was less of a problem in steady state events but would still surface occasionally.
Fostering the right amount of separation between social life and racing life was good (but that was probably just a product of growing up a little more). Later I focused more on trying to achieve equanimity, in sports and in life, an ongoing journey. In exercise and racing, I found myself returning to several self-talk scripts.
--this is just business, it's not heroics (during workouts)
--if it feels bad for me, then it feels bad for everyone (during the crux of a race)
--it's okay, nothing bad is actually happening (when the doubts start to creep in)
I admire her self-awareness. Good for her athletic career. Good for her life. I am impressed that she finished 15th in Yokohama considering the weeks prior.
Anyone else with some practical tips for managing race anxiety?
A long winded post, mostly just trying to steer attention to the article.
https://www.slowtwitch.com/Lifestyle/Pre-Race_Anxiety_More_Common_Than_You_Think_8617.html
She's a good writer and she shares some wisdom. (Plus I am always on the Erika bandwagon; I am from Montana and we share important people.)
Anxiety can eat you alive. Sometimes it can help flip the on-switch for an event. But if there is no off-switch, anxiety turns into a toxin.
When I was younger, I dabbled in pre-visualization. That was like adding kerosene to a cooking fire; out of control and not useful. (Probably I was doing it wrong.) It seemed to help with motivation and task-completion but I felt negative effects in 2 main ways.
First, uncomfortable thoughts about racing started invading my sleep routine, especially the drowsy interval. I don't need hype at bedtime. Second, I started to merge feeling emotional uncomfortable with feeling physically uncomfortable. That was especially bad in bike races and draft legal triathlon. During any easy portion, I would have increasing dread about the inevitable suffering ahead, then when the intensity changed the physical pain took a shortcut to the vulnerable parts of my brain. Even when I was the architect of the attack! Was less of a problem in steady state events but would still surface occasionally.
Fostering the right amount of separation between social life and racing life was good (but that was probably just a product of growing up a little more). Later I focused more on trying to achieve equanimity, in sports and in life, an ongoing journey. In exercise and racing, I found myself returning to several self-talk scripts.
--this is just business, it's not heroics (during workouts)
--if it feels bad for me, then it feels bad for everyone (during the crux of a race)
--it's okay, nothing bad is actually happening (when the doubts start to creep in)
I admire her self-awareness. Good for her athletic career. Good for her life. I am impressed that she finished 15th in Yokohama considering the weeks prior.
Anyone else with some practical tips for managing race anxiety?
A long winded post, mostly just trying to steer attention to the article.