That's great. Congratulations on your first IM!
I'll definitely check out Sam Harris' app. Thank you!

One of my friends, and one of the fastest triathletes I have ever known always ate a plate of ribs and two beers the night before a race. I guess he did it once and had a great race and decided that it was a good pre race strategy. I think one of his take aways was that if you could have a non ideal meal the night before, you were pretty relaxed about the race and probably in a better mindset than if you were hyper focused on every little thing.

My HIM PR came 36 hours after an impromptu get together with friends I hadn't seen in years. I drank more that night than I had in a decade and was so hung over that I thought I had destroyed months of training. My expectations were low for race morning and I just decided to not stress about things.... Then I went out and crushed (for me) the course.

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Jason
None of the secrets of success will work unless you do.

m

Ambien is strong stuff. You might feel groggy after you get up. I use one pill of ‘severe’ NyQuil and it knocks me out too.

Diphenhydramine is just your old school Benadryl.

I am a shi**y sleeper as well and it is the same busy brain type of thing, though I would say it is mostly work related. I do the Melatonin/Benedryl thing as well and it does help a bit. Sleepy Time Extra tea from Celestial Seasons is also somewhat effective for me (Valerian root).

I am going to talk to my GP about my difficulties sleeping, but I think I know the answer already. Either figure out how to relax naturally, which probably require some professional mental health repair, or try some better living through chemistry (Ambien or similar).

One thing that has become apparent to me is the connection between good sleep and performance. When I am not sleeping well, I am a solid 20 watts off my “average” power output. A week of really good sleep will put me about 10 over what think I can do.

The Apps I use are Peloton app and Calm. Therabody product are their SmartGoggles. Here is link: https://www.therabody.com/...r-smart-goggles.html

Diphenhydramine usually comes at 25mg per pill and 50mg for extra strength. Every pharmacy has it.

Diphenhydramine doesn’t really affect me though and I take Olanzapine which is a prescription only anti-psychotic that puts me to sleep pretty well.

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

My Olanzapine knocks me out harder than anything I've ever tried. Haven't found a better option unfortunately (and I sleep like crap otherwise, so it's a good thing in some ways), but I've more or less moved to scheduling any significant intensity in the evenings... early morning sessions have never been quite the same.

In California, generic no-name diphenhydramine is sold at my local Kaiser Permanente pharmacy for about $5, probably available many other places. I think one of the big pharma companies sells it as “Simply Sleep” for a somewhat higher price.

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Sharon McN
@IronCharo
#TeamZoot
Clif Bar Pace Team 2003-2018

Ah, I don't excel at much in life, but I'm super thankful that my process for getting a full night's sleep is.

1) Put head on pillow.
2) There is no step 2.

I shut off like C3PO almost the instant my head makes contact with the pillow. Day, night, noisy, light, doesn't matter.

Don't mean to gloat. Best of luck figuring it out.

  
"If I don't jump that 110' triple, right out of that slippery corner tomorrow, I'm going to get landed on. Or, if I wheelspin, I'm going to come up short and break my ankles, legs or go over the bars and become paralyzed.", financial when your competing as a pro - "If I don't place in the top5 tomorrow, I'm not going to be able to pay rent for the 2nd month in a row and I'm going to get evicted".


mdana87, those are serious issues. if you've been able to work it through and sleep, that's great and i have a lot of respect for that.


for the rest, this is mostly just fun. to OP - losing a night of sleep probably means you nailed your training and taper and you're fired up and raring to go. may be annoying, but no real harm done, so screw it and deal with it and go kick some ass; you'll sleep extra afterwards. don't take rx meds

I got this advice from Rinny.... a glass of good quality wine (or glass and a half) with dinner the night before.

From Wikipedia: Olanzapine is an atypical antipsychotic primarily used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.


Sounds like a great remedy for sleeping too, and you gain further perks like not feeling like Napoleon on race morning or go through the typical ups & downs on the bike! Love it !

I want to point out that if you’re taking something to make you fall asleep (synthetic melatonin, alcohol, Zyprexa, Seroquel, Zolpidem, Alprazolam – or any of the lams or pams) it’s not really sleep. It’s sedation, and therefore you likely won’t progress through the sleep stages as intended (NREM 1-3, REM). All of which have incredible benefits on performance, recovery, and mental health. You can’t just expect yourself to get good sleep because you want to magically (I wish). This begins long before your race day. Try incorporating some tools that promote better sleep hygiene. To give full disclosure, I am a mental health therapist certified in cognitive behavioral therapy for sleep. Some of the things I encourage my patients to work on include:

- Waking up and falling asleep at the same time (even during weekends and holidays)
- Develop a sleep routine that starts about 20 minutes before. This will help increase the natural production of Melatonin.
- Don’t use overhead lights at night, only lamps.
- Limit food prior to bed
- Limit water before bed
- Keep your bedroom between 65 and 68 Degrees.
- When lying in bed, deep breathing can help both with the physiological response to anxiety and the cognitive. Research suggests 4-7-8 intervals.
- Showering before bed can be beneficial mainly because your core body temperature drops once you get out of the warm shower. That dump in temp helps increase the production of melatonin.

I'm so sorry about your friend. That is so sad and tragic.

You certainly have very valid reasons for your anxiety.

As far as the swim: Luckily most triathlon events have rolling starts (or AG starts) instead of the mass starts. And those are much safer or at least "feel" safer. I have had panic attacks in the swim portion of triathlons early on in my first few triathlons. One thing that really helps me is swimming on the outside and out of the chaos. I can't swim with a lot of people so close to me, so I have to swim on the outside. It does cost me time. And I have to watch out for the kayakers. But I feel so much more comfortable in the swim now. There was a time I thought the Kona IM WC swim would be terrifying in the ocean with so many athletes and waves. But this past October it was lovely and the best part of my day. I probably lose a few minutes which is a lot. But it's worth it to me and I no longer stress over the swim.

As far as the bike: yeah depending on the race and course and amount of athletes, it can be dangerous. I have good bike handling skills and used to race road bikes in the 1990s and rode in large packs. I'd even jump into Men's cat 3 races if there was no women's race. Even with that experience, I have felt unsafe at times with so many triathletes (who have less adequate bike handling skills) . For instance I do not like the big descent in IM Lake Placid. Actually it's not the descent but so many other athletes taking crazy chances bombing down that one. Solution? Flatter courses or courses with more rolling terrain instead of courses with big descents. Or choose races that are not so crowded. Some Ironman branded fulls and halves are just too congested at times on the bike courses.

I do try not to think about crashing or panic attacks in the swim. I just try to visualize executing each leg of the triathlon well and to the best of my abilities. Focus on what you can control. I also make peace with the fact that the day before a race and race morning are going to be hard with the normal amount of pre-race anxiety and that we are all in the same boat. Everyone is feeling nervous. And focus on that finish line and how good it feels to run down the red carpet.

If you do go down the route of taking meds the night before, I would practice during your training. Take them the night before a big brick session as well as practicing your nutrition with the meds (make sure carb loading agrees with the medication). I lean more against taking stuff for nerves but if you find something that helps make racing a better experience, then go for it.

Again, wishing you find more peace before a race.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

Big thanks for your great suggestions and your well wishes!!

Thank you!

Those are all very valid points and great suggestions! Thank you for that.
I'm not a big fan of meds and almost never take any, unless the pain is too much to bare. And even then I would rather feel the pain so I don't think everything is okay and start working out full speed causing more damage.
I would prefer getting the nerves under control naturally.

Thank you very much!

Magnesium 30 minutes before always makes me a little sleepy. But you need to be ready for it a and not push past the feeling looking at your phone, TV, doing last minute stuff etc.

The benefit is magnesium isn't a drug with the known and unknown side effects as some of the others mentioned.

I always tri to have a bath with magnesium salts in the night before an IM and I sleep like a baby every time.

Good advice. I usually take a relaxing aromatherapy bath. I'll give Magnesium a try. Thanks!

This is a super good advice but unfortunately in warmer climates this is very hard to achieve especially in hotels/rentals.

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Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

Crank the AC about an hour before hitting the bed. Aiming for 60-65 degrees is probably better. Lots of folks actually sleep best just below 60 degrees in the room because the bed temperature warms up via body heat throughout the night.

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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I’m not a psychologist, but if going to bed before a race triggers anxiety, or just being days away from a race triggers anxiety, maybe you could try to break the trigger.

For me, it was racing a a lot. I started sleeping normally about my 40th triathlon. Earlier I’d struggle to fall asleep and wake up early, maxing out at 4-5 hours. At some point races stopped being so damn important to my self-image though and almost became routine.

I did race a bit more than most long course oriented people - 5-6 times a season, and all but 5 races of the ~40 were short course.

A more viable approach (for a 70.3/140.6 racer) could be to do something every day in the lead up to the race. Like listen to relaxing music or do the Jacobson relaxation routine or go to the movies or have sex every day for a few days. Maybe you could teach your brain that “race=relaxation” (or something else), displacing the “race=grave danger” link. Again, I’m not a psychologist!

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden