Most athletes get the most nervous the week leading into their race and especially the last few days before the race. If race week anxiety is not kept in check these nerves can become emotionally grueling.  One can exhaust themselves with all the “what if’s” and talk themselves into a subpar performance even before they ever even rack their bike. Don’t let that be you!

It’s very normal to bring nervousness and anxiety into any “A” race.  All of us have…and do.  What I have found helps the most when preparing for a race is to do two things:  prepare and be quiet. I prepare by sitting down about a week before my race and writing down all the things that could potentially happen that cause me to be nervous.  “What if I flat? What if I lose my nutrition? What if I lose my goggles in the swim? What if I get a cramp on the run?”

Now the list can go on for pages, but my point is to write down all your “what if’s” and then think them through. Come up with an answer and write that down as well.  “What if I get a flat?  I will pull over, calmly pull a tube, my CO2, and my tire lever from my bike bag, shift into my highest gear to make it easy to remove my rear tire, remove the tube, check for any foreign objects inside the rim and tire, put in the tube, put a little air in there to make sure its good. Then finish the job, put everything away, and get back on the course. I promise to be calm, and not expend any extra energy. ” No episodes, no rants, just get the job done and get back out on the course.

Try doing this with all your “what if’s”.  Have a solution for all of them.  Then spend some time writing down what your real goals for the race might be.  Now that you have it all there, you can relax.  You have done your part to express all the stresses about your upcoming race.  You can now enter a place of a calm and quiet mind.  Go to that place of calm mind every time you start thinking about your race.  Take a few deep breaths and let the tension flow out of you and get back to whatever it was you were doing. 

With that said, a plan only survives first contact with the enemy, so be open and ready for anything.  At my last Ironman, I made the wrong decision and did not warm up.  It also rained longer than I thought it would.  I now was in a situation that I knew was not the most optimum for me.

I did have a plan though, and I thought about things like this “I have my tires at 100psi so I should be able to stay upright and not slide out.  I have 5 of these Ironmans in my body and I haven’t quit one yet.  I am as tough as anyone out here.  It’s only cold, it’s only pain and it’s only for a day.  I have done tougher stuff for longer.  Just endure this for another hour and see how it goes.  If I am suffering, they are suffering more.  Stay strong, it always works out”.

I repeated that to myself for hours.  So to help lessen race week anxiety, plan, solve, and then be ready on race day to trust your body, trust yourself, and when necessary be hard as nails and don’t ever give in! This works in Ironman, this works in life.

–Coach Carly

READ MORE: PRACTICING RACE DAY NUTRITION