SportsPsychologist.com Blog by Dr Victor Thompson

Experiencing stress before a race is common: bad sleep the night before, waking early, difficulties getting breakfast down, frequent urges to go to the loo, worries about what might go wrong, a thumping heart while we stand still... These experiences can be unsettling. Why do they happen? They happen because: The race represents a test and we may fear that we'll fail to perform compared to others or our own standards (i.e., finish time or position), or We fear some catastrophe (e.g., getting punched in the face during the swim, losing our goggles or drowning; crashing on the bike...) When we arrive at the race site, our body's arousal is boosted further by the race environment - hearing the pump-you-up music blaring out of a PA system, or seeing lean, mean and excited (and stressed) triathletes. This increases the chance that our arousal level spills over into stress or anxiety - where it can become a problem. What's so bad about pre-race nerves? They make ...