3 Tips to Your Pre Race Jitters 😝
It is time. It is Race Week. You are at the venue and you are ready to “ROCK THE SHIT” out of your race. Let me break down your week for you.
You are TWO days from your Ironman Triathlon!
You are excited, hanging at the Expo and grabbing your Ironman Branded Gear. You start hearing what people are saying about their training and how many miles they done. You head back to the hotel. You get your T1 and T2 gear ready. Bike is ready. You sit with more athletes at dinner. They talk about the “war” stories of how much training they did. They pull out their phone to look at their data. You observe.
You are ONE day from your Ironman Triathlon!
You eat a LARGE breakfast and realize you have to start tapering your food today. You head down to the bike drop off with your bike and TI/T2 bag. You start hearing MORE people discuss their training. You head back to the hotel. You jump on your social media. You see EVERYONE talking about Ironman this and Ironman that. People keep talking about the weather. Is it wetsuit legal? What do you do?
STOP EVERYONE…I am FREAKING OUT OVER HERE!
Sound familiar? After dealing with many Pre Race Jitters myself, I present to you:
“Three Tips to Conquer Your PreRace Jitters”
1. Take some time to step away from people.
- Yes, I said it. There are times that athletes and everyone are annoying as crap and just are pissing you off. It happens. People are excited, anxious, happy, and nervous but you don’t need to carry that negativity with you. Step away.
- Take at least 10 – 30 minutes a day from Wednesday to Race Day with your own thoughts. If you need music and a book to help yourself, utilize that.
- Race Day: You will head into the race with a much better attitude focusing on YOUR race and your abilities versus everyone and their mother!
2. Step off of social media the day before the race.
- There is NO need for more noise and comparisons going on in your head and on social media. You deal with that enough and NOW social media is going to make it worse!
- SHUT IT DOWN for 2 days! From the day before the race until you get to your condo/hotel AFTER your Ironman Triathlon, those messages of “HOW AMAZING” you are will still be there! Trust me!
- Race Day: Aright, go ahead. Post a photo of ONE “It is Time” photo but that is it! Give your phone to someone and be done!
3. Let go of the self-doubt and find YOUR inner champion!
- You have done the training. You have done the hard work. Do NOT compare your Ironman Journey with anyone else because this is YOUR journey and YOURS alone!
- Start visualizing everything that is going to happen the day of your race. I want to hear positive thoughts but I want to also hear challenges that you may deal with and HOW you will handle it. Prepare mentally.
- Race Day: YOU ARE READY. I believe in you! Now, it is time to believe in YOU!
Here was MY Ironman Mont Tremblant (2017) scenario: It was my 12th Ironman Triathlon and I was prepared, physically, mentally and within my heart. I talked to my peeps on social media UNTIL Friday evening and then I shut it completely down because I needed to step away from it all! Why? I didn’t want to hear the talk about the weather at IMMT or whether or not I was going to qualify. When I turned my phone on AFTER my race, my phone BLEW UP. I knew in my heart, that I qualified but I could not say a thing because first of all, I wasn’t completely sure AND I needed to hear Mike Reilly ask me, if I wanted to go to Kona! When I did hear those words from Mike Reilly, they were the sweetest words EVER!
Some of my best races have been when I have kept quiet about what race I was doing and what my goals were. I know I am the type of person who is all about sharing your goals but sometimes you just need to SHUT THE FUCK up and do it the work. #truthbomb
