HOW TO CONTROL YOUR NERVES AHEAD OF THE BIG RACE… AND HTFU HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT

HTFU.

Ugh. I’ve always hated that phrase. It’s so simplistic and overloaded with testosterone.

I also hated the whole No Fear thing from a few years back, the clothing brand that seemed to be everywhere in the early 90s – the brand favoured by supercharged frat boy-types that seemed actually to be in fear of lots of things and had resorted to hiding it behind a facade of uber-masculinity.

Humph.

I was chatting away to one of the athletes on my coaching roster about a race he has coming up this week. The event is 160km with 2890 meters of climbing. He’s been racing for two years and has taken to it really well, placing high and winning a couple along the way.

– Let’s talk about your race plan. How do you feel you should approach this one?

– Well, I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Actually, before we talk about that can I mention something else?

– Yeah sure, what is it?

– So, I get really, and I mean really nervous before these races, I mean weeks out from the date of the race, and it’s kind of, yeah I guess oppressive is the word.

– Ok, let’s talk about is, but first can I ask why you didn’t mention this before?

– I don’t know, uh, I thought I should just toughen up or something. On race day weirdly, I’m fine, but before, it kind of takes over… you don’t really get nerves, right?

– Oh yeah, I do…

You can see here that this very nice guy and a pretty darn good rider had been trying to suppress these feelings – I guess from his first ever race – and falling back on that idea that he was unable to deal with these nerves because he was somehow weak mentally – he needed to toughen up.

I was in fact relieved that he opened up to me on this because now we can talk about it. It got me thinking too that as a coach, I need to start asking all my clients more how about how the pre-race / event nerves are affecting them. Note to self!

It got me thinking too about how I was affected by nerves through my racing career.

My second stint as a racer began at 36, when I was living in Japan and was a bit chubby and wanted to lose some weight. I bought a cheap Trek and started riding, and then started racing, much to my surprise. This time around, after an almost 20-year span away from racing, I was hardly affected by nerves. I guess because I was older, but also because I felt very little pressure. The first year was just about having fun in local races, and when I was offered contract to race in the UCI Asia Tour, that felt like a very cool extension of the fun. I had a great time, I was relaxed (ok not in-race sometimes, ask my peers!), and I performed generally pretty well.

First time around? Totally different. I was a nervous wreck before races. I started racing when I was 15 in local time trials and then in junior road races, and I remember that, apart from my first TT, for every race after that the build up was torture.

I remember my first race, It was in May I think, 1986, and I signed up about a month before, and that’s when it started. 4 weeks out and I already had clammy palms. Butterflies in the stomach. No matter what I was doing, ‘the race’ was always hovering somewhere in my being, ready to steal in and send me into a tailspin.

I could actually see the race in my head, and I’d go through all the combinations of possible events that could occur.

If this happens, I’ll do this, but if I feel good, I’ll do this… or, maybe… this?

On and on it went. Race after race. Towards the end (I quit at 18), I was better, but still I’d go through the ringer with the nerves, for sure.

(You can if interested read more about my ‘second wind’ in racing here if you like – it was quite a wild ride).

Let’s take a look at what causes these annoying nerves:

Pre-event anxiety is caused by several factors including:
- High self-expectations. Setting the bar too high causes unnecessary stress.
- Negative self-talk. Self-doubt and feelings of “I’m not good enough” create nervousness and a negative mindset.
- Having an audience. Worrying about what others think and having to “perform” in front of people often leads to feelings of tension and anxiety (people get this with Strava too these days!).
- Pressure from others to win. Everyone wants to win and be at their best but the added pressure from others (parents, coaches, teammates) can cause anxiety and stress.

Also, it’s worth noting that solo athletes are more likely to suffer from anxiety than those involved in team sports as there is less support and camaraderie in solo activities.

Please stop looking at me..

For me, it was the high self-expectations. I wanted to win everything., Funnily enough, I did win and get top-3 quite a bit when I was a junior yet once the ‘race high’ ebbed, the nerves were back as I looked to the next event. There’s a saying, ‘You’re only as good as your next race’, which is a mindset that drives a lot of athletes.

It’s not a bad one, but if this attitude is combined with a propensity for nervousness, then it can be a bad combo.

For you, it might be another factor that gets you, perhaps the negative self-talk, perhaps all of them! None of this means that we are weak. It just means we are human and we have these problems to deal with – and where’s there a problem, we can begin to seek a solution.

First though let’s look at some of the effects of these nerves:

Feel paralysed by fear and unable to perform to a high level.
Have poor concentration and focus due to brain fog.
Go into panic mode and experience panic attacks.
Feel faint and nauseous. Some athletes vomit or pass out.
Excessively worry and overthink.

The last one is one I encounter again and again when I first start working with some athletes, and is actually one of the main reasons why people reach out to coaches. With a good coach, you can largely eliminate the overthinking – that’s the coach’s job. But with time, as we work together longer, they start to see that the training is working and we are getting them to the start line in good form.

The famous basketball player Bill Russell vomited before every game he played. For one game in the finals he was injured and didn’t start, but after a disastrous performance by his team, he decided to come on for the last quarter. His coach though pulled him back off the court before game restarted, realising that Russell hadn’t vomited yet – so he made him go throw up in the changing room. Superstition won on that one! Check out the Netflix documentary on him, it’s great, a legend on and off the court.

Let’s take a look at some of the recommended methods for helping to ease the nerves and anxiety:

Prepare: Ensure you have practiced enough to be confident during the competition. Spend extra time on practice and preparation in the days or weeks before a game or performance.
Reappraise anxiety: Learn how to interpret anxious feelings both during the build up and in competition as positive or acceptable rather than negative. Reappraising anxiety as excitement can help combat performance anxiety.
Change negative thoughts: Negative thoughts can make anxiety about sports performance worse. You can combat this by using cognitive reframing to change your thoughts about situations. Identifying negative thoughts allows you to actively challenge them and replace them with more positive, realistic ways of thinking.
Use positive self-talk: How you talk to yourself about your performance can also influence the amount of anxiety you experience. Research has found that positive self-talk can contribute to greater confidence and self-efficacy, better performance, and less anxiety.

Preparation is a huge key factor in helping to dispel nerves. For help with that check out my five part series How To Write A Training Plan.

‘Reappraise Anxiety‘, as they call it. When I was doing these 5 day races on the UCU Asia Tour, I would wake up feeling apprehensive about the day ahead. The pain to come, basically! These stages started so hard, so fast and had so many attempted breakaways straight from the gun that it was all you could do to not bring up your breakfast – and the previous evening’s meal too – and an internal organ or two.

On the start line I had this little mantra that I’d repeat every morning:

This is why you do it and this is why you’re here.

Repeated three times. And it really helped. If you’re an ‘under-trainer’ – ie if you feel you don’t quite ride as hard as you possibly could on hard training days – try this line. Or a version of it. It”s just a bike ride. Yes it’s gonna hurt but it will end at some point. If you can train to your maximum when your plan demands it, you’ll spend less time overthinking, less time thinking I should have gone harder.

Remember, you chose this sport, and you choose to race. This is your own fault! So get on with it.

Change negative thoughts. Easier said than done but this relates to my last point, this is your choice. Embrace the fact that you have found a sport you love. That you have this wonderful gift of cycling. You cannot fail too much in ‘real’ life. You have bills to pay, jobs to keep, people who rely on you. The bike provides you with a safe place to fail. Drop the ego a little, embrace failure, and learn from it, get stronger from it.

Embrace the nerves, rather than try to push them away. That never works. Deal with them head on, and let them work for you to focus you. Harness these emotions.

At the end of the day the more relaxed you can be, the calmer you can be, the better you can perform. Try to give a little less of a f%ck!

Check out my article Get Mental To Get Off The OK Plateau.

Is that a smile?! Crank Punk client Dave Nash

Use positive self-talk. ‘Come on, I can do this.’ Cycling is a great metaphor for life: there’s a mountain in front of you and yes, it can be scary, even terrifying. Try to conquer it all at once and too fast and you’ll crumble. So take it one pedal stroke at a time. One after another, one by one, and you’ll get over whatever is in front of you. Believe in yourself.

I have one rider I am coaching and have been coaching for about a year. She is in her late 50s, and not a ‘natural’ athlete. She doesn’t race and she squeezes in 10-12 hours a week of training. Yet in a couple of days she and a friend are going to ride across America, without support. They are aiming at 200km a day. She’s an inspiration, and she gets the concept of one stroke at a time. And Linda if you’re reading this, good luck once again!