Managing anxiety at the start line is good race strategy.
Pre-race nervousness is normal. There may be something personal at stake. You might be trying to win prize money or team points --- or simply trying to prove to yourself that you can compete. Nervousness indicates that you have invested effort and expectation into your running. However, when pre-race anxiety prevents you from breathing properly or relaxing, you should find methods to calm yourself. As evident in a 1999 study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, titled "Biofeedback and Relaxation Techniques Improve Running Economy in Sub-elite Long Distance Runners," your running performance will benefit from reduced anxiety.
Instructions
1. Close your eyes. Even the most laconic athletes can be affected by what they see just before running a race. Fellow runners, rivals, race-clocks --- these images can stimulate feelings not present away from the race course, and if you are a runner who enters into nervous overdrive at the race site, you must learn to disengage. Closing your eyes reduces visual stimulation and quiets nervous energy, so find a moment to stand still --- even among the crowds at the starting line --- and relax into a pose of listening instead. This tricks your mind into "focusing" on your other senses.
2. Belly-breathe. You do not actually breathe with your abdomen but you do adjust your inhale and exhale patterns to accentuate your diaphragm's role in breathing. Pretend the air you breathe in is dropping deep into your belly, and actually push your belly outwards as you inhale. Pull it inwards as you exhale. This exaggerated breathing relaxes your stomach muscles and allows your diaphragm to move freely, calming your entire upper body.
3. Tense and relax your entire body. By intentionally contracting a muscle that is already tense, you can interrupt its clenched state; think of it as jolting it out of its pre-race stupor. Just prior to the race, devote one minute --- working upwards from your toes to your neck --- to isolate a muscle or muscle group and contract it for two to three seconds, release it quickly and completely, and move up to the next muscle. You can, of course, control the duration and intensity according to the timing of the start of the race; this gives your mind a beneficial pre-race task.
4. Run in place. If you are the type of runner who relies on physical activity to dispel anxiety, be cautious. You don't want to use up all your energy trying to control your pre-race jitters. Sometimes all you need to do is run in place. Most important, keep your movements small and bouncy, not deep and heavy. Stay light on your toes and keep your gaze toward the ground to help reduce visual stimulation. Running in place, which keeps your muscles loose, warm and physiologically ready for action, might be your most effective method for dispelling pre-race anxiety.
Tags: into your, keep your, pre-race anxiety, visual stimulation, your belly, your diaphragm, your entire