Pre-race Nerves

[puffdaddy]

I hope I am not the only one that suffers from this,,However with some adrenalin helps give them a fast start into a race ,"still not ideal" however I get a crap start not strong and it takes several km's for me to settle in,,by that time the pack's have split and find myself playing catch up ,,any suggestion's/ideas to avoiding the hyped start "not including alcohol"

[philip]

Are you doing any sort of warm up pre-race?

[BarryTas]

confience and practice, oh and a good warm up

[ft_critical]

Are you worried about how you will perform in the race?

[puffdaddy]

I try to get a good warm up in ,,The challenge with the Taupo 160 was the 30 min or so waiting at the start line and I was in group 2 ,,How intense do you suggest the warm up should be ? I am thinking of adding some intensity to it to settle in maybe ?

[puffdaddy]

Are you worried about how you will perform in the race?

In short ,,,YES

[ft_critical]

Are you worried about how you will perform in the race?

In short ,,,YES

Great. I certainly used to get this, especially backing up after a placing. Worse it started to influence how I raced. I would race more conservatively, pressuring myself to position for that final sprint. It is a terrible way to race.

To get around this, I stopped focussing on the finish. I made every race (well all but say two or three per year) a training ride with numbers. I chose an objective to focus on that was neither being at the finish nor being on the podium. Simple objectives, move up three places each lap, pedal 1 second earlier out of each tight corner, get in the break, get in two breaks, pull four hard turns on the front, attack at a certain point, follow x when he makes a move.

It is like anything; mostly it is the enormity of variables that create anxiety. Breaking the race down to one or two manageable objectives makes it a lot easier. Also when you are strong enough if these objectives become attack, you will one day start winning

Good luck.

[puffdaddy]

Cheers,,"yes negative split" is me all over ,,I mainly do distance rides/races min of 100 km so the bunch you stay with at the start can have a huge effect on the result,,Simply entering more races would help however they are few and far between ,,and so am looking at doing weekly club races ,two 9km lap's ,,which is not really my scene but may help I hope

[ZepinAtor]

My wife & I recently took part in a Uni students final year sports phycology study on pre- race nerves. Interesting outcome was to use it to your advantage & make the most of the nervous energy in a positive way. Basically worrying about performance is normal for some so accept it & use it. A warm up won't settle your mind, but will prepare you for fast race starts like our club crits which burst off the line holding 45+km/hr for the first few laps before settling back to the race average of about 42km/hr.(c grade)

[Chuck]

A warm up won't settle your mind, but will prepare you for fast race starts like our club crits which burst off the line holding 45+km/hr for the first few laps before settling back to the race average of about 42km/hr.(c grade)

That's fast for C. I'm not sure your "Location" is right Zep, at that pace you won't be behind me

Are you worried about how you will perform in the race?

In short ,,,YES

Great. I certainly used to get this, especially backing up after a placing. Worse it started to influence how I raced. I would race more conservatively, pressuring myself to position for that final sprint. It is a terrible way to race.

To get around this, I stopped focussing on the finish. I made every race (well all but say two or three per year) a training ride with numbers. I chose an objective to focus on that was neither being at the finish nor being on the podium. Simple objectives, move up three places each lap, pedal 1 second earlier out of each tight corner, get in the break, get in two breaks, pull four hard turns on the front, attack at a certain point, follow x when he makes a move.

It is like anything; mostly it is the enormity of variables that create anxiety. Breaking the race down to one or two manageable objectives makes it a lot easier. Also when you are strong enough if these objectives become attack, you will one day start winning

Good luck.

I get nervous too puff and I try to focus on things other than placing just like ft_ has posted. Don't get me wrong I'd like to place but I feel if I sit on and focus only about the finish then overall I won't be getting stronger. I find that thinking about the sort of things that ft_ posted and the hour long ride to the race goes some way to calming the nerves, though not completely.

[toolonglegs]

At the start of cyclosportives like Taupo you have to be pretty aggressive to get into the front group...no good rolling along with the pace because by the time you move up the group will be gone wether you feel good or not.
French cyclos which are mass start (as opposed to ones where you are timed from when you cross the starting mat) are insane...footpaths,wrong side of the road...anything goes as long as you are in the front row when the neutral car pulls off .
So how did you go anyway?...I thought you were doing a double loop.

[JV911]

Basically worrying about performance is normal for some so accept it & use it.

performance anxiety?

Give AMI a call

[ZepinAtor]

Hey Chuck the crits here in Brisbane are on a dedicated course which is dead flat with sweeping wide corners. C grade can get up to 50 riders with the pace staying above 40km/hr in most races. They're only 40 minutes in C grade compared with 60 minutes in A. Those A boys absolutely hammer averaging 45+ for the entire hour. Makes our race look slow.

[puffdaddy]

At the start of cyclosportives like Taupo you have to be pretty aggressive to get into the front group...no good rolling along with the pace because by the time you move up the group will be gone wether you feel good or not.
French cyclos which are mass start (as opposed to ones where you are timed from when you cross the starting mat) are insane...footpaths,wrong side of the road...anything goes as long as you are in the front row when the neutral car pulls off .
So how did you go anyway?...I thought you were doing a double loop.

Hows it going ? ,,,Yeh That's another story in itself as I commented some time back I got sick due to a low iron count "of 4" Doc said basically no riding to the end of December,,so was not exactly bouncing fit at the race,,just wanted to do a sub 5 hr ,, Done a 5.02 with 3 unscheduled stop's ,let's just say medical issues,,sometimes the doc's right lol,,They still do not know what the gig is with my low iron but after the race I got talking to a guy who had the same gig happen,,turned out to be celiac disease ,"unable to absorb iron blah blah",and had to go gluten free,So as an experiment I have tried the same for the last 10 days,,first few days felt worse than better "nausea" then hell energy level's started to rise ,sleeping better etc,Tuesday night 4 km loop ,topped a long steady climb at 40 kph "last lap" and not drafting, pb ,,Wednesday evening 50 km ride and totally wired,,held 55 kph on one straight for a while another pb on that section of road,,,,,Not bragging here just very happy and yeh next year will be doing the enduro,,solo time is real time ,,Stomach biopsy coming up,,,Downside is I am hungry all the time and have put on weight lol,,oh yes with Taupo the first 3 hill's are where its at ,that 5 km of going hard will set you up for the remaining 150, groups of 50 or so leave 4 minutes apart now to try and stop congestion,,..

[puffdaddy]

Back to the subject,,A 30 min + aggressive warm up prior to my next race "150 km"

[heay]

I have a bad temper when things don't go my way. Good example was when I was 12 my one of my mates went and told a girl that I liked that I said she had a cute butt, I was a runner back and it was the school sports day so I used the anger in me to run as fast as possiable and I ran the 800m in 2min 10sec on grass. It took me a couple of years to work out what got me in that state of mind and when I did it worked a treat I won state/national titles by this method.

I was always told that if you turn up at the start line and you are not nervous that you should step down and pack your bags as the distance or calibre of other contestants is not what you should be competing against.

[puffdaddy]

Wicked analogy and advice,,I can relate to this totally,,, Many thank's

[toppity]

I've always got nervous before any sort of race/event. I've got a crit' this arvo (country club that will be lucky to have 10 in the grade) and when I think about it I can feel the adenalin start. It's not a great feeling, but not that bad either. I've been involved at all levels of sport (up to regional international level) and nothing ever changes. One thing that happens though is that the nerves stop as soon as the race/event starts. Work with it I reckon.