Nervous before championships

    Posted In: Sprints

        • Participant
          ingar on May 17, 2005 at 1:33 am #10884

          I have a regional (two “states”) championship on wednesday and I feel nervous. I think this is because I have been feeling a slight pain/pull in my right glute and soreness in my hams lately (had two sessions today and my hams killed at the end). This is my debute on this level and I aim for winning AND hitting sub 10.8 which I am positive that I can do, so the pain in my legs/glutes make me a bit nervous.
          But even when training I’ve felt nervous lately, so I think my activation (don’t know if you use the same word) becomes too high so I psyche myself out. I haven’t had a problem with this before, but I started to have doubts about my technique and such. When my comp is on Wednesday, should I take tomorrow completely off, or could I do some light practice? I’m not green on this, but I feel like there is something I’ve been doing wrong and I’m curious about what you would do.

          Also, do you have any tricks for me getting rid of my nervousness?

        • Participant
          swiftyer on May 17, 2005 at 2:06 am #45737

          drown yourself in a pool of music that you love. preferably upbeat and non-satanic please. 😛

          Go for a relaxing 2-3km walk. for me, it loosens my muscles and gives me time o release my mind(lol). Scenic routes wor good.
          /is preferable the day before the meet/

          Go to the track early and survey the area. Mkae it feel like a home away from home. Hell I know someone who kisses the track sometimes

        • Participant
          cobras100mgld on May 17, 2005 at 2:29 am #45738

          listen to r&b music, calms you down all that up tempo crunk music will hype you up too much. also talk to the different runners, distracts you for a while. thats what i do and i never seem to be nervous, im friendly and joking before the race but when its time to run im all business, good luck at that meet too, make us proud;)

        • Participant
          tkelly5 on May 17, 2005 at 5:21 am #45739

          music is good. doesn’t matter what style, as long as you find it relaxing.

        • Participant
          gh on May 17, 2005 at 12:25 pm #45740

          To be nervous is good. Try to visualise your race(s). Make a timetable of what you’re gonna do on the day of the race, like what time do I wake-up, what time for breakfast, what time for warming-up, what time for callroom etc.
          Music is always good.
          I know this feeling sucks but it is exactly the feeling you need to perform well.
          good luck

        • Participant
          tkelly5 on May 17, 2005 at 2:02 pm #45741

          nervous is good as long as you can control it. I’ve seen people so nervous about a race that there was really no point in running it.

        • Participant
          ingar on May 17, 2005 at 8:31 pm #45742

          Thanks guys. I just had a small practice today where I rehearsed my starts (12×20-30m). My hams are killing, so I’m anxious to see how they feel tomorrow. I’m gonna get that d*mn gold and go suuub 11 regardless of my bothersome hams and glute pain!

          I’ve downloaded some songs, do you have any suggestions? Somewhere along the line of “Hate it Love it”? (Dang, thats a great song)

        • Participant
          Derrick Brito on May 17, 2005 at 8:39 pm #45743

          anything dmx, tupac, eminem or 50 cent:wink:. depends on if you want to get relaxed or pumped. i prefer loud stuff, but that might not be your style. in the other topic section theres a threa called ‘good running songs’ that has a lot of good suggestions.

          if you want a hate t or love it type song look up ‘we right here’ by dmx.

        • Participant
          ingar on May 19, 2005 at 12:52 am #45744

          Originally posted by Ingar
          Sorry in advance for the swearing:

          I did not feel good, I think I drank to much water and felt natious..
          The race started and:
          I FIRST GOT CALLED FOR A FALSE START WHEN IN FACT IT WAS THE TWO <b>FARKERS</b> ON MY LEFT SIDE WHO DID IT, BUT IT WOULDN’T STOP AT THAT!
          I <b>F***ing</b> tripped and fell flat on my <b>DARN</b> face!! WTF?! WHYYYYYYYYYY?! Just my goddarn bad luck!

          THEN, after being so aggravated I just had to run a 100 nonetheless, so we borrowed a block. I was getting hungry and dehydrated.
          I’ve mentioned that I had a 10.79 manual PR, right? Well, dont think I came in at that, bruhs. Everything with that race went wrong too, my trackteamchief timed me and signaled by putting his hand down, I reacted as good as a junkie and didn’t do anything right, plus my bummed/scratched knee (after the fall) was hurting like a motherfarker so I gave up about halfway but still ran the distance. You think I came in at my 10.79 PR? Nope, try 12.9!… I mean WTF?

          Have any of you experienced bad <b>SHIZZLE</b> like this?I’m so down in the dumps right now I cant eat or sleep or anything. I’ve never been as depressed as this and after the 12.9 I wanted to kill myself!

          Again: sorry for the swearing and me writing sloppy and all, but I just had to went it out somewhere…

        • Participant
          pesiroil on May 19, 2005 at 6:25 am #45745

          Dont worry, we all have our bad days, its not like you ran a 12.9 for no reason, You were signeled by a hand, you hurt your knee, and you went through all the drama before hand.

        • Participant
          ingar on May 20, 2005 at 12:50 am #45746

          Dammit, today I tried to get my anger out while doing hills and my shins started hurting along with all the other crap! Why? Why is everything I’ve worked so damn hard for going straight to sh*t?! Aaaaahh, I’ve never been so frustrated!!

        • Participant
          ingar on May 25, 2005 at 5:16 pm #45747

          Today I have a meet again, and I’m even more nervous than before… I haven’t felt like I am the best that I can be lately, but I have certain moments where I actually don’t worry and just think that if I do my best, I’ll break the state record.. There are few of them, though. Last time, I felt really nervous and out of place in the blocks, and because I train all the time on gravel, these two factors combined made me trip and fall.
          Now I’m worried that that’ll happen again.

          I don’t get it, I’ve always been cool and collected in front of comps before, why have I gotten so uncertain?

        • Participant
          ingar on May 26, 2005 at 1:28 am #45748

          My hams did not feel god during my warmup.

          Got in the blocks. BANG! I took the lead by a couple of metres, great start. But then my legs started hurting and I swayed into the lane on my left, lucky there were noone in that lane. At about 70 metres, he started catching up and I felt real pain in my hamstring. BaM, my hamstring pulled up and pulled out of the track, layed down and yelled “ICE!”. Some guy came and helped me with the RICE method, and bandaged my leg. That huuurt..

          Why is this happening? I should’ve easily won that race. I have to go to a physiotherapist tomorrow and not train sprints for a week or two. I’m clearly overtraining since these injuries come all the time, so I’ve gotta lower my volume, intesity (which is always sky-high. I never go below 95%, ever) and incorparate a scheduled rest day, so I don’t go months without taking a day off…

          Do any of you guys have any comforting words/advice? Cause I could sure need some right now, I’m actually starting to doubt my abilities as a sprinter.. 🙁

        • Participant
          cobras100mgld on May 26, 2005 at 3:12 am #45749

          Born to run, trained to win and Doubt whom you will, but never yourself….. remember that, everyone goes through tough times but you push through it. right now its all a learning experience for you, rehab and get yourself back on the track so you can blaze some more people. goodluck and hope you recover soon

        • Participant
          Derrick Brito on May 26, 2005 at 9:07 am #45750

          dont get too caught up in the short term, things happen sometimes. last year i ran a PR in the 110 hurdles, then two bad races. i thought everything was over, but i got my head together and ran good the next race (within .1 of my PR). the same thing happened this year, but then i realized my bad races werent necesarily my fault. one had a headwind and the other my blocks fell apart when i started. after that i ran good and ive been running good ever since. just keep ya head up, everything will fall back into place.

        • Participant
          ingar on May 26, 2005 at 11:58 am #45751

          Yeah, thanks. I will.
          It’s hard to do so, since I didn’t think even I could be this unlucky.. But I’ll try even though I have never doubted myself as much as I do now…

        • Participant
          cchams on May 30, 2005 at 5:14 am #45752

          Man you think you got it bad.. I didn’t just let myself down, I let my team down… 4x100M relay, I’m the anchor alrite. Since our team has 4 fast guys opposed to one superstar we rely on getting me the baton and me holding it. Mind you, I’m still teh fastest on the team, and personally I think I can hang with all the big boys out there so I pride myself in catching up/beating kids. So we’re at our conference meet and I get the baton in 3rd, I pull us right out of it into 1st place and win by a good few metres. So I established myself as the anchor that didnt have to worry abotu the others and just try to hold it off.. but they had to worry about me.. so we’re at regionals… I get the baton in 4th (Top 4 qualify for provincials.. I’m in Canada so thats like your state I guess)… I hold onto it til the last 5 metres and get passed with 3 metres left and lose by .12… I killed my teams chances of going to provincials.. last season, last race of my track career and I blew it, by losing in the last 3 metres. I know what it feels like man, but dwelling on it doesnt help, you gotta get stronger from it.. so try and forget about it and realize your capabilities.. because I fell apart for 3 metres doesnt make me slow.. and because you didnt run your 10.79 doesnt make you slow.. so come back from it stronger, dwelling on it wont help

        • Participant
          cobras100mgld on May 30, 2005 at 5:33 am #45753

          same here, yesterday was like our last chance meet to get into states. i already made states in the 100m dash but i wanted to improve my seed time. trials i jog 11.8, just getting a feel for the weather. semis, i was so drained because i sat in that hot sun, i was in lane 2, my comp was 2 lanes to the right of me so i couldnt get a feel for it. long story short i came out in first but had nothing after the first 15m, i got passed by two guys, one of which i can beat on any given day if im feeling good. so i dropped in the list and obviously not favored for the finals in the 100. my coach bitched at me but im not going to dwell on it, instead im practicing myself monday, get used to this new weather and break down my 100m dash by doing 40m, 60m, 80m. dont dwell on the past, let it go and work hard so you can put out your best effort when you hit the track again.

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