Blue Bike: The Secret for Calming Pre-race Nerves

You’re in the start corral of a race you have been preparing for. You have been up since some still dark hour of the morning. The music is blaring, you are surrounded by other athletes, the race director is on the microphone pumping up everybody. 10 minutes from the start, 5 minutes, 3 minutes………

What are you thinking and feeling in those moments? If you’re like most athletes in that starting corral you are filled with nerves. You feel your heart pounding, your stomach may be in knots, your body may feel tense. Your mind is everywhere but here in this moment. Your thoughts are back over the past several months questioning if you did enough to prepare. Maybe your thoughts are in the future worrying about what will happen if…..if you get a flat? If your goggles are kicked off? If you get a cramp? What if…..What if…..What if……

If you don’t have a game plan for these moments you may end up spending a great deal of energy on these overwhelming pre-race nerves that will continue cascading until the start gun goes off. 

I have some ideas of how to quiet that anxiety. The secret is “Blue Bike.” No, you don’t actually need a blue bike, you just need to look around for how many blue bikes you do see. This is a very simple grounding technique. It is used to take our focus from inside our body and mind to outside. 

Let’s get some background. What are these pre-race jitters? They are a combination of anxiety and excitement. Anxiety about what is to come, and excitement to show yourself how your hard work is paying off. 

What is anxiety? We could talk about it as the body reacting to the stimuli around us and our mind trying to make sense of what is going on. In those moments our body and mind are doing their best to keep us safe. That is certainly true. But at its base, anxiety is simply uncertainty. As humans we don’t like uncertainty. We like predictability. We feel safe when we know what is coming next. 

That is what your brain is trying to do in those moments when you are filled with “what if…..”.  Your brain is trying to predict the future and figure out all of the worse case scenarios. As the saying goes, “Plan for the worst, hope for the best.” The planning needs to come in the days, weeks and months before the start of the race. Learn how to fix a flat. Swim without goggles. Do a hard run that challenges you. Practicing these will give you confidence that you can handle the usual “what ifs…..” If you have practiced these things you can tell yourself “if i get a flat I will change it.” “If my goggles get kicked off I will try to get them back on and if I can’t I will swim with my head out of the water.” 

Blue Bike: If those reassurances and deep breathing don’t fully work, you can turn to Blue Bike. Blue Bike works because it takes your focus from inside of you to outside. The goal is to stop the cascade of anxious thoughts and feelings. It's a simple grounding technique that can be used anywhere. It brings us back to the present moment, not ruminating on the regrets of the past, or the worries of the future. 

To apply Blue Bike look around at what and who is surrounding you. The most basic technique is just naming what you see:   blue bike, orange helmet, pink swim cap, woman eating a scone, dog with a red bandana, child dressed like spiderman………

To step it up a notch, find a certain number of objects. If you are at a bike race find 5 blue bikes, 4 white helmets, 3 orange jerseys, 2 children watching from the side lines, 1 person with a cup of coffee. If you are at a triathlon or swim start look for 5 Roka wetsuits, 4 people on the side line with dogs, 3 birds, 2 children wearing sunglasses, 1 person who looks older than you.

You can choose what items to look for, these are just some examples. Once you run through the things you see you can continue by naming 4 things you hear, 3 things you feel, 1 thing you taste and smell.

Go out and practice: That’s it, that is Blue Bike. A nice simple, easy to use tool to help you calm your anxious mind before the start gun goes off. Before your next race practice this. Find situations that evoke some level of anxiety and give Blue Bike a try. Let me know how you cope with pre-race nerves? What would be your Blue Bike?