Performance anxiety in swim

Linda Marx

I again experienced anxiety during my swim of the Tri this past weekend.  My heart was racing, could not get my breath, my legs were dead.  I was able to do the breast stroke for a minute and then freestyle for a minute for the first 500 yards.  Finally I was able to start swimming the freestyle continuously for the rest of the swim.  I'm perplexed as to what to do.  I do start at the end of the wave, I'm not afraid of open water, I don't really mind people bumping me(it is a pain but not scary), I don't start out to fast, I make sure I am breathing out, my thoughts aren't all jumbled, I focus on the "here and now", I maintain a positive attitude,   It seems to occur only during races. It seems to be performance anxiety.  IDEAS????????

Derrek Sanks

Linda, I struggle with this off and on. My guess is you're swimming faster than you think...faster than it feels due to race start adrenaline. To combat starting too fast I do "catch up" drill the first 200-300 yards, deep focused breathing, and keep my head down as looking up makes you work harder. I also know that it takes me 500-600 yards to warm up and that I will feel tire during this period but it will go away once I'm warmed up. Another thing I did this year was more OWSs where I would purposefully start out fast and then settle into my easy pace. Hope this helps.

jreville

Hey Linda, Are you able to get in and warm up some in the water before you swim? I would hope that just getting into the actual water you are swimming in for the race would help with some of that anxiety. Try to swim about 200 yds as an easy warm up any way you want to get used to the water and wetsuit on race day. That might ease some race day jitters. Good luck.

Jacklyn Moore

I agree. It sounds like you are starting out faster than you think. The fact that your mind is calm tells me it isn't a panic attack. Make sure your wet suit isn't too tight, restricting your breathing. Get a good warm up. Sounds like you are handling it perfectly. Let us know how it goes.

Scott Giljum

Linda, I would try two things. First I would say a warm up would do you a world of good. If you are not able to get in the water, if you have swim cordz that will do. Part of it I think is the adrenaline spike you get from the race that can drive your HR up without you doing a single thing. A warm up should help the muscles take over a bit quicker and shift you to muscle memory rather than between your ears. Second, I would suggest a bit of time spent before the race almost meditating. By that I mean sitting comfortably with your upper body upright, focusing on breathing in and out very slowly. During that just focus on positive outcomes. Hopefully it will let you slip into a bit more of a zen like state than a frantic one. Hope this helps!

bob hiller

Linda, good suggestions from the others.  Maybe just plan on starting out doing breaststroke until you feel like switching to freestyle.  Knowing you will start with a "calming" stroke may help.  Good luck and let us know how things go.

Linda Marx

Great suggestions, thank you

Linda Marx

Awesome ideas.  Thank you!!!

Linda Marx

I have a race this coming weekend.  I plan on trying some of the suggestions you all have generously provided.  THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

robin sarner

I try to desensitize myself.    every pool session I start hard without much warm up.   like a race.      before I start, I psych myself into the panicked state, imagining this is as a mass start at an ironman.       so by actual race start, nothing new or different happening.

Brad Marcus

@Linda - You are certainly not alone, and the fact that you've said "I'm not afraid of open water, I don't really mind people bumping me(it is a pain but not scary)", is a really good thing! I experienced this my first year racing triathlon. It came to a head when I showed up for a sprint race to find out that the water was too warm for wetsuits. I almost pulled out halfway through the swim and it that swim took me 22 minutes. Sometimes we let our minds get the best of us, and when our hearts start racing, its hard to get things under control. I found a good drill to overcome this was to practice (NOT ON RACEDAY!) sprinting 200-300 yards and then trying to get my HR down while continuing to swim another 200-300 yards without stopping. Getting your HR down and your body relaxed is the key here. This way, during a race, when we get caught up in the chaos at the start, we have experience in knowing how to get more relaxed. How to do this? Focus on your stroke, count strokes, sing the alphabet to yourself....really whatever works for you. After a while, you will become better at this without giving it as much thought. Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Dave Tallo

Mental "scripting" and then running through visualization of the swim many, many times in advance - and being really vivid with thoughts, sights, noises, emotions, etc in the visualizations - is a helpful strategy. Essentially running a "film"of your swim, including a positive / neutral mental response, in your brain a bunch of times for days / weeks before the event is good. Helped me overcome a string of Panic attacks I was having a few years ago.