whether i'm going to workout or race, it's always the same. like to the point my hands and feet are sweating and almost feel like i'm going to throw up.
and i don't mean before some monster 40 x 400 workout either. every day, no matter the workout, it's the same thing. it's so annoying.
elite athlete but wrote:
whether i'm going to workout or race, it's always the same. like to the point my hands and feet are sweating and almost feel like i'm going to throw up.
and i don't mean before some monster 40 x 400 workout either. every day, no matter the workout, it's the same thing. it's so annoying.
The workout should be manageable enough that you're not stressing like that before it. It could be that your workouts are too hard for your current fitness level.
elite athlete but wrote:
whether i'm going to workout or race, it's always the same. like to the point my hands and feet are sweating and almost feel like i'm going to throw up.
and i don't mean before some monster 40 x 400 workout either. every day, no matter the workout, it's the same thing. it's so annoying.
I crap 4-5 times in the hour or so before my run, sometimes pulling up my shorts and putting on shoes only to realize there’s more goods come ‘a calling, and then some; but when I’m semi-injured and decidedly taking it easy, my nerves and bowels are less jittery.
Maybe try to make your warm up shorter ie run 2 miles and go straight in to your workout, It will make it feel more like a normal run. If you have a gps watch ditch it for a normal watch too. Check your watch as little as possible.
elite athlete but wrote:
whether i'm going to workout or race, it's always the same. like to the point my hands and feet are sweating and almost feel like i'm going to throw up.
and i don't mean before some monster 40 x 400 workout either. every day, no matter the workout, it's the same thing. it's so annoying.
1) You are almost certainly running too hard to be stressed like that, so just reduce your workout intensity.
2) Every workout can not be better than the previous one, so accept that progress will come in waves interspersed by regress.
3) Don’t look at your watch, rather run by feel and look at your numbers later all you want.
4) Aim to keep your pace steady, not slowing, across reps, which will automatically mentally force you to not run too hard in the first couple reps.
Are you making these races and workouts a world-changing event in your head? Life or death, worth or no self-worth? Those are all big mistakes.
The advice other posters are giving to make the workouts easier aren’t necessarily an easy solution. OP could be on a team and running the workouts the coach gives.
I was very similar back in college. severe anxiety on workout days; it felt like I couldn’t enjoy my day until the evening after practice. It was all I thought about, and sometimes I would skip class on workout days because I was such a head case. Some people are just wired with the bad combo of being both a perfectionist and having low self confidence. I was always afraid I would have a bad workout, miss my times, not feel good, go too deep in the well and not recover by race day, etc. I never really figured it out myself, mostly just posting to sympathize with OP, and point out that this isn’t necessarily as cut and dry as some other posters are making it out to be.
Day before track yes start to feel stressed.
Marathon when the taper starts the anxiety hits really bad .
I used to have this problem until I realized it was better to have very defined sub-maximal intensity goals for each workout. E.g. I could do 10x400m in 64 all out. But the workout is 10x400m in 68. And this is a better way to train. Now I don’t stress about anything. And sometimes I do have all out workouts. On those I don’t worry about hitting splits, just managing intensity
Never.
Get a girlfriend
elite athlete but wrote:
whether i'm going to workout or race, it's always the same. like to the point my hands and feet are sweating and almost feel like i'm going to throw up.
and i don't mean before some monster 40 x 400 workout either. every day, no matter the workout, it's the same thing. it's so annoying.
while annoying, i don't think it's something to be looked at as needing to be fixed.
it's not actual mental anxiety.
it's a similar physical sensation one gets when having anxiety, at least for me.
that's what i meant by "feels like severe anxiety" but didn't explain well, my bad.
it's like having four shots of espresso for someone that doesn't have much caffeine; there doesn't have to be any mental angst for that person's body to be buzzing, palms possibly sweating etc.
only in place of the four shots it's just me having the thought i'll be working out in about 10-15 minutes.
to be sure, once i start working out it's gone and i'm good to go, totally relaxed.
ultimately can be classified as fight or flight response chemicals building up right, but now wonder if it's worth hacking or let the body run it's natural course as maybe 10-15' is optimal.
looking at hr kinda makes sense
resting hr of about 45
hr about 60-70 standing around most of the day
hr about 100 standing around before starting easy runs
hr of 140 on start line of a race
hr of 188-192 at threshold
max hr 208-212
so there is a 30-40 beat differential standing around before easy run compared to normal
and about 70-80 beat dif standing on start line of a race
i'd say the extra heart beats correlate pretty well to the level of physical anxiety-like sensations