Hey Reader,
My co-host shared an interesting observation on this week’s pod.
She talked about what she thinks keeps going wrong at the same point in every marathon she has run so far.
Four weeks before the recent London marathon, she ran a half-marathon at 140 beats per minute, comfortable and well within herself, picking up pace toward the end.
So when race day came, nothing about what happened made any sense to her.
Her heart rate hit 160–165 on the start line before she even started running.
And somewhere around 10 to 15 kilometres in, all power just went.
She wasn’t cramping, her muscles weren’t burning, she wasn’t breathless or pushing too hard.
But she almost ground to a halt, like almost walking, slower than her easy run pace, feeling like she needed to stop, sit down, have a coffee, and start again.
She felt like she was going to lie down on the road and wait for someone to pick her up.
She didn’t stop though.
Her nutritionist and her coach both pointed to the same thing when she tried to make sense of it.
Anxiety.
Her brain was reading a sky-high heart rate, deciding she was in danger, and shutting off.
A sports scientist, Tim Noakes, describes it as the central governor theory.
The idea that when the brain picks up signals of overload, it shuts things down to protect you, even when you’re completely capable of more.
🧠 Anxiety is a buildup of pressure
Thinking about it, her anxiety didn’t pop up out of fear or being underprepared on race day.
She trained well, and it’s not her first rodeo.
She shared that she already had so much stress going on, and her HRV had been low for a long time.
She was worrying about her leg, stress fractures, and other things.
On top of all of that, she knows she can run sub-three, and she has every reason to believe she can do it, but she hasn’t done it yet.
She keeps thinking, “if it doesn’t happen in the London marathon, it has to happen in Chicago, and if not Chicago…”, then another.
She knows exactly what she’s capable of, and that knowledge, combined with not yet having delivered it, creates this pressure that builds up into anxiety.
And I can see a lot of high performers recognizing this pattern.
You know exactly what you’re well able to do, and you’ve prepared for it long enough.
But there’s this pressure from knowing you can do something, but you still haven’t done it yet.
Coupled with the stress from worrying about other things happening around you.
Your body keeps absorbing the pressure until your brain picks up a sign of overload, just when you need it to be at its best.
Then things don’t go as planned, and you think you’ve lost your edge, or you’re now underperforming.
No. It’s anxiety.
❤️ Take the weight off
It’s okay to plan for and visualize things you want to achieve.
Just leave it as a plan, and believe in the training and experience you’ve built over time.
When you stop overthinking about how you’ve yet to achieve something, you’ll feel a lot more relief to just do it.
You’ll leverage the confidence from doing that thing in similar or different ways in the past.
Your brain feels a lot more relaxed and completely changes how your body responds.
Your brain isn’t getting any weird signal that affects your performance.
And you’re more at peace with the outcome.
So what’s something you recently achieved that didn’t quite go as planned despite all your preparation?
Thinking about it now, what sense can you make of it?
Do you recognize the buildup of anxiety that may have affected you?
What’s something you’re now planning toward?
Is there even the slightest sense of pressure from not having done it yet?
What about the stress around you?
Let go of all that weight.
You’ll perform way better than you imagine.
P.S: We talked about this buildup of anxiety on this week’s pod.
My co-host also shared a secret she’s plotting to help fix her anxiety, and we covered loads more great topics, too.
Take a listen here.
With appreciation,
Huw
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Huw Edwards
Founder & CEO, h3.xyz
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