The stress and emotions that come around with such a big event are just as important to prepare for as the physical side of competing. I actually try to take some time each day to get my head completely away from racing and focus on something else like painting, thrifting, or just going to a cafe with friends. I think it's such a myth that athletes need to be in the competition mindset 24/7 and letting yourself take a break without feeling like you're less of an athlete is so healthy.
It's hard to know exactly how I'm going to feel at a race before I get there because the prep work and feeling going into my events is so different for each race, but usually I feel nervous, fierce, and really stoked to go and give it my all. Last Olympics, I'd get pretty emotional thinking about how proud I was to be there and how I was accomplishing my childhood dream, so that's an interesting one to feel since I don't usually get it in the normal competition circuit.
In the weeks leading up to the event, working with a sport psychologist is really important. That includes going through how every part of competing makes me feel, working on strategies to keep my focus throughout my run, and making plans to deal with any things in or out of sport that are causing me to stress. A few minutes before my run, I do a lot of breathing techniques, and I juggle during my warmup and between my runs to have something outside my run to focus on. I try to reframe any negative thoughts I have into more positive or helpful emotions. In the seconds before my run, I close my eyes, and visualize doing the run exactly how I want. I say out loud what my goal for the run is ("I want to make the final" or "I want to win"), smile, and then go for it.
Color breathing is also one of my favorite strategies. I assign each emotion a color (red is confident, blue is anxious, white is calm, etc.) and visualize myself breathing in the colors I want and breathing out the ones I don't. I actually usually breathe white and blue out and breathe red in, but that will change depending on what I feel I need. If I'm really freaking out, I'll practice breathing in white instead. It's all about that perfect balance between stress and calm. I definitely need a mix of both to do my best.
