The great thing about racing is the excitement it brings. The chance to test your fitness against others is the reason many of us run and ride.

Competition can bring out the best and the worst in us. A simple case of nerves, a jumpy stomach or a tight mental attitude can prevent you from performing your best.

So how do you avoid getting too nervous before a competitive event?

It seems a number of major competitors at the world class level prefer to listen to music. Swimmer Michael Phelps is an example of one successful athlete who tunes into his earbuds before competing. But Phelps competes in a pool. And we don’t talk about that here for very long. That’s a different world. Here at We Run and Ride, we think swimmers are a different breed. Too many laps in a pool does weird things to your brain.

But we are here to consider the best strategies when you’re competing on your feet or a set of fast-rolling tires.

Music to your ears?

Listening to music can be a great escape in advance of competition. It can pump you up. The right mix of tunes might even put you in the right mood to compete. If you are an aggressive person, your music might be hard rock or metal. If you prefer entering competitions in a state of calm, your music choice will reflect that state of mind.

But is listening to music indeed the best way to prepare for competition? That depends on a couple factors having to do with how your mind actually works in competition.

Dissociative and Associative thinking

Some studies of athletic competitors show that dissociative thinking–finding ways to distract yourself from the actual process of competing, is the most effective way to compete in endurance events.

Others think that associative thinking or cognitive thinking is the better way to prepare for competition: Thinking your way through your race while you’re doing it. Anticipating situations, monitoring your body’s reaction to stress and responding with both a rational and motivated energy.

Generally, two facets of performance thinking are at play in associative versus dissociative thinking. Associative thinking focuses on controlling your responses while dissociative removes the mind from the process enabling your training instincts to take over during competition. That’s a simplification of course, but the basic truths are there.

You can read tons of information about the depths of associative versus dissociative thinking. I personally believe that both are frequently at play in the performance of top athletes. A marathoner might be humming along monitoring their breathing and form while also daydreaming about some movie they’ve seen, an inspiring character or the music that formed the backdrop. Hence the long tradition at many races of playing music from movies such as Rocky or Chariots of Fire. These inspiring images remain favorites with many runners and riders because they appeal to classic themes of athletic achievement.

Transcendence is the key. Now what can help?

What athletes truly want to achieve, however, is transcendence. Their goal is always to combine their physical training with mental preparation that enables them to achieve at a high level. That means several things have to occur:

• The athlete needs to create an internal atmosphere of motivation
• The athlete needs to generate excitement without producing fear
• The athlete needs to promote optimum physical response, which often includes sufficient relaxation to perform well
• The endurance athlete needs to be able to push through pain and exhaustion in endurance sports
• The successful athlete always tries to transcend their perceived limitations in physical and mental ability to perform at their highest

Based on several personal experiences with transcendent performances in my athletic career, I propose that the appropriate way to prepare the mind for athletic competition is not listening to music, which can domineer and even erase natural thought processes vital to athletic achievement.

Can music actually be detrimental to athletic performance? 

If you have ever tried writing while listening to music with words or lyrics, you know that it can be difficult to generate words on your own. This “interruptive” aspect of much mainstream music is the very reason it is so popular as entertainment. It disrupts normal thought patterns with an insistent beat, driving noise and often provocative or catchy lyrics.

But think what happens when you remove the music in advance of a competition. Suddenly your mind is popped out into a world of more conventional sounds and back into the associative necessity of dealing with real, live competitors. You’ve escaped for a while but you’re back in the mix. That can actually result in something like a shock to the system. Hardly good preparation for handling competitive circumstances.

Reading your own mind

On several occasions during a competitive career in high school, college and post-collegiate distance running, I read books before the race instead of listening to music. Each time I had a transcendent performance. The difference in my focus and motivation and the ability to process competitive circumstance and apply myself to the task at hand was much improved.

In one case as a junior in high school I was reading a book titled The Peregrine by J.A. Baker. The absolute absorption of the main character in his pursuit of studying birds of prey was so well-written and so engaging that my mind was enervated far beyond a normal state of engagement. And against superior competition that day I ran a PR on the course and led our team to victory against a school that had not lost in 61 straight dual meets.

There was a definite connection between reading before the meet and running so well. With reading, you can stop and contemplate what you are reading, and even allow the mind to return a few moments to process any nervous thoughts or doubts. You can address them then and there, and still go back to the book. Whereas listening to music forces you to drive through these moments and into the future without contemplation.

Choosing the right kind of book can be key to preparing your mind in advance of competition. And even if you are the dissociative type, the material you read in a book can be thought through and processed during your event. More than one athlete I know has told me they played entire basketball or football games while thinking entirely abstract thoughts about mathematics or literature. The human mind loves the richness of these circumstances, and there is likely a connection between relaxed performance (in a zone) and deeper thought.

So next time you’re preparing for a big competition, be it a marathon, a 5K or a cycling criterium, try bringing a good book to the table in the week leading up to the event, and even in the moments leading up to your warmup. Reading combines the ability to use associative and dissociative thought in far better ways that listening to music ever could.

Think about it. And read your way to success.