Reframe the Butterflies: Understanding Your Stress Response

You probably know that feeling: butterflies in your stomach before a big event, heart racing at the start line, palms sweating as you clip in, mind questioning whether you're ready and if you did enough training. Sound familiar? Not to worry. If you've ever felt this way before a race or challenging ride, you're not alone. What you're experiencing is a stress response, and although you might not love it, it's actually a sign that your body is doing exactly what it's designed to do; your central nervous system (the sympathetic system, to be exact) is kicking into gear to keep you safe.

When we face a potential threat, the body prepares for action, releasing a whole host of hormones that increase heart rate, circulation, and oxygen. It's miraculous, really. The challenge is that in our modern world, what we interpret as a threat has changed. That elegant system that would help us escape a predator (an actual threat to physical safety) now kicks in when we're worried about missing a power target or not hitting our goal time. The body responds to a perceived threat the same way as it does to an actual one.

As athletes, we choose to step into the arena. Training and competition are where we push past our perceived limits to find out what we're truly capable of. When everything comes together in a race—when we're flowing, strong, and completely dialed in—there's no other feeling like it! But not every performance feels that way, and we need to know how to navigate that so we don't interpret a bad day or a bad race as a sign to quit.

Understanding What's Happening

Performance anxiety happens when we internalize pressure to the point that it triggers our stress response. We begin to interpret aspects of performance as threats instead of the achievable demands of the sport. The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for this stress response, preparing the body for peak performance in the face of danger. The problem is that it can't tell the difference between a real threat and one we've created in our minds.

Our parasympathetic nervous system does the opposite of the sympathetic; it's the relaxation response, cooling things down and calming us back to baseline. We can think of these two systems as the gas pedal and the brake.

In the 1920s, Dr. Edmund Jacobsen helped reshape how we think about stress. He observed that stress often shows up as tension in the muscles and hypothesized that "an anxious mind cannot exist in a relaxed body." His insight was powerful: a calm mind without a calm body is only half the equation.

The Path Forward

One of the number one tools we have for managing the butterflies is to pay attention to how we interpret those butterflies and to reframe them. When we feel those butterflies, that racing heart, those sweaty palms, we know these are symptoms of the sympathetic nervous system engaging, and yes, they've been triggered by our stress response, but we don't have to be victims of our anxiety.

Our goal is not to eliminate the butterflies, but to reframe them.

Feeling nervous is completely normal. It means this matters to us. Those sensations alert us that it's time to pay attention. There's even a point at which feeling nervous is beneficial to our focus and our performance. However, unchecked butterflies burn up energy that we'd much rather use on the bike instead of before we even clip in.

If nervousness feels overwhelming or starts negatively affecting your performance, there's something you can do about it.

You can learn to listen to the butterflies instead of being afraid of them.

When people talk about anxiety, they're often describing a feeling. "I'm nervous" means "I feel nervous." Sometimes athletes feel nervous because of their interpretation of what they are feeling physically. We typically don't like the feeling of butterflies in the stomach, a racing heart, and shallow breathing, but if we label those physiological symptoms as "bad," it feeds right into the anxiety loop, making us feel even more anxious. The brain gets message number one, "I do not like how this feels," and message number two, "These physical feelings mean I am anxious."

Instead of labeling the physiological feeling as bad, imagine that your racing heart and butterflies are just your body's way of getting you ready to perform. Imagine drawing energy from that physiological feeling instead of letting it take energy from you. Try creating new labels with a positive spin, like "excited" and "energized." Sometimes a simple reframe of "I'm not nervous, I’m excited; my body is getting me ready to compete" is enough to take the edge off anxiety.

If competition were easy and the outcome guaranteed, it wouldn't be as meaningful when it all comes together. Embracing the pressure and having the tools to manage it are what allows us to show up as our best when it matters most.

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At BaseCamp, we believe that every cyclist has the potential to achieve greatness, no matter where they start. Our mission is to create a community-driven training environment where cyclists and triathletes of all levels can train together, support each other, and grow stronger, faster, and more confident in their abilities. Our cycling training programs are expert driven and tailored to your needs. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just getting started, BaseCamp is where you belong.