Readiness

"Our early attempts at a tractor beam went through several preparations. Preparations A through G were a complete failure. But now, ladies and
gentlemen, we finally have a working tractor beam, which we shall call... Preparation H!!"

- Dr. Evil, Austin Powers in Goldmember

It's that time again. World Championships seem to sneak up on me every year. I'll wake up one day and realize that oh, there's a flight to Slovenia leaving in three days, and I'll be on it. I don't consciously do anything dramatic to prepare for racing. I train, I visualize, I take a cursory glance at the competition to see which countries to watch for. More interesting to me, however, are the subconscious habits I have recently noticed myself going through that I remember clearly from last year, and the year before. I'm not sure if these are subconscious superstitions, or just signs of how I react to high-octane environments and prepare for peak performance. Either way, I notice that before race day I:

- Get a hair cut. Every year, a week or two before I leave, I go to my local barber shop and get a short cut. Part of me likes feeling "aerodynamic". Part of me is just rtoo lazy to get to a barber shop in the months leading up to Worlds, so I have what my parents affectionately call a "mophead". Whatever the reason, I always have short hair when I go to Worlds.

- Become (more) introverted. I'm usually a pretty quiet guy, but as race day gets closer I retreat more and more into myself. Superman has the Fortress of Solitude, I have an iPod and a decent pair of headphones. I'm less interested in conversation and am very nearly antisocial as time goes by. It's one reason I'm a terrible blogger. When I'm not competing I think how easy it would be to describe competition--the moments of vivid emotion and tension that I love about my life. But those moments seem to be the hardest to pin down, and while I am living them I don't care nearly as much about sharing them as experiencing them.

- Rock the bass. The music that I'm into changes all the time, but I notice that my selections get more bass heavy towards competition time. Right now some of my listens are Nero, Joker, Metallica, and a bunch of random rap and dubstep. After racing is over I'll probably switch it up to jazz or prog or acoustic, but there's something about the bass that gets my red American blood pumping.

There are probably a lot of other habits I fall into, but I can't think of them right now. What do you do to get ready to race, conscious or unconscious? Are you jumpier, calmer, hungrier, sleepier, more careful? Do you do something other people might find ridiculous? I'd be really interested to know; race preparation is one of the most personal experiences an athlete has. People with eyes to see can probably divine some psychological something from people's differences, but I just like hearing the stories. I've yet to find two people who have exactly the same idea of how to prepare for competition. So if you've got something good, leave it in the comments.