**This is a guest post by my friend Alina Boskar **
Students who participate in athletic competitions have to juggle between their training and academics while devoting enough time to both of them. In the end, nothing is more important than pulling yourself up to come out as a champ in the both the fields.
If you’re someone who’s also preparing for a running competition while preparing for examinations and writing papers, here are five important points that can help you do well in both areas.
Training
Your training will be controlled and directed by your coach. Following their instructions while also finding ways to improve yourself is what every athlete must aim for. Training for the event must be your priority and you must tailor all other activities around it.
Most often, students who participate in running competitions struggle to maintain a balance between their academics and training. It’s important to give due time to both, but you can always take help from experts to help with assignments pertaining to academic writing.
Professional writing sites help students to complete their essays on time. Their ‘Do my Homework’ page allows students to take help from writing experts and finish their assignments on time. As a student-athlete myself, I like to ask experts to do my homework and EssayOnTime helps me finish assignments on time while guaranteeing a good grade.
Stay hydrated and eat well
The last thing you want to do is forget about your health before the competition. Keep a bottle of water with you all the time and keep track of your water intake. Being dehydrated before the race can be detrimental in long races. Sprint runners should also drink water during the competition. Electrolytes are also great to keep your energy up during events.
As for meals, the time before the competition will require you to be most careful with your food intake. If you have more than one event, you must eat foods that will help in muscle and energy recovery. Avoid eating anything that would drop your energy levels, such as simple carbs or sugars.
Time management
Managing your time is also very important. As discussed earlier, for students, managing training and academics well requires a proper schedule. Scheduling your day will allow you to make a routine for each day, where each activity is given a specific period of time in your day based on its priority.
As a student, scheduling your day can enable you to fit your training, academics, and leisure activities within your day. Scheduling can also help in setting times for each meal so that you eat at the right time and keep your body healthy.
Keep a positive mindset
Your attitude towards the competition and the events is perhaps the most important to maintain. Naturally, the stress associated with such competitions is high, which makes it extremely important for you to distract yourself with activities that help you focus on the competition. Focus more on the start and your strategy rather than worrying about the end result. What matters is putting all your practice and effort to reap the most amount of benefit.
Moreover, instead of being overwhelmed by thoughts of failure, try to focus on the experience and all that you will learn during the event. Use your stress to your advantage by keeping yourself pumped and excited for the event.
Get enough rest
Training hard isn’t the only way to win competitions; resting is just as important. Athletes must give their bodies plenty of rest after practice. During sleep, the body is able to repair any damaged tissue, which is frequent when it comes to physical exercises. To avoid any soreness or long-term injury, it’s extremely important for you to sleep at least 6-8 hours every day.
If you struggle to get enough rest, look through your day and find out ways to make space for more resting time. Scheduling and routinizing your days is the best method to do this, as you would have a day that is planned and includes the required 6-8 hours of sleep. Following such a schedule would make it easier to fit activities that are necessary for your physical and mental well-being.
Conclusion
Make sure you clearly note down all that you have learned during the event. Whether you win or lose, there’s always something you can do better, so look for such pointers after your race. Maintain a positive attitude towards the competition from start to finish. As you participate in more competitions, you’ll find that keeping a positive mindset contributes a lot to one’s chances of success and growth.
Author’s Bio:
Alina Boskar works for an academic writing portal where she features as a top writer in essay and homework writing. Besides that, she also writes and does illustrations for a children’s storybook company. In her free time, Alina likes to read sci-fi novels, indulge in gaming and doing yoga.