Dry mouth in races

The sympathetic nervous system ("fight or flight" system - powered by adrenalin) likely predominates in the first bit of a race (or most of the race for that matter). The sympathetic nervous system, along with the heavy breathing, can cause the dry mouth you describe. Happens to me also. Not sure what to do other than relax (I haven't found a way to do that in a crit tho).

Joe

I used to get like that before a short time trial or hillclimb but found that a good warm up that included some very hard short intervals helped a lot.

FWIW I take a bite of some food that has oil in it like a muffin before doing L5 training my mouth doesn't dry out but I'm over 200lbs so be careful with that method.🙂

grahamspringett said:

Any tips on how to prevent it?

Stare at the podium girls for a minute or so before the start. :p

Alex Simmons said:

Stare at the podium girls for a minute or so before the start. :p

Alas, there were none...

grahamspringett said:

Alas, there were none...

damn collegiate races... what conference are you in?

grahamspringett said:

When I start a race I always seem to get an uncomfortably dry mouth for the first 15 minutes or so. It's distracting and makes me drink unnecessarily, which is tricky in a tight criterium race like I did yesterday.

Does anybody know why this dry mouth thing occurs? I suspect it's probably nerves. Any tips on how to prevent it?

Try a cough-or-lemon drop ...

Put it UNDER your tongue (or, of course, you can swallow it) just before the race actually starts.

There are [censored]/(sour) lemon drops ... if you think that will work better for you.

I chew gum. It works.