Warmup - one hard effort or no

Woofer

Does anyone find it necessary before doing a short hard effort like the flying 200 meter to do a really hard near maximal effort first in the warm up in order to get a good effort out of the timed event? The last two times I've done this, it seems like I did better efforts after the timed event with a thirty minute to forty five minute low gear warmup with perhaps a five second hard burst. The last time I only got in twenty minutes so that may skew the data. Not sure if that's just the competitive fires or the warmup routine. I plan on changing my warmup next time to see what happens.

rule62

Here's what my coach recommends:


"A pre-race warm-up for Criteriums and Time Trials might look like this (on trainer)-
Total time: 46:00

• 20:00 EnduranceMiles (EM).
• 10:00 Tempo (T), with 80-90 cadence.
• 2:00 RecoveryMiles (RM), spin.
• 4:00 SteadyState (SS), 90-100 cadence.
• 2:00 RecoveryMiles (RM), spin.
• 2:00 PowerIntervals (PI), 110 cadence.
• 2:00 RecoveryMiles (RM), spin.
• 2:00 PowerIntervals (PI), 110 cadence.
• 2:00 RecoveryMiles (RM), spin.

Get off the trainer as close to the start time as possible. Try to get to the line warm and sweating. The warm-up is designed to get the body producing Lactate at an accelerated rate, while beginning the buffering and clearing process. Your body will be primed for the intensity of the race start.


For a road race warm-up, it might look like this-

• 15:00 EM spinning
• 5:00 interval starting with Tempo and ramping up to SS for the last minute
• 4:00 RM spinning
• 2:00 interval starting at SS and ramping up to PI for the last 30 seconds
• 2:00 RM spinning
• 2:00 interval starting at SS and ramping up to PI for the last 30 seconds
• 5:00 spinning until the start

This warm-up takes 35 minutes, so start it about 35-40 minutes before race time. If you have extra time before the start, make sure to stay warm and keep riding. Have your race kit all set and your race bottles on the bike. Drink during this warm-up, but only water because a sugary drink may make you feel lethargic at the start line."



And yeah, I have definitely found that if I put in a few hard efforts as a part of my warm up, I am more ready and will hurt less from the big efforts that follow. Hope this helps.

biker-linz

If your event is supra-threshold, you probably want to consider a supra-threshold warm up, see:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...st_uids=8847338
and
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...t_uids=14652506

L.

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RST Associate Coach
ABCC Level 3 Coach
Doctoral Student (Physiology), University of Oxford, UK.
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