Some, like Paula Radcliffe, the world record holder for the women’s marathon, spend more time warming up than most people spend running.
“Warm-up usually takes 45 to 50 minutes and is pretty much the same for workouts and races,” she told me. It consists of jogging for 10 to 20 minutes, stretching, and then doing strides.
But her warm-up is short and easy compared with the cyclist Andy Hampsten’s 90-minute warm-up before a time trial, in which cyclists ride one by one as fast as they
can over a course that is typically about 25 miles.
Mr. Hampsten, who rode in the Tour de France and was the only American ever to win the Tour of Italy, began his warm-up with 30 minutes of easy riding followed by 40 minutes in which he rode as hard as he could for intervals of 2 minutes, alternating with 5 minutes at an easy pace, followed by 20 more minutes of easy riding. He said he knew he was warmed up when he got “a mild endorphin buzz.”
At the other extreme is the Olympic swimmer Dara Torres.
“I don’t need a ton of warm-up to be ready for my races,” she said. Her warm-up is just “some light swimming, kicking and drills,” followed by a few sprints.
For me the shorter the distance (and faster pace), the longer the warm-up. If you are going to start out with a red-line effort, you need to not only have the muscles warmed up but also hit the speed you will be going, or close to it. I would not need a whole lot of warm-up for a marathon but an elite runner might. Also need a lot op warm-up for swimming to get my marginal technique going.
I did a lactate threshold test a few years back and the tester said my lactate level was steadily increasing for the first 15 minutes of the test and then suddenly dropped and held relatively steady for a period. He said I should probably do a longer warm-up than most, but I have yet to try it for a race. This season I have really focused on my warm-ups prior to doing intervals and have noticed a big difference in the quality of workouts. I have also noticed that I despise the first 20-25 minutes of my long run until I am warmed up.
that is interesting about Dara…not sure why, but I would have thought she would be the type to warm up a lot. I remember when I was swimming as a kid, at meets it seems like I was always either warming up or cooling down.
that is interesting about Dara…not sure why, but I would have thought she would be the type to warm up a lot. I remember when I was swimming as a kid, at meets it seems like I was always either warming up or cooling down.
She doesn’t SWIM much for a warmup, but she has her own personal team of massage therapists/people who help with dynamic stretching. The article did not mention that and it is CERTAINLY part of her warmup.
Conventional wisdom holds that “the shorter the event the longer the warmup” and it’s interesting to read some of the article.
They also neglected to mention that the fitter the athlete, the longer it takes to warm up.
