It seems like as my fitness gets better I need a longer warmup. I am not exactly sure why this is. Maybe it is because once I am warmed up I am going at a much faster pace, than when I am not as fit.
When I go for say a 2 hour run, the 1st 30 minutes I feel sort of sluggish, after that though I feel really good.
For my workouts, it definintely takes me 10-15 minutes to “loosen” up, so I generally do the beginning at an easy pace until I feel limber. Heading out for my long run right now (13 miles) and will run the first 3 at a very easy pace.
I don’t “know” the answer, but I’ll take a stab.
I’ve noticed the same thing. I will aften run 2 - 3 miles before a workout. Also, I too feel sluggish for the first 30 minutes of a long run. My guess is, since you are in better shape, your body doesn’t work as hard to run, thus it takes longer to warm up. But then, you might ask, why not just run faster for your warmup? I don’t know the answer to that.
I also think it depends on the individual. In high school I was a pretty goodcross country and 5000m and 3200m runner in track. While my teammates would run a mile or so to warm up I found that if I ran 2 to 4 miles before a race I would be flying from the start. Other guys on my team gave my warmup a try since i was doing so well and got shelled during the race. To each his or her own.
Or your getting old. Personally I’m getting old & more fit, but I attribute it more to the former. I hated to do much of a warmup when I ran track in HS.
I absolutely find that I need longer warmups - the fitter I become. A 20 minute pool warm up prepares me MUCH better for Masters’ than the standard 10 minutes everyone else does. When my cycling distance rises, I normally feel best in my 4th and 5th hours than the first 3. Same thing with running a 5K. A 20 minute warm up for a 19 minute race does the trick.
I think the amount of warm-up is directly correlated to how tired you are from training. If you are tired it takes longer to “wake your body up” and get on with the session. Most find that after going through this state and then racing fresh it seems, once freshened, to take almost no time to warm-up.
good point.
How about 2-3 month to warm up after winter break, to start feeling good : )))
I totally agree with TRI. A girl (awesome cyclist) I dated told me that as I got more fit I would need more of a warm-up. Frankly I didn’t buy it but as I train more…and get faster…and my VO2 max results are great (72.9 ml/kg/min), I’m beginnnig to believe what she was saying. I can’t explain why it works that way but it does. On either a bike or a run, if I go at a steady tempo effort for hours I never seem to really enjoy it. However if I go through a hard warm-up, and somewhere in there spike the heart rate (to say 167 or so), after a short cooling, I can go through with my 2 hour tempo workout and feel great (and have more left to spare)!
Weird?
David
I’ve always been a big warm-up guy and find like you do, that a brief rest before getting to either the main training session or the race seems to work best…gives your body a time to get it’s metabolic house in order???
Are you all sure that it’s because you are more fit that you need a longer warm-up?
It’s very possible that it is because you are not rested that you need a longer warm-up. Typically, I have found in myself and in some of the athlete’s that I’ve worked with that as they become more tired, it takes longer to get going.
During tapers, racing blocks, or peak periods, I find that it does not take as long to get ready to go. That doesn’t mean I don’t warm up for the big race, it just seems like the more rested you become, the more ready you are to go.
"Are you all sure that it’s because you are more fit that you need a longer warm-up?
It’s very possible that it is because you are not rested that you need a longer warm-up."
DING DING!! We have a winner!
The full text of this goes into more detail if one is really interested, but Tex hit the nail squarely on the head, IMHO. This is one of those old chestnuts that really needs to go away, since it’s really just a justification for being overtrained!
that’s what I said…
I am not yet convenced that it is caused by overtraining.
When you get into better shape your able to go faster at a given effort. In running this could be having a faster turnover, a longer stride or both. For cycling your either spinning more or pushing a bigger gear.
In most cases I would assume you would be utilizing more muscle fibers to get the job done, which in turn would require more oxigen. I am thinking that in order to get these additional muscle fibers warmed up a longer warmup session is needed.
I’m not conviced either.
I swam a lot this winter/spring and felt terrible in the 2 races I did and actually went slower than I would’ve had I just swum once or twice a week. My master’s coach (also a UNC swimmer) told me it was because my ‘swim muscles’ were in great shape again and it’s unreasonable to ask them to just ‘fire’ and that I need a longer warm-up.
I don’t know if this applies to running/cycling, but I think the fitter you are, the more you need to ‘warm-up.’
An extreme case would be Tom Dolan, here is a quote from his coach:
He needed a minimum of 4000+ to warm up adequately and 1500-2000 to warm down. Therefore, on race day, with prelims and finals—he was logging over 12,000 meters
Here is the link to a great article about Dolan’s training for the 2000 Olympics if anyone is interested. It is where I found the quote above: