So I competed at the Cal Golden Bearathlon on Saturday. The water temp was 52 degrees, and air temp was somewhere in the forties with a stiff breeze. It was supposed to rain a ton with thunder and lightning, so I can’t complain too much about the weather.
I didn’t do too much of a warmup for the race except for a light jog before I put my wetsuit on and I loosened up my shoulders a little with a dip in the water to get used to the temp. I saw the Cal triathletes with their bikes in stationary trainers doing a serious looking warmup for about 20-30 minutes before the race.
Do any of you guys have a trusty warmup protocol for short races in the cold like this? I’m anticipating cold weather in the next few races I do, and I’m thinking a fairly hard warmup beforehand to loosen up the legs and get a sweat going can only help.
I bring my trainer to races in case I can’t do a road ride. I set up everything then get a ride in (usually about 8 miles or so). Then I always get a swim in at whatever time the water is available.
5 to 8 minute run to get some nervous energy out
10 min bike to make sure everything is working right
5 to 10 min of swimming to get arms ready.
52° is pretty cold you may want to get down to the water a bit early and get aquainted with it. I would use one of those neoprene caps or at least double cap.
I go by the general rule of “the shorter the race, the longer the warm up.”
Like the others have mentioned, I do a reverse warm up by jogging to loosen up (followed by requisite BM), then try to get out and hammer on the bike for 3-5 miles. I try to time the swim warm up so that I get in a few hundred yds. and breathing hard when I get to the start. That way I avoid the urge to sprint in the water and go hypoxic in the first 100.
In running I tried to warm up longer for shorter races, but never found that to be effective in triathlon. I’ve never been fit enough in the swim that I wanted to waste energy warming up, but I tried a pretty long (45 min) warm up ride for a duathlon one time and found it didn’t help me after the first 5K. I still felt tight and uncomfortable for the first 10 minutes of the bike. Since then I don’t really warm up at all except for whatever the first event will be, ie, either running for du or swimming for tri.
I’ve run as fast as 5:10 or so off the bike with no run warm-up run before the swim, so I would recommend people save their energy/calories for the race.
pito00 … for a race with water that cold I advise my athletes to not do an in water warm up. I have them do a normal run then bike warm up … sometimes just a run (different for different athletes with different fitness and goals). After they are done with that I encourage them to put the wetsuit on while they are warm from run/bike. Once in the suit the goal is to stay warm … whether thats with clothes over the suit or preferably doing a little jogging / dry land swim exercise in the suit while waiting for their start.
Goal is …“once you are warm DON’T get cold”. At most you might want to stick your face in the water but I believe doing a swim “warm up” does nothing but force you to start losing body heat fast.
For a sprint in the cold weather I start off with a 2-3 mile run, I would like to do 3 miles if possible starting an hour before the race followed by a quick 5 minute ride out of transition to make sure everything is in working order. Then I do some active stretching until 15 minutes before start when I get my wetsuit on and do a few swims of increasing speed out to the first buoy.
I like this warm up. I’m doing my 1st Sprint next month. I live 4 miles from the beach start. Do you suggest riding to the venue for a good warm up. It will not be as cold.
I ALWAYS bring two bikes, why? How many people here have set up their transition zone, then take their bike out for a quick spin only to find their space totally taken over? With two bikes I can claim my space - have my bike in place in the transition zone and still warm up on the bike.
I really try to go over the bike out/in areas for anything tricky. Generally I’ll stretch for 15 mins, bike for 10 mins, run for about 5 mins, get my wetsuit on a swim a quick 50-100 yds. The whole process including getting the darn wetsuit on takes a little over 60 minutes.