How to Warm Up for a Race Properly

Podcast

November 14, 2022

Match your warm-up to the intensity and length of your race. Gerard Donnelly explains warm-ups for cycling, triathlon and running races.

Get Fast Podcast, Ep 148, with Gerard and Jordan Donnelly

Your warm-up should get your body ready for the intensity of the race you're about to do. Two things decide it: how hard the race is and how long it lasts. The shorter and harder the race, the more intense your warm-up needs to be. The longer the race, the less warm-up you need.

What is a warm-up for?

Gerard points to a Thursday night Zwift race some of his athletes ride. Some arrive minutes before the 6:15pm start, while others can warm up for 45 minutes. He says the link between warm-up and performance is "enormous". Riders who warm up properly get better results. The rest spend the first five minutes of the race trying to keep up.

Gerard has ridden one local 10-minute climb more than 300 times. His best time came on the third of three repeats, at the end of a long ride with 2,000 metres of climbing, and he has never beaten it. To him, it showed the body performs much better once it is properly warm.

Jordan adds the "second rep" effect: in a set of reps, the second is often the fastest because you're fully warm but still fresh.

What does Gerard's warm-up include?

For hard, shorter events, the warm-up has three parts:

A gradual build. Start easy, with a low cadence, and let your legs decide when to lift the cadence and the power. Over 10 to 15 minutes you should get warm, start to sweat and breathe a little harder.
A short ramp. A couple of minutes at each step, building in intensity.
Three 30-second efforts at low cadence and high intensity. Gerard calls this the secret part of the squad's warm-up. The low-cadence strength efforts recruit as much muscle as possible, and he has found he performs worse without them.

Gerard aims for 350 to 450 watts in these efforts. The first often feels bad and barely reaches 350. After a minute and a half of rest, the second might hit 400 watts with the same feeling, and the third 450. A time trial at 280 watts then feels easy, and he is at race intensity from the first pedal stroke.

How long should you rest before the start?

Hard efforts three minutes before the start leave you with a high heart rate and tired legs. Before a race, the Donnellys allow six to eight, and up to 12, minutes of rest after the final effort. Before a training session, two or three minutes is enough.

The aim is to stay warm while your heart rate settles. If you arrive late, don't cram the whole routine into five minutes. Do a couple of efforts once your legs feel ready.

How should you warm up for a cycling race?

Short events such as a time trial, crit or track race get the full routine above. For long events, the warm-up matters less. An Ironman is raced at around 60 to 70 percent intensity all day, so you only need to get your body to that level.

For a long gran fondo or endurance ride, where getting near the front of the start matters, Gerard suggests:

Stay close to the start if you can, ideally with a trainer nearby.
Hang your bike over the barrier near the front, then walk back without it. People will let you through on foot.
Roll your legs over for about five minutes, with one or two short, low-cadence efforts.

How should you warm up for a triathlon?

The method is the same for every distance. Only the intensity changes.

Ironman and 70.3:

Five to 10 minutes of easy movement. Ride to the venue if you can, or walk.
Two or three minutes of running with a couple of stride-throughs.
Two or three minutes of swimming, then one or two hard efforts of 10 to 30 seconds. Finish about five minutes before your start.

Sprint:

The same easy ride or walk, with no intensity on the bike.
Three strides of 10 to 30 seconds at your 400-metre running pace, with a good break between them.
Four or five minutes of swimming, then three flat-out 30-second sprints.

Gerard still wants you to start the swim at the pace you can hold to the finish. The sprints prepare you for the moments when you need a quick burst to get onto someone's feet. Everyone needs to find what suits them, so try different warm-ups in less important races, then use the one that worked best in your A race.

How should you warm up for a running race?

For a marathon, it depends on your finish time:

Around five hours: walk to the start and use the first kilometre or two as your warm-up.
Closer to four hours: five or six minutes of easy walking and jogging, with maybe one stride-through.
Three hours or faster: a slightly longer warm-up and a couple more stride-throughs, so you can hold race pace from the gun.

For an 800-metre race, warm up for at least half an hour. Start with 10 to 15 minutes of easy running, then build up with some strides. Finish with three hard efforts of about 150 metres at race pace or quicker, two or three minutes apart. Finish them at least 10 minutes before the start. For a 10K at 4:30 per kilometre, your 150-metre efforts would be at about 4:10 to 4:15 pace.

What about multi-stage events?

Cool down after each stage by rolling your legs, as Grand Tour riders do. Before an afternoon time trial after a morning road race, roll your legs easily for about 15 minutes, do a mini ramp, then the three 30-second efforts. On later days, keep the efforts in case the race starts fast.