Warm up for time trial

[wbonenh]

Hi,

I'm training for a time trial that is taking place in May 2010. I have a pretty good handle on the training part of it, but am unsure how best to warm up on the day of the event.

The course is 21 miles, slight uphill (< 2%) for the first 17 miles, then averaging 6-7% uphill for the final 4 miles. I'm hoping to complete this in 1:10 - 1;15.

How best should I warm up for this on race day? I'm thinking I will set up my indoor trainer next to the car and spin for a while like I see the pros doing at The Tour. Does this make sense? How long should I warm up? At what intensity? How will I know when I'm warmed up? Should I stretch after the warm up, before the start?

Thanks,

John from New Hampshire, USA

 

[RDV4ROUBAIX]

Hi,

I'm training for a time trial that is taking place in May 2010. I have a pretty good handle on the training part of it, but am unsure how best to warm up on the day of the event.

The course is 21 miles, slight uphill (< 2%) for the first 17 miles, then averaging 6-7% uphill for the final 4 miles. I'm hoping to complete this in 1:10 - 1;15.

How best should I warm up for this on race day? I'm thinking I will set up my indoor trainer next to the car and spin for a while like I see the pros doing at The Tour. Does this make sense? How long should I warm up? At what intensity? How will I know when I'm warmed up? Should I stretch after the warm up, before the start?

Thanks,

John from New Hampshire, USA

For track and TT's I set up the rollers and do 1 min intervals every 5 min for 20 min. Light stretch afterward right before the start, and I'm good to go. Everybody is different, and respond different to warm up regiments for these type of events, but this routine has worked for me. Good luck!

 

[David Suro]

For that type of TT, I would:

Begin my warm-up 90 minutes prior to the start. Ride 30 minutes easy, 5 minutes at TT effort, 5 minutes easy, 1 minute hard effort, 5 minutes easy, do a couple of max sprints to really open the legs, 10-15 minutes easy, then stay loose until your start.

Rock On!

 

[Oldman]

For that type of TT, I would:

Begin my warm-up 90 minutes prior to the start. Ride 30 minutes easy, 5 minutes at TT effort, 5 minutes easy, 1 minute hard effort, 5 minutes easy, do a couple of max sprints to really open the legs, 10-15 minutes easy, then stay loose until your start.

Rock On!

Perfect. Do this workout on a trainer (not necessarily with your TT bike to minimize messing with the equipment) with the last sprint and 10-15 minute section on the road. If you don't have 90 minutes (how many times have you had to hurry?) abbreviate the warmup and do 2 minutes on, 3 minutes ez in progressive bigger gears. You want to get your heart rate up to performance levels so you don't get overgassed in the first 3K. It's all suffering from there. If you've got enough time, stretch after the initial warmup to loosen all systems. Venga!

 

[egtalbot]

Well first, what is this race you're doing? Is it in/near New Hampshire? Just curious.

Rregarding warmup, I think it depends on how much you're training. I did a bunch of the Maine Time Trial series races in 2007 and I was doing 80-100mpw of cycling for training - I basically translated 40mpw of running training into cycling. If I did the warmup of a real cyclist training hundreds of miles a week, that would be too much. I'd usually do some very light stretching - more general movement until about 35-40 minutes before the race. Then I'd do 4-5 miles where I gradually got faster, with a couple good 1-2 minute pushes close to race effort in the last 5 minutes. Then I'd get off the bike, stretch a bit and then not long before the start, do a few really quick accelerations.

That worked perfectly for me. My races lasted from 29-39 minutes, so yours is about twice as long. That normally would mean you wouldn't need to go quite as fast for accelerations during your warmup.

One final note - I would expect that between now and the race, you will do two or three rides that come close to simulating your race. When you do those, practice your warmup also, and you'll figure out what works or what doesn't.

 

[usedtobefast]

Well first, what is this race you're doing? Is it in/near New Hampshire? Just curious.

Rregarding warmup, I think it depends on how much you're training. I did a bunch of the Maine Time Trial series races in 2007 and I was doing 80-100mpw of cycling for training - I basically translated 40mpw of running training into cycling. If I did the warmup of a real cyclist training hundreds of miles a week, that would be too much. I'd usually do some very light stretching - more general movement until about 35-40 minutes before the race. Then I'd do 4-5 miles where I gradually got faster, with a couple good 1-2 minute pushes close to race effort in the last 5 minutes. Then I'd get off the bike, stretch a bit and then not long before the start, do a few really quick accelerations.

That worked perfectly for me. My races lasted from 29-39 minutes, so yours is about twice as long. That normally would mean you wouldn't need to go quite as fast for accelerations during your warmup.

One final note - I would expect that between now and the race, you will do two or three rides that come close to simulating your race. When you do those, practice your warmup also, and you'll figure out what works or what doesn't.

good advice. i will ad you need to get your heart rate up towards your max,
very briefly, not to long before you start say within 10 minutes of the start. don't max out, but when you start the race you want to be able to go hard without blowing up. good luck with the training.

 

[Tapeworm]

Beware the "warm-up"! AFAIK no one disputes that a warmup is essential to maxmising performance. However a recent study* demonstrated that "overheating" or at the least not keeping body tempurature at a reasonable level can have very detremental effect on performance. So be wary when warming up that you don't cook. Ice vests and fans could be solutions.


* the study did involve dogs, not humans. Now apparently we don't cool ourselves through our tongues that much but the rest of the physiology is the same, FWIW.