|   What constitutes a good pre-race warmup? | DoctorJD
Mar 7, 2002 7:56 AM | | I did my first (and only) race last year and learned two valuable lessons (the hard way):
1. Don't eat and drink too much too soon before the start.
2. You need to warm up properly or you will die.
Last year, I went off of the line pretty much cold. Not again.
I think I've got the eating and drinking thing figured out. My question is, what makes up a good pre-race warmup? What kind of intesity should I be going for? How long should I warm up? Keep in mind that I do have a heart rate monitor and I will probably take my trainer. Any help will be greatly appreciated! |
| re: What constitutes a good pre-race warmup? | AZ biker girl
Mar 7, 2002 10:09 AM | | I usually start warming up 45 minutes to an hour before the start. I'll cruise a little at first (10-15 minutes), try to find a hill or just an open spot to sprint with the goal of getting into my race pace heart rate zone for maybe 5 minutes, and then just keep cruising around, maybe do a couple more intense sprints, until I have to wait outside the start gate. I race sport, so I don't usually eat anything during those races. Because of that, I'll try to have a Gu or some sort of gel during the second half of my warm-up so I have plenty of fuel for the race.
I often see people on trainers doing what appear to be regimented warm-ups, but my technique works for me, and saves me the annoying sound of mountain bike tires on a trainer. |
| re: Getting your heart rate high | evs
Mar 7, 2002 10:27 AM | | so you can induce lactic acid will allow your body to "wake up".
This gets your body ready for the process of removing the lactic
acid built up during the race.Plus I think it helps alot in warming
up the muscles and preventing injury.I always try to get a good sweat going and breathing heavy. Just remember to not go to the line wiped
out.Save enough time to recovery before the start.Hope this helps
evs(wishing I warmed up on training rides like I do in races) |
| Guess I haven't posted this in a year or more! | MTBDOC
Mar 7, 2002 12:49 PM | | The following is for a pro/expert level racer. Sport riders could certainly use this. Probably too much for a beginner. Okay, here we go:
10-15 min easy spinning (zone 1-2)
3 min zone 3
3 min zone 4
3-5 min easy
4 repeats of: 1 min zone 5 (steady anaerobic effort), 2 min recovery
5 min easy
5 repeats of: 10 sec sprint, 50 sec easy
5-10 min easy spinning until start
Yeah, I know, this is extremely structured, too hard, etc. Your body needs to have several brief periods of lactic acid build up and maximal power production to be ready for the intense start of a MTB race. As a matter of fact, warm up begins the day before the race. NEVER take the day off. At least do 4 or 5 of the 1 on, 2 off anaerobic efforts within 24 hrs of the start.
Give this a real try. You will be amazed how much difference a structured warmup can do for you. An added benefit is that it helps deal with the pre-race jitters as you tend to be more focused due to the structure.
the DOC |
| I endorse | rpironcladracer (rich)
Mar 7, 2002 3:30 PM | | works for me. Structured is way better than not. |
| can you define these zones? nm | novice
Mar 9, 2002 2:25 PM | | thanks |
| Training zones | MTBDOC
Mar 10, 2002 8:12 AM | | As those of you who have read my past efforts, I believe in POWER, not heartrate. In brief, power is what moves the bike; heartrate is more like a temperature gauge in your car: a reflection of an average level of effort for the past few seconds to minutes. That said, power levels REALLY only need to be split into perhaps 3 zones (or maybe four). The 5 zone thing comes from the old heartrate literature.
Zone 1: easy effort, not enough to even get you breathing hard
Zone 2: moderately easy, but your breathing will be increased
Zone 3: (this is somewhere between 2 and 4!) a bit harder
Zone 4: lactate threshold
Zone 5: anaerobic -> power output is greater than can be sustained aerobically
Okay, lets make this practical. The zone 1-2 stuff should be easy and steady. When you pick it up to the zone 3 and 4, you need to move up a gear or maybe two, and stay at a steady speed. What happens is that ANY effort (even anaerobic) feels fairly easy for the first few seconds. If you are using a heartrate monitor, you won't see much increase for at least 20-30 seconds. Just try to do the first 20 min at a gradually increasing effort, but don't blow your legs off.
The zone 5 intervals are key during a warm up. I try to do this at a steady effort that feels okay for the first 20-30 sec and gets progressively harder. I want to be right at the edge of falling off the bike at the end of the 60 seconds. I KNOW this sounds TOO HARD! Most people don't do enough of the hard stuff during the warm up. By doing it for 1 min at a time, you get all of the energy producing enzymes active and get your blood flow maxed to your legs...AND you have some recovery, so the lactate clearing enzymes wake up as well.
You will need to try this a few times to get a feel for it. I have found that the harder my warmup zone 5 efforts feel, the better I seem to race. Look for a short, steady climb. For example, at Mt Snow, I do these on a gravel road climbing out of the parking lot (and see a lot of others warming up there as well). When I go there for nationals, I remember the road! At local/regional races, I use whatever terrain is there. Sometimes on pavement, sometimes dirt, and at times, sitting on the trainer in the parking lot.
Play around with this and see what happens! |
| Don't under estimate the ritual | beer dog
Mar 12, 2002 4:15 PM | | I'm a firm believer in having not only a warm up, but a ritual. No matter if I leave for a ride from home or drive to a trail head, I always play a CD in my car, sit on the tailgate of my subaru wagon, put on my shoes, check my bike, and so on. This summers CD will be System of a Down.
http://www.mindtools.com/prepcomp.html |
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