Do Professional Runners Warm Up/Cool Down for a Marathon?

Hey, I was right there next to you! I was headed to that very massage bed when I realized Meb was closing in from a different angle. I quietly ceded the spot! Bizzarre but I ran my marathon PB that day.

Smoove wrote:

I ran in the sub-elite program in 2014, and we were in the same area as the elites (Meb was getting ART on his hip a foot away from me - it was a pretty cool thing to see). Basically we warmed up in a paddock area under the bridge. I would agree that all of the elites were taking their sweet time warming up, and that was on a cold and blustery day (25 mph winds). I cannot imagine that they took it any faster on a warm day.

Yes the do. I think Meb goes through his pre-race routine in his book "Meb for Mortals"

Impressive to have such a good day in such bad conditions. In some ways, the bad conditions were the best thing that could have happened to me. It was my first marathon, and I had a pretty aggressive time goal given that course. The wind took all of the pressure about time off of me and allowed me to just run. I still made a bad decision trying to pull away from a group I was running with at mile 21 or so, and having the wind crush me and using up the last of my glycogen with a healthy bonk by 22 or 23, but the race turned out pretty good overall all things considered.

I would take a warm day over those conditions any day though.

+100

Galen_Rupp_Beast wrote:

cool down to shake out some lactic acid would be important.

This is probably the most common running myth - cool down's aren't to flush out lactic acid. Your body will naturally eliminate the lactate in your system within minutes after finishing your exercise. And lactate/lactic acid isn't what causes muscles soreness, burning, etc. or whatever you think it does.

My understanding is that it is hydrogen ions that are produced as part of using lactate as an energy source that is the culprit rather than the lactate/lactic acid, but since they are produced as a result of the same process, there is no real harm in the common, if incorrect, habit of using lactic acid as a stand in.

I also understand that clearing these by products can be achieved pretty easily with just some light walking. Basically, getting through the chute and back to your gear, etc. is enough to flush the byproducts out of your system.

True story, not a troll...

I work with a group of individuals that have life issues, some physical, some mental. One guy has to keep moving in some way to keep his focus. He is always in the gym doing something and runs, a lot. In a group setting he told of riding his bike 6 miles to the start of the first marathon he ran. He stashed it in shrubs near the start before running a warm up mile. I chuckled at that. He then ran 4:20-something without every having gone past 7 miles before! Ok, I think, not bad. "And then I ran a cool down mile." With that I'm laughing and people can hear. Then he tells of having food at the finish, hanging around a bit and his bike gone... and running 13 miles home. One of the others asked why he rode 6 miles to get there but ran 13 home. "I was mad. I went the long way!"

I'm far from elite, but run in the 2:30-2:34 range. I'll probably jog 10-12 minutes total before a marathon, which goes something like this. 5 minutes just shuffling to get my legs woken up, but more importantly take a good dump. Then I'll stretch, jog a little more, throw my crap in the gear truck, do a few easy strides/drill, and get to my corral.

I have never even thought about cooling down post race, which I suspect is where the elites would act far more professional than me.

Camille Herron is the only elite I've heard of who regularly does cooldowns after a marathon.

Meb cooled down after his second marathon, Chicago 2003, where he ran under control to get the Olympic A standard instead of racing all out. Most of the time, he can barely walk afterward.

For the top elites, one barrier to cooling down is logistics. The top finishers might have immediate TV interviews to do, and at places like Boston or NYC they're in the media center for a press conference within an hour of finishing.

But the main reason would be some combo of they're trashed (lots of them are already having trouble going up and down a few steps at the press conference) and they've just completed their goal race of the season and are likely going to take a break. Hobbling through a couple miles half an hour after finishing just isn't a priority at that point.

I warmed up with Kipchoge at Berlin - so yea

From the interview of Paula Radcliffe linked on the home page and "cooling down" after running the WR:

I crossed the finish line and I had this elation but really didn’t feel too well. It was suffering inside. My physio turned to me and asked, ‘Can you do some sort of cool down?’ I said, ‘You’re joking, right?’ I could probably do a walk but there was no way that I could do one. My body was rebelling with me.

Ran in the US Half Champs a few years ago when it was in Duluth. Meb's warmup is incredibly detailed, which he said has become very important for him at his age. I think the race started at 7 in the morning and we got bused out from the hotels around 5:30. It was pitch black when we got there and Meb had probably already been there like an hour jogging, stretching and doing drills. I think he is probably more the exception than the rule since he has to be so much more careful at his age. It was just very interesting seeing how intense and focused he was about his warmup. At the briefing meeting the day before the race, he was asking the race directors a ton of questions about how they would make the decision to delay the race in the event of rain so that his warmup was not thrown off.

smd wrote:

there was I wrote:

Kawauchi does 20~30 min easy an hour or so after a marathon to cool down.

In Kawauchi's case, that's not a cooldown, it's a warm-up for the race he has coming up in a few hours.

Hilarious!

FormerTree wrote:

5 minutes just shuffling to get my legs woken up, but more importantly take a good dump. Then I'll stretch, jog a little more, throw my crap in the gear truck

Dude, that sh!t should stay in the port-a-john.

My cool down after a marathon is to stay upright and keep walking. I've had to walk up to a couple of miles to get back to a hotel or bus. It never crossed my mind to do a formal cool down jog. Warming up is important but afterwards who cares? It's not like I'm going to be racing again anytime soon. Walking is sufficient.

So the math is a total of 41 miles (+6 bike), having never run more than 7 before. That guy is a specimen.

that was one thing missing in the breaking 4 documentary that left me wondering the same thing. it would have been interesting and cogent to the following effort to see the warmups.

I would say all of them do a warm up, some light jogging, a couple of striders and some stretching. The first mile is usually the slowest, around 5 minutes, which is a warm up for athletes who are capable of running a 4-minute mile. I've seem some elites do a cool down, but I think most of them don't and if you make the podium I don't think it's possible with the media requirements. Btw, any movement depletes your fuel store and I would think you don't want to have much movement before the race.

fDVCSVDA wrote:

that was one thing missing in the breaking 4 documentary that left me wondering the same thing. it would have been interesting and cogent to the following effort to see the warmups.

is this a new documentary i missed? breaking 4.

i would love to get the insight from sub 4 marathoners.

they should have a runnersworld article or 20

just imagine if we all good be so gifted to break 4.

they have to be putting in crazy weekly mileage like 20-25 mpw.

i bet they are the star of their office.