How to properly warm up for speed workouts?

I almost always do 10-15 minutes. Sometimes i go shorter if it's a really warm day. Three factors play into how long a warm up should be: weather (the cooler it is, the more of a warm up I need); pace of workout (the faster I'm going to be running, the more of a warm up I need); and what you are used to. What's right for me might not be right for you.

Cody' wrote:

What do you guys do for warm-up? Is 10-15min jog really necessary?

It takes between 8-10 min of easy jogging to be proper "warmed up", after that I use good stretching and finish with 3-4 fast strides of 60-80 m . Thats it! A perfect warm up. :)

Smoove wrote:

I almost always do 10-15 minutes. Sometimes i go shorter if it's a really warm day. Three factors play into how long a warm up should be: weather (the cooler it is, the more of a warm up I need); pace of workout (the faster I'm going to be running, the more of a warm up I need); and what you are used to. What's right for me might not be right for you.

This.

Personally, I run 10 min easy. Then I do a series of drills... lunges, butt kicks, A skips, karaoke, leg swings front to back, leg swings to side, active adductor stretch, upper hamstring stretch, bounds for 20 yards, and strides. Depending on the interval workout, I usually run the first rep a few seconds/lap slower than my target pace. After that, I'm ready.

Its always surprising to see teammates outright sprint at full speed after a lap of jogging and some strides. Then there are others who need 2-3 miles to feel warmed up, I wonder what factors play in this.

i would take a look at how sprinters warm up if you want to see what a comprehensive warmup looks like. in the words of mark hurst, 400m olympic coach, aka kitkat on the charliefrancis forums, he would say that a perfect warmup into the workout would be that you would find it difficult to discern when the warmup ended and the workout began.

with that said, my warmup is

8-10 min slow jog to warm up the muscles and get blood flowing

active-isolated rope stretching regimen from the Whartons

slowly progress from standing/laying dynamic stretches to marches to skips to few strides to one all out 50m

then the workout

a progression would look like:

1. upside down bicycles

2. upside down straight leg swings and to the sides

3. Prone and supine leg swings to arms stretched out perpendicular to body

4. 20m walks - on heels, outside, inside, and on toes

5. 20m walking knee raises

6. 20m hip hinge and reach(hamstrings)

7. 20m walking glute stretch

8. 20m walking quad stretch

9. 50m sidejacks with arms going all the way up, both directions

10. 30m carioka both directions

11. 20m straight leg lifts into T's(hamstrings)

12. 10 standing leg swings side to side and 10 forward to back

13. 20m A march - jog back

14. 20m A skip - jog back

15. 20m B skip - jog back

16. 20m-30m butt kick - jog back

17. 30m A runs

18. 30m strides

19. 1x50m acceleration into top speed

of course play around with the length or times depending on how your body is feeling and if it weather is cold, etc

Some good suggestions here, I will just add that my fastest rep is usually #3-5 out of ten (or 2-3 out of 5 etc).. The rest are just building up or cruising down, all relaxed never straining. This contrasts with distance sessions where my last rep is almost always the fastest.