Warming up for mile and short interval work in cold weather

15-20 min warmup

Do some strides too, and some people also do a little bit of threshold running in their warmup. Personally, I do 600-1000m of it.

No.

Don't do intervals on a track in such weather.

Run in training shoes, and run on a CC course where you can approximate the distances run.

Run as well as possible, then compare your times over the weeks, trying to get faster.

In HS, no track (dirt-sand) and no indoor track.

We were highly competitive in state and against national times.

cramister wrote:

Do some strides too, and some people also do a little bit of threshold running in their warmup. Personally, I do 600-1000m of it.

That could help...

I like to walk around fast then skip and start my run on an uphill to warm up for road runs. If there's no hill near your track you could try doing burpees.

Some ideas:

1) Slightly longer warmup than during normal temperatures. Twenty minutes should do it.

2) Lots of layers to get the muscles loose (e.g., tights underneath wind pants)

3) Drills after warmup...some light skipping, high knee stuff, hip mobility, etc.

4) As others have said, definitely some strides...starting around 5K pace for the first few and then getting up to mile pace for the last couple

That should do it!

yhwh wrote:

No.

Don't do intervals on a track in such weather.

Run in training shoes, and run on a CC course where you can approximate the distances run.

Run as well as possible, then compare your times over the weeks, trying to get faster.

In HS, no track (dirt-sand) and no indoor track.

We were highly competitive in state and against national times.

Agreed. If you live where there is real winter weather, snow and ice and all that, just approximate it on safe surfaces. Warm ups can just be progression runs once you get rolling.

yhwh wrote:

No.

Don't do intervals on a track in such weather.

Run in training shoes, and run on a CC course where you can approximate the distances run.

Run as well as possible, then compare your times over the weeks, trying to get faster.

In HS, no track (dirt-sand) and no indoor track.

We were highly competitive in state and against national times.

This.

Thanks, all!

I agree that running on icy or slick surfaces is foolish/ impossible, but I run in Texas, so the surfaces are usually fine, it's just a matter of temperature.

I will try warming up for 15 minutes total with some extra strides thrown in at the end or maybe use an 800m @ 5:20 pace instead of a 400m @5:20 pace to try to warm up a bit more.

Best,

Ross

RossHunt wrote:

Thanks, all!

I agree that running on icy or slick surfaces is foolish/ impossible, but I run in Texas, so the surfaces are usually fine, it's just a matter of temperature.

I will try warming up for 15 minutes total with some extra strides thrown in at the end or maybe use an 800m @ 5:20 pace instead of a 400m @5:20 pace to try to warm up a bit more.

Best,

Ross

I would even warm up for a bit longer. Do 2ish miles then a 400-800m true tempo. Then 4-6 strides.

20:00-25:00 (3ish miles) total time will do the body some good before getting into the intervals. You could still be a second or two per 400 slower if it's actually cold. 40s/50s are fine. 20s/30s and taper expectations.