They are useless for a warmup, but they are very beneficial to keep you warm if you have already done a proper warmup. They are also useful for a lot of runners to keep prerace nervousness at bay.
They are useless for a warmup, but they are very beneficial to keep you warm if you have already done a proper warmup. They are also useful for a lot of runners to keep prerace nervousness at bay.
Tom: I remember seeing a study some years ago that indicated that elevating your blood-lactate level actually is beneficial in preparation for a race -- mobilizes glycogen or some such thing. You know I haven't been doing any of that research for a few years, but I sure hope to get my 26 subjects from 1968 dissertation research, back for a 40-year follow-up -- I got all 26 in 1993 for a 25 year follow-up. I sure hope they are still all ready to go -- Lindgren, Ryun, Von Ruden, Young, T Smith, Nightengale, McCubbins, Schul, Stageberg, Bacheler, Bell, Williams, Norris, Devine, Price, Moore, Heinonen, Patrick, Wilbourne, Clark, Reilly, Mason, Day, Manley, + 2 I am having a block of memory on (forgive me steeple great and youngest subject from NY in the 1500) for forgetting at the moment). Should be a great aging study, as they will then be about 65-70 in age. By the way one of these guys had a 78 VO2 max at age 24 and at age 49 had a 76 max. Keep it up and you stay fit. What can we expect for the best 65 year old max?
[quote]The Footrace Guru wrote:
One hour before race jog 15 minutes to warm up or wake up.
Next 15 minutes, organize everything you need for race.
30 minutes before race, run 3 miles with first mile race pace+1:00. Second mile 20 seconds faster, and third mile another 20 seconds faster which will equal race pace+20 seconds.
You should finish 10 minutes before race. This will give you time to change shoes and go to the restroom. You should have a couple minutes to do strides to keep warmed up.
Your first mile of the race should be at the same effort as the last mile of your warmup. This effort will allow you to run 20 seconds faster than your last warmup mile and be at the proper effort for you to keep getting a little faster to run negative splits. quote]
Dude, that is the worst warmup advice I have EVER heard. By that rationale, our warmup would've been: 5:55, 5:35, 5:15 pace before trying to break 25 for a 5 miler. What are you thinking? Stop giving advice.
I posted that as what I was doing as a warmup. I was not telling others that is the best way or not. Actually by my rationale, your warmup would have been 6:00, 5:40, and 5:20. Then when you started your race at the same effort, 5:00 would have been fairly easy. After a couple more of them you could run the last 2 miles a little harder and finish in 24:40!!
I only have anecdotal evidence but it seems like that’s all there is in this thread anyway. Generally, well trained individuals (top hs guys, most college runners, etc.) are not warming up hard enough for shorter events. An 8k is a pretty short event so you can do a hard warmup and it won’t make you too tired before the race. Especially if it goes out hard you want a solid warmup to be ready. You need faster running longer than a stride. Additionally you want to be dressed warm and keep your clothes on as long as possible. You see guys warm up then strip down five minutes before the race and just stand around. They just completed cooled down. Here’s my 8k w/u
T-50ish 20 minutes last 5 progressive
T-30 get some water and get the rest of your race stuff read
T- 25 3x(1min hard 2min easy) hard should be race pace
T-15 spike up then do drills
T-5 a couple strides whatever feels good
T-1 strip down and line up
Yikes...I remember jogging a couple of miles 'till my legs were warm, then I stretched.
I don't remember ever doing more than 2 x 100m to warm up. around 15-16 second pace.
I could go out fast enough (well under 5 minutes)...if I was not going out fast, the first 1/2 mile of the race served as my warm-up.