Does anyone warm-up more than 2 miles?

I've never heard that the standard warmup was 2-miles. If I was to guess what the "standard" is, I'd say it's 20-minutes or 3-miles. That's what I've seen anyway with anyone I've ever ran with and that includes high school to college to post-collegiate/Olympians, milers to marathoners (working out). As others have said though, you can do different things depending on a number of factors. I've done warmups as long as 6-miles. High schoolers only running 20-30 miles a week probably don't need/want a 3-mile warmup.

For me, I generally like to do at least 20-minutes because I don't truly feel "warmed up" with anything shorter than that. I'm a high mileage person though. I guess when I was younger/running less mileage I would sometimes only do 17-18minutes which was around 2.5.

Big exception is the marathon. I only warm up for 10-12-minutes for that. The obvious reasons being the pace you are starting at is so much slower and you are already running so far you don't want to put more on your legs before you even start.

My college team does about two miles of jogging, then a bit more than half a mile of tempo.

I do a 20 mins starting at a 10minute shuffle and into about marathon pace for the last 5 mins. Then drills and strides and then I'll probably end up jogging around an other 5-10 minutes to stay lose before the gun goes off.

Anything more than the minimum is too much. What is the purpose of the warm up? Indoor race? Outdoor race? Temperature at either? So many questions and so many DIFFERENT answers.

Soprano wrote:

I've ever ran with

FFsake...

It's "have run"

Is it so difficult to grasp?

"I have RUN" not RAN!

I try to warm up for 5-6 km (3-4 miles) for a races from 5K to half-marathon, starting very slow and increasing pace through the warm-up, with a few strides at the end. I tend to perform better when I do this, except for afternoon races where I can go away with a half arsed 2-3 km warm-up. I notice the same on workouts.

My warm-up can vary, especially if it's hot outside. I might not even go 2 miles then. I usually don't go more than 3 miles total.

One time my coach had us do 10 miles easy and then a 3 mile tempo run. Like you, I was also surprised at how good I felt.

should "less than" be in the title of this thread?

Simple Science wrote:

Anything more than the minimum is too much. What is the purpose of the warm up? Indoor race? Outdoor race? Temperature at either? So many questions and so many DIFFERENT answers.

Maybe I've been deprived of this information, but I always do enjoy learning more. In my 14 or so years of running, I've never had a coach do much about warm-ups. It was just do our own thing and get to the start line (or track) on time. I think about this with cool downs too. Often I feel like I could run a longer cool-down, or some of it at a faster pace. I see people like the NOP and even some local sub-elite runners do workouts after their races. Obviously what they do works, but no one in my circle does this or understands it enough to do it on our own, like specifically how much, how fast and for what purpose.

In HS our warm up was 10 min jog and strides. Now training on my own (my school doesn't have a team), I do 20 min jog, but am upping it up 25 min jog this season.

agc5k wrote:

In HS our warm up was 10 min jog and strides. Now training on my own (my school doesn't have a team), I do 20 min jog, but am upping it up 25 min jog this season.

We only did 800m for a warm-up when I started running in high school! Eventually I learned to make it longer and one time I was almost left behind at a track meet because I was still cooling down after the mile :(

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

1/2 mile fk wrote:

depend what you are warming up for? 800m race, tempo run, long run? for a 800 meter race , my warm-up routine takes 30-35 minutes.

For me, I usually do 2 miles before races of 5K - 15K distance, as well as tempo runs and interval workouts. I don't do a formal warm-up for long runs (unless it asks for part of it to be marathon pace), but do start slower and pick it up if I feel good. I typically would do 1 mile before a half marathon until a few weeks ago when I did 2 before a half and ended up with a PR. Not that the extra mile caused the PR, but just saying. I'm definitely more distance-inclined. I've never had the desire to race an 800m, even in high school, but would need A LOT of warming up to do so.

It sounds like you are having a nice year on the roads. Keep it simple, it sounds like you answered your own question, long ,slow deliberate warmup works for you.

I developed my warm up a few years ago. When I would start out on a normal run, my pace would drop 20 seconds a mile the first 3 miles while running the same effort. At that point my pace started to level off though I would still get a little faster as the run went on.

I used this information to develop my warm up routine. For a 5k, I would jog 2 miles starting an hour before the race. I would then run the course finishing at 20 seconds per mile slower than race pace. If I wanted to run 5:30, my warm up would be 6:40, 6:20, and a little under 6 minutes with the last half mile at 5:50 pace. I would finish about 10 minutes before the race giving my time to change into my flats and use the restroom.

I would do the same 5 mile total warm up for a 10k but the last mile would be 6:00 to 6:10 as my first mile in the race was closer to 5:45.

For a half marathon, I would start at 6:10 pace so I would just do a mile easy and then 2 miles at 6:50 and 6:30.

Using this routine, I was always warmed up properly and the pace of the first mile felt comfortable. I normally negative split my races by a little bit and never felt like the warm up cost me time at the end of the race. I was also very consistent racing about 40 times that year.

10-15 minutes running, never more than that. Then I go into dynamic stretching, drills, strides and eventually 1-2 100s at race pace or quicker.

I would guess that means about 3k, but I don't even think about the distance. Why would you?

It's just about moving until you feel right. Sometimes that could take 3k or more, sometimes not even 1.

I am not fast and have good and bad races like everyone else, but NEVER have I found myself saying "I wish I'd warmed up longer."

Unless you're doing something dumb like jogging 200 and starting the race, just find a routine that works for YOU.

Soprano wrote:

Big exception is the marathon. I only warm up for 10-12-minutes for that. The obvious reasons being the pace you are starting at is so much slower and you are already running so far you don't want to put more on your legs before you even start.

I never warm up for a marathon. It's not just the mileage on the legs that worries me, but consumption of glycogen.

I don't feel like it would benefit me either. Sure, when I'm at 100+mpw, then it takes a little while for my legs to get moving, but when I'm tapered, I'm usually ready to explode, and race pace feels like a jog for the first 6 miles or so.

We do workouts after non-target/shake-out races less than 5k. It is usually an up-tempo fartlek. The idea is, to get at least 10k worth of quality work in. Of course, it means you took the previous day easy.

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

Maybe I've been deprived of this information, but I always do enjoy learning more. In my 14 or so years of running, I've never had a coach do much about warm-ups. It was just do our own thing and get to the start line (or track) on time. I think about this with cool downs too. Often I feel like I could run a longer cool-down, or some of it at a faster pace. I see people like the NOP and even some local sub-elite runners do workouts after their races. Obviously what they do works, but no one in my circle does this or understands it enough to do it on our own, like specifically how much, how fast and for what purpose.

You have the regular 2-3 miles people talk about in this thread and the version that the 800 guy talks about. Personally prefer that one if its on the track and its a serious workout.

Its also pretty normal to do 8-10 strides after a really hard workout, seen sub-elites and elites do it. You'll fell much better after. They shouldnt be hard.

I have to agree with you steve, I like to warm up longer, it loosens out the muscles and calms the nerves before a race. You ran in section 2 as well, as me. And we both know typically the team would do a warm up while previewing the courses in XC.

Ichabod Alumni

800 dude wrote:

Soprano wrote:

Big exception is the marathon. I only warm up for 10-12-minutes for that. The obvious reasons being the pace you are starting at is so much slower and you are already running so far you don't want to put more on your legs before you even start.

I never warm up for a marathon. It's not just the mileage on the legs that worries me, but consumption of glycogen.

I don't feel like it would benefit me either. Sure, when I'm at 100+mpw, then it takes a little while for my legs to get moving, but when I'm tapered, I'm usually ready to explode, and race pace feels like a jog for the first 6 miles or so.

Me too. Any extra effort the morning of the marathon is no good. Took a cab to the start for my last one. It was only $10.00 from the hotel and well spent.

For a 5k, I'll warmup 20 minutes tops. Thought of doing more.