Warm up

12sprocket said:

Hi all,
I rode a race yesterday - typical Irish weather, it was wet and windy. This didn't provide much enthusiasm to warm up and having difficulty getting a shoe in a pedal resulted in a loss of contact at the start of the race and C'est la vie!
My question is what is the best method of warm up - what gear, HR and time taken, etc. It's not something that is frequently discussed at forums like this. Any help would be appreciated!!

I don't have any scientific proof for this, but I think we adapt ourselves to a warmup routine in our daily rides. Personally, I go for about 20 minutes before any hard efforts, gradually increasing my power from ~100w to ~200w. If it's an interval day, I'll throw in a couple of 30 sec pushes at ~275w in the last 5 minutes. For a race, I would try to duplicate this warmup routine because I think my body has adapted to it. The hardest part is to avoid a 5 min cooldown as you await the start on cold, windy days. You can't wear a jacket and leg warmers unless you have someone to toss them to just before the start, and you can't just ride up to the start line and take a position near the front in a large, mass start race. If a couple of wiseguys decide to blast off at the start, it's a real pain.