Warmup vs Conservation - conflicting ideas?

Depends on the race.

If you have a 180km road race, a warm up isn't going to do anything.

If you have a 1 hour Cat 1 crit that goes from the gun, your warmup will be important.

Time trials moreso.

Shorter and more intense the event = longer and more focused warmup.

I think the idea of a warmup isn't to burn a match so much as it's to open the matchbook and start bending the matches at the base so they're limber and ready to be torn out and struck at a moment's notice. I think if you're burning matches before the race you're warming up too hard.

normZurawski said:

I think the idea of a warmup isn't to burn a match so much as it's to open the matchbook and start bending the matches at the base so they're limber and ready to be torn out and struck at a moment's notice. I think if you're burning matches before the race you're warming up too hard.

Nicely stated!

Any recommendations on warm-up for a 90 minute hillclimb? Length 15 miles, some up and down 1st 3 miles, steady climb of around 3,000ft for the remainder.

ecandl said:

Any recommendations on warm-up for a 90 minute hillclimb? Length 15 miles, some up and down 1st 3 miles, steady climb of around 3,000ft for the remainder.

I wouldn't do any jumps during this warmup. Just spin for 30 min gradually increasing intensity towards your FTP. Last 5 min taper down - you don't want to get to the starting line out of breath. This should be adequate as such a race is unlikely to go hard from the gun.

blaronn said:

I have read many times that while warming up for a race, especially for a short race, several hard efforts should be included to properly prepare the legs, lungs, and heart.

On the other hand, I frequently read that we all have a limited number of "matches" to burn during a race, and that we should go to great lengths to avoid expending any unnecessary energy.

Don't these two ideas conflict? If the latter is accurate, shouldn't our warmups always be at an easy pace so as to not use up our limited store of energy?

Depending on age, physical condition and genetics, it can take some time to get the aerobic system up to full operating capacity. The most effective warmup will be the one that brings the aerobic systems fully on-line without dipping into anaerobic reserves.

If you know your aerobic threshold, the best warmup would be one that slowly works up to that level of power and or heart rate. If you're young, such a warmup could take five minutes, but as you age, it will take longer and longer. Hard or explosive efforts should be avoided during a warmup as all they will do is waste stored resouces that could be called upon later during competition.

Caveat: I'm not a doctor or physiologist. I base the above opinions solely on my own experience and observations in training and racing over many years. I could be totally full of [censored].

I include 20 mins or so at near threshold, some sprints, and short VO2 max efforts in my warmup - I want to be warm enough and supple enough to get to my top speeds for the race start. That way if it is absolute mayhem from the gun I am not going into the red for the first time. i don't want to be at the start with a heart rate below 60.

Interestingly whenever I warm up the other guys are all riding easy on the small ring. I get odd looks when I sprint past, but it really works for me.

I used to go for the conservation approach and regularly got dropped early on in crits.

I'm going to try the tougher warmup for my crit tomorrow. What's the worst that could happen, I get dropped again? I've been using the easy spinning warmup and I just don't seem to get up to speed, figuratively and literally. The bunch takes off at 28 and I'm at 26 and getting dropped in the not to distant future. I'm still tons faster than I was at the first of the year ( my first crit) but I have a lot of work to do.

Update to my last post, I did a few hard efforts before my crit on saturday ( Downtown Orlando in case anyone is wondering ) and I definitely felt stronger in the initial going. I'm still not up to speed with my compatriots but I did manage to mix it up a little more before being dropped.