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Warm Ups
by Karen Brems
In general, the shorter and the more intense the event,
the longer the warm-up. For a long road stage in a stage race, I usually
just pedal around fairly easily for 20-25 minutes and count on using
the first 15-20 km of the race as warm-up. For a pursuit on the track,
I warm up for at least 1 1/2 hours and include some maximal efforts.
One day road races, time trials and criteriums fall somewhere in between.
The purpose of a warm up is not just to heat up your muscles, but
to activate the physiological systems you will use in the upcoming
event. The most critical warm-ups are those for times events where
you have to be ready to go at maximal effort right from the start.
If I am doing a time trial or prologue in the afternoon or evening,
I actually start my warm-up in the morning with an easy 30-45 min.
spin. If I have been tapering, traveling or recovering from the previous
race and have not gone hard for more than 2-3 days, I actually start
my “warm-up” the day before the race by doing some short efforts at
race intensity. Racers call this “opening up” before a race.
The concepts I am addressing in this column are really most applicable
to time trials, including track events, prologues and hill climbs.
People are pretty individualistic as far as what they like to do for
a warm up. It is a good idea to develop your own routine. This has
2 benefits: first, you can figure out what makes you perform the best
and second, it can eliminate pre-race nervousness and increase your
confidence level to do the same thing you’ve done many times before.
You should not test out a new warm-up in an important race. This is
one reason it is a good idea to do “practice” time trials like the low
key hill climbs. Many racers prefer to warm up on a stationary
trainer. There are a lot of benefits to this: it is a controlled environment,
you don’t get a flat on your race wheels and if the weather is cold
or rainy you can stay warm and dry. The biggest disadvantage is that
if you are flying to races, lugging a trainer is a real pain! I know
people who fit them in large Samsonite suitcases or garment bags. I
actually sort of prefer to warm up on the road if there is a good area available
or especially if I can warm up on the course. This way I can figure
out gear selections and make sure everything on my bike is working
OK. In a track event, I like to do a few laps at race pace to make
sure I know how it feels. Also, somehow everything hurts more on a
trainer, so I sometimes feel better about my upcoming performance when
I warm up on the road. A trainer is a good substitute though if you
can’t warm up on the course.
The following is a sample TT warm up protocol based on heart rate
zones. For reference:
Zone 1 = HR < 65% max. HR
Zone 2 = HR 65-72% max. HR
Zone 3 = HR 73-80% max. HR
Zone 4 = HR 84-90% max. HR
Zone 5 = HR 91-100% max. HR
Warm up:
20-25 min. easy on road
Trainer or road:
5 min. Zone 3
2 min. Zone 1-2
5 min. Zone 3
4 min. Zone 4
3 min. Zone 2
2 min. Zone 5
3-5 min. Zone 1
Since the majority of the time in a time trial is spent above your
anaerobic threshold, you want to activate this system in the warm up
but ideally you don’t want to load up your legs too much. The best
way to do this is with very high rpms. This way you can elevate your
heart rate and while your legs will still burn, they will not fatigue
as much as when you push race gears. This is a warm up you could
use for a longer TT. For a pursuit or prologue, I usually split the
Zone 5 segment into 2 x 1 min. all out efforts.
Be sure to leave enough time between your warm up and your start
time to get back to the start if you are on the road! You also want
time for last minute clothing and/or equipment changes such as putting
on your race wheels, putting on a dry skinsuit (especially if
you warmed up on a trainer), putting on your aero helmet, shoe covers
etc. Ideally you can have rollers or a trainer set up close to the
start so you can stay warm while waiting to go. This is especially
necessary on the track where you don’t have an exact start time. |
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