How to Warm Up

Five scripts for triathlon, running, cycling, open water swimming, or any other endurance activity

For decades, athletes and coaches have relied on warming up before training and competition. While we’ve only begun to see why that is in the last twenty or thirty years, the fact remains that many athletes simply felt better if they timed the beginning of their competition with their “second wind,” as it was called for a while. Breathing and running just “seemed easier” to athletes in the 1950s and 60s after warming up for some short period of time. Today we’ll touch on why (we promise, touch) that is and then give you strategies to warm up for any endurance event.

Fat oxidation takes time

If you’re a physiology nerd like us, you may enjoy the odd dip into an academic paper around physiology or a regular listen to The Empirical Cycling Podcast, hosted by Kolie Moore and Kyle Helsin (watch Chris and Molly interview Kolie here!). In episode #30, they talk about fat and carbohydrate utilization during exercise and how it changes based on intensity and duration of exercise. We won’t try to reprise all of it (and if you want to read the paper they cite, you can do so here), but the takeaway is that even at the same intensity (65% of vo2max, in this case), carbohydrate/glycogen usage dropped over two hours of exercise. As endurance athletes, we ALWAYS want to spare our glycogen stores since it’s a very limited resource and rely more on our fat stores, which are massive, so if we can learn something that allows us to spare muscle glycogen, we should pay attention. In short, properly warming up allows you to begin your event using a lower percentage of glycogen and a higher percentage of fat, which will allow you to stay faster, longer. Since this is a triathlon company, primarily, we want you to think about the way most triathlons start: fairly hard, as athletes “try to get away” or “find clear water” at the start of the swim. If you haven’t warmed up properly, it’s possible you will be using close to 100% glycogen/carbohydrate during the first part of the swim, a reckless use of fuel that is hard to replenish. By warming up correctly (and then making sure you take on some carbohydrates between the warmup and the start of the race), you are improving your fuel economy for the rest of the event. Economy is the most important determinant of performance in any race that’s longer than, oh, ten minutes or so, which is pretty much all triathlons and most cycling/running/rowing/skiing/open water swim races. We’re not gonna get into the weeds here (we mean, more than we have already), but the lesson to learn is that if you want to have a good long distance race (or longer workout) you have to warm up effectively in order to preserve your muscle glycogen and get that fat oxidation (burning) system online.

Routine is as Important as Structure

OK, hopefully we’ve established some credibility and you see WHY you should warm up before racing or training, and now we’ll move into HOW. But before we get into particulars, we want to remind you that routine is your greatest ally in endurance sports. When you head into a hard workout or a race, everything should be on autopilot: fueling, pacing, mindset. Your warmup is no different. When you have a script for everything on race day, you free your mind to be present and to make the REAL decisions that will elevate your good race into a great race. Knowing what your warmup is ahead of time answers a question you don’t want to be answering race morning, so whatever you end up choosing, practice it as often as possible. Do the run warmup ahead of your run workouts. Do the swim warmup as the first part of your swim sessions. This is one of those places in which discipline, weirdly, sets you free.

Triathlon or Open Water Swimming

Warming up for a triathlon is usually the most difficult of all endurance events: race directors are loathe to let athletes get in the water ahead of time and then climb back out, as keeping track of swimmers is very difficult and the swim is the most dangerous of the three sports. So we have a few different options for you. Open water races are usually a little more permissive of warming up in the water, so you’ll probably be using the “water access allowed option.”

Triathlon - No Water Access:

1. 10-minute jog. You don’t need to do any pickups or quick running, although if that sounds good you’re totally welcome to do so. The goal here is to get the system moving and stimulate that fat oxidation system, as we pointed out above. Pro tip? Do part of that 10-minute jog from swim-in to your bike and then from your bike to bike-out so you stay un-lost during transition.

2. Stretch Cord Session (repeat 2-4 times for 5-10 minutes)

1. 45” double-arm stretch cords

2. 45” single-arm stretch cords

3. 5 repetitions each side of twisted warrior or scorpion stretch

Triathlon - Water Access Allowed:

1. Perform the stretch cord session outlined above OR a little jog, performing the same transition exploration outlined above, and then get in the water for the following:

2. Go through this pattern, adjusting the pyramid depending on how much time you have:

1. 2-3’ easy swimming

2. 5 strokes hard, 30 strokes easy

3. 10 strokes hard, 30 strokes easy

4. 15 strokes hard, 30 strokes easy

5. 20 strokes hard, 30 strokes easy

6. 25 strokes hard, 30 strokes easy

7. 30 strokes hard, 30 strokes easy

8. If you have time, come back down the pyramid

Running

Running is probably the easiest of the sports to warm up for, since you just…head off and go for a run. Still, though, you should spend a little time at or above your goal effort for the day, and then do some dynamic movements to prime your running muscles for movement.

1. Run 10’ easy

2. 2x(2’ @ or slightly above race pace/race effort, 3’ easy)

3. 4-5 minutes of dynamic work: duck/pigeon walk, knee hugs, ankle grabs, runner’s touch, leg kicks, etc…

Cycling

Cycling is also usually easy to warm up for, unless it’s 35° and raining, in which case we REALLY hope you have somewhere dry to warm up and a trainer. Many cyclists during road races shrug (cyclists are always shrugging, do you notice that?) and say “It’s cool, bro, I’ll just warm up during the first 20 minutes.” But as we pointed out above that cyclist will be churning through glycogen in those 20 minutes, more than they would if they had warmed up properly, so don’t be a Broheim and get warmed up properly! Remember that the SHORTER the race, the LONGER the warmup for cycling!

1. 10-20’’ of easy riding

2. 2x(90” @ 6-7/10 effort, 2:30 easy)

3. 2x(90” @ 7-8/10 effort (threshold), 2:30 easy)

4. 2x(60” @ 9/10 effort, 4’ easy) - only do this step if your race is likely to start hard, like a cyclocross race or criterium

5. Easy spin until start

Adjust for any endurance event

Notice anything about the above warm ups? They all involve a good amount of easy work and then a little hard work. Regardless of your race style, get in at least 5’ of easy activity (10’ is better) and then some quick intervals with solid recoveries of at least a 1:1 work-to-rest ratio, and closer to 1:2 work-to-rest ratio.

Eat after your warmup

We hope we’ve convinced you to warm up for everything now (and maybe your longer harder workouts, too!), and the final piece is fueling. Astute observers will point out that you’ll still go through some glycogen when you start out, since there will be some lag time as the fat oxidation system comes on line. So replace that glycogen! Finish up your warm up and get in 20-30 grams of carbohydrate in the form of a gel or sports drink , and everything should be topped back up in time for your race. Give it all a shot and let us know how it went!