(that so many don’t do pre-workout/race)

This week for Trainer Tuesday I’m going to provide you with a few tests you can do to show you the importance of how a proper warm-up can improve your performance. I won’t provide you with a ton of info on why it’s so important. Many of you know these details, you just may decide not to do a good warm-up before your big race. Your body and finishing time suffer when you decide not to complete a warm-up before you drop the hammer!

 

Track Workout Test #1:

1 mile or 1600m time trial. Perform the first trial early in the week without performing a warm-up. Later in the week perform the same time trial but perform the following warm-up. Run x 5min at low end of aerobic training zone pace (appx 75% of max HR and if going by feel, pick a pace you would choose if going out for a 60+min run), roll into a 3min run at your tempo pace (appx 85-90% of your max HR or appx 5k race pace). Immediately after finishing the 8min warm-up run, roll right into your time trial. I’m confident you’ll hit a faster mark after completing the warm-up.

 

Track Workout Test #2:

Track workout – 400m x 6 w/60sec rest in between (1600m/mile race pace). Perform this workout early in the week without doing a warm-up and log your times and how you felt for each 400m.

Later in the week perform the same workout immediately after running 800m at 5k race pace followed by 100m x 3 at 400m workout pace). I’m confident you’ll see how this very simple warm-up makes a big difference in the quality and performance of your workout.

 

Obstacle Course Racing doesn’t promote a good situation for runners to complete a good warm-up. The organizers want you in the start shoot 10+min before the start of the race. Here’s a plan that’ll help you accomplish a good warm-up on race day. Complete the simple 8min warm-up I outlined in the first test and once you’re in the shoot, every minute, complete 20-30sec of high knees and heel flicks.

There are several things that happen when you warm-up that help your performance. Your heart rate increases and your muscle temperature warms up. Accomplishing the warm-up prevents the shock to your body as your go hard out of the starting corral jockeying for position early on in the race. How often have you raced and felt terrible during the first half mile and then started to feel your body settling in as you gain control of your breathing? You don’t want the first half mile of your race to be your warm-up. You’re going to be amped up, and you’re going to go out fast, and this will feel so much better, and your performance will improve dramatically by completing a good warm-up before you race or tackle challenging workouts and time trials.

Enjoy the two tests and I’m confident you’ll be able to report back and say your times improved and you felt better during the 400m x 6 tempo endurance workout & mile/1600m time trial after completing the warm-up.

Before many workouts at YancyCamp.com I’ll simply have the clients perform a 10-15min aerobic training zone pace run and we’ll immediately roll right in to the workout. This accomplishes two things. One, we get a good warm-up in and two, we’re extending the length of the aerobic training session by getting this warm-up run in. Have a great week and find me the next time we’re at a race together and we’ll do our warm-up together. I’ll show you a few other things I do to make sure my ankles and shoulders are prepared (two most common injured areas in OCR).

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