Team,
Some of you might not have been team members in 2009, we had an excellent race for the Stampede Road race. It was pretty much carnage and pain, but a great time.
I commuted to the race with Dallas Morris who had recently won the endurance race from California to some really hot desert place. Listening to him talk about the race was an awesome experience and it gave me a true sense of Dallas' quality. High quality.
On the warm up for the race, Mike Healy suggested that we do one lap as a warm up for the race. The stampede is very similar to a crit course. Lots of pot holes, a few rises. Except the fact that it is about 25 times longer then a crit course. We did 1 lap warmup which was 25 km or so, got to the start line, and all proceeded to blow up on the course one by one. This blowing up process was bad on all of us as it was stinking hot, dry and windy. The "falling apart" was especially bad for me as I had commuted to the race with Dallas, who had just won a 160000km or something race by single handedly time trialing the course, with dirty pictures he got when he stopped in Vegas, taped to his bike. There was no way that I could DNF because I was tired or didn't feel like riding anymore with Dallas in my car. It was Stars ambulance or bust for me.
All that being said, I was sent a video link to a study that has been done at U of C about warm ups. This video puts into light that the suggested warm up of Mike Healy might have been excessive and not necessary.
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Health/1244503490/ID=1952129621
I welcome the comments regarding this video and the argument that it presents. It was on CBC and there is a small ad on the beginning, sorry about the ad.
Maybe some of the senior riders like Trev and Jared can give their thoughts about the argument and provide some input. I know for me, having a good warmup has been followed by very good results in time trials. Having a rushed warm up or no warm up, has been an awful experience with heart burn, cramping, barfing, fainting, crying, crying and more barfing.
How long of a warm up is the ideal for "Masters" level racers?
Thanks
Slayer Dan
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6 comments:
I need 160 km warm up. Nothing less.
This is very interesting. In the CBC report they mention that this has been tested in "high performance short distance cyclists". I am curious to know if the same applies to the longer distances typical of road races.
I would agree that you don't need a long warm-up for a long road race (unless expected to start very fast or on a steep hill) but you need a good warm-up for a TT. I have never raced track - which is the topic of this video - so can't comment on that.
It does seem contrary to common sense, which is the shorter the race, the longer the warmup.
My own experience from crit racing is if the warmup is less than 15 minutes, you are definitely going to have a problem. Maybe 15 minutes is in the magic zone where you are warmed up but not fatigued.
I find this report very interesting as well. It does not mention the cardiovascular system or lungs. Everyone knows without opening the lungs first your lungs are less likely to provide the proper amount of oxygen to you brain and muscles, causing a world of hurt. At this point it does not matter how well your muscles “can” perform b/c without the proper oxygen your muscles will not peak. There are so many other aspects to consider as well, do you ride every day? Do you have a job? What have you done the previous week for training? Do you get enough sleep every night? I think this debate could go on for a long time, I think everyone should simply experiment and learn what works for them.
I find I need to warm up gradually, then get the HR to race level for a few bursts. I have to feel sweaty. Or I am going to feel much worse for a given HR and power output. On cold days it is harder to warm up, so I hate cold days.
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