warmup before race

I've read that if you don't warm up right up till the time the gun goes off it doesn't do you much good at all. i think most athletes warm up instead of just standing around thinking about the race and getting nervous. the idea is to loosen the muscles up and get blood flowing to them. but if you stand around 5-10 mins after you warm up waiting for the start of the race the warm up is for nothing.

I will start by riding my bike to the event, a distance of 10Km's; nice enough for a warmup and not enough to tire me out. Once there, I will proceed to lay out my things, hang up the bike, register, get my timer bracelet and get numbered. As I will undoubtedly have a lot of time before the swim leg, I will jog around lightly to stay warm and limber. AND, of course, I will flirt with all the women in my age group just because....

haha, any luck picking up any tri-girls?

Oh shoot, I do not pick up any women! I love my wife too much for that; she is all the woman I need in my life. No, I just love to talk to women, all women, tall, short, big, small, young and old; I am a naturally born flirtatious "old" man....sounds better than a "dirty old" man...

"I am a naturally born flirtatious "old" man....sounds better than a "dirty old" man... "

You're killing me Machiavelo! That's funny!

Seriously though, riding to the race if it's a managable distance, is a great idea. Thanks for the tip.

LOL, whatever works to keep things interesting....
If your generation still spits out plenty of 'dirty old men' i can't even imagine what my generation is going to be like once we get a few more decades under our belts.....

The length of your warmup usually depends on the length of the race...the longer the race, the shorter the warmup. (For IM races, you typically may not have a warmup at all, while some pros do more than 30minutes worth).

The warmup protocol is the same though regardless of length--in reverse order of events.

Here's an example for an olympic distance race:
1. Run: 5 minutes very easy, followed by 4 strides of 20 meters or so.
2. Bike: 5-10 minutes, do some accelerations, work through all gears, leave the bike in the gear you want to start in.
3. Swim: 5 minutes as close to race start as possible, eliminate if very cold conditions. Be sure to take in pre-race fluids here.

For 1/2IM, I'll skip the run, do the same as olympic for the bike and swim.
For IM, I'll skip the run, only bike long enough to check gears and brakes, and may or may not do a swim warmup

Hope this helps,
S.

Since I'm new to the triathlon gig, I can only tell you what I do for running races. For a 5K, I'll take a nice warm-up run for about 15 minutes right before the race, plus a little stretching. For a 10K, I'll run for about 20 minutes, and stretch. Anything longer that that requires a 30 minute warm-up run, and stretching. It definately works.

For tri's, I have read that for the swim, you should get in the water before the race and swim 1/4 of the distance easily. I'm going to do that for my first tri in July and see how it goes.

Evelyn

lucky for you thatyou do not look old Flirt away Michel LOL just don't piss off Agnes!