Warmup Time

Blake I have wondered the same thing.  If you added on top, it would mean an extra 2 hours per week of warmups. 

Whether it makes sense seems to depend if you are looking at a longer vs shorter day.  On the longer days, I just don't have any more time that what is on the calendar do dedicate to it, so I count the warm up.  Because I am likely working at a moderate pace the warm-up feels somewhat like part of the training. 

On the shorter days I am typically working on speed so there is such a difference in pace that I typically don't count the warmup, and likely don't warm up as much as I should (anothe rissue).

So that is how I handle it, but I'd love to hear what the author of the plan was thinking.  That could have been more clear in the description.

Best of luck.

Blake,

These plans are designed for the beginner so I was targeting the Zone 1-2 training which naturally the WU and CD is part of.  If you keep all workout like that then you shouldn't be starting 'too fast'.  If you were substituting harder interval workouts then actually doing a 'proper' 10 minutes warmup and cooldown is more critical. 

I would encourage walking for 10 minutes after a run for a good cooldown, before getting into your car or sitting, it helps me a lot.  For runs you can add a 'warmup' in the form of a 5-10 minute walk before the run.

When you get into the Silver plans that have intervals and higher intensity workouts, the warmups and cooldown are explicitly stated but they are still part of your total workout time.

Blake,

If you plan to up the intensity and get out of Z1-Z2, then yes, include a Z1 warmup of 5 minutes at the beginning for a few weeks then up it to 10minutes.