How to warm up and cool down?

No, I am not going to tell you how to warm up or cool down, because Mark Hadley has already provided an excellent post on this subject.

You can read his post here.

There is one piece that I think is very important that Mark doesn't cover. This is in the final prep steps before a race. In my opinion you need a couple of 1 to 2 minutes hard efforts at or near race pace just before the start of your race. The reason behind doing these 1 to 2 minute efforts at race pace is that it helps prepare the body and especially the heart for the race effort. In my research, I found that it takes my heart a few minutes to adjust from the warm up effort to the race effort. For me, this means about 3 to 5 minutes to come up to speed. Consider this for a moment; during the first mile of a race do you feel that you are not getting enough oxygen into your lungs, and then you start to feel better. Well, this is where the heart starts to catch up with your race effort.

Try a couple of 1 to 2 minute surges before your next race or interval effort, and see if it makes the first mile seem easier.

 

Thoughts from the Cool Down Runner