Warming Up Before a Race
Published: 13th April, 2010There’s no short cut to warming up I’m afraid. During a training ride you should be able to get up to speed relatively quickly after a progressive 10-minute warm-up (assuming you’re warm and stretched to start with). Enduro events don’t require as much of a warm up as a Mountain Bike race because of the sheer length of the ride, but if you want to take the thing seriously, a fast competent start is money in the bank as far as I’m concerned!
Here are some whys and how’s of warming up:
The physiological basis for warming up
The principle of the warm-up is exactly as it sounds, to warm the body up. A warm body is a fast body, because all of the chemical reactions necessary to produce the energy for exercise occur more rapidly if the body is warm. As we are warm-blooded mammals, our internal systems will naturally maintain a core (central body) temperature of between 36.1 to 37.8 degrees C (97.0 to 100.0 degrees F). This provides an optimal working environment for all the fundamental chemical reactions associated with keeping the body alive and healthy, but core temperature can differ greatly from peripheral temperature. As the muscles involved in movement are located towards the outside of the body, they are more exposed to environmental influences, so can easily be cold even when the core temperature is within the normal range.Studies have shown that both the speed and strength of muscular contraction is reduced when a muscle is cooled. A cold muscle is weaker, because all of the chemical reactions that produce the energy for muscular contraction take place more slowly. There is also some evidence to suggest that the nervous system functions differently when a muscle is cold, further reducing its function. This basically means that when your leg muscles aren’t warmed up, you will not be able to cycle as fast and of course, if you are a serious Mountain Bike rider this has serious ramifications.
In order to perform at your highest level during an aerobic activity like Mountain Biking, a substantial supply of blood must be flowing through the muscle so that oxygen and food can be utilised as fuel. Irrespective of temperature, a muscle that has not been used will not have very much blood flowing through it. One of the benefits of the warm-up procedure is to fill the muscle with blood so that when a high level of energy is demanded, there is a supply of blood saturated with oxygen and nutrients to satisfy the need. This blood pool also has a second function – to carry away waste products like lactic acid generated during the inevitable sprint at the start of an event.
Once you start your warm-up and the muscles of the lower limbs are called upon to provide power, the lungs begin to saturate the blood with oxygen, heart rate increases and the oxygen rich blood is pumped to where it’s needed. Next time you question the importance of a warm-up, ask yourself this question. If you’re to be are poised at the start line waiting for the gun to fire, in what state would you rather have your muscles? Warm, metabolically optimal and saturated with oxygenated blood, or cold, dry, slow and empty. The later is obviously a recipe for disaster.
Aside from the performance issues, it is also important to consider the topic of injury prevention. If you start your car up on a cold frosty morning, pull out of your parking space and floor the accelerator, you will damage the engine. You may not notice the damage immediately, but if you persist with this practice over a prolonged period of time, you will shorten the life of your car’s engine. Just like engine oil, the synovial fluid between your joint surfaces functions more efficiently when warm, reducing the friction between the cartilage surfaces. Cold muscle is also highly inelastic, so you are more likely to tear something if you haven’t followed a warm-up. This is, in part, due to the ‘myotactic reflex’ functioning poorly when your muscles are cold. This reflex prevents a muscle from being over-stretched in normal conditions, but when a muscle is cold it can malfunction. Even if this only results in a few microscopic tears to the muscle fibers, you’ll feel these a couple of days later – called delayed onset muscle soreness. Either way you’re gonna get teased and laughed at if you’re walking like a cowboy!
On an even more serious note, when there is a sudden and rapid increase in exercise intensity, blood flow to the heart muscle often lags behind that which is pumped to the other muscles of the body. This means that if you sprint off the start line without a warm-up, your heart will work overtime to pump blood to your leg muscles, but with an insufficient blood supply itself, the muscle of the heart can become starved of oxygen. This is called ‘Ischemia’ and can result in damage to the heart. Not a good thing!
The psychological basis for warming up
The warm-up is an ideal time to get your head straight. Alright, so you’re doing these events for a laugh and enjoy the start line banter – fine, that’s your prerogative and quite frankly thank god everyone’s not taking it too seriously. However, if you want to win or achieve a really high standard you’ll need to take the event seriously and that involves mental preparation. Top athletes from all disciplines of sport use the warm-up routine to focus and visualize success, developing a clear game plan. You only need to look at old ‘Lingford’ with his steely stare in years gone by to appreciate this. He certainly wasn’t laughing and chatting with his competitors on the line. Do what’s right for you, but never underestimate the power of a focused mind.Practical warm-up tips
So, now you know why you should warm-up, but how do you perform it effectively?• Clothing: I know this sounds obvious, but during the winter, or early season, make sure that you are wearing plenty of warm clothing. Walking around wearing cycle shorts and a ski jacket will probably be adequate to keep your core warm, but the leg muscles will get very cold. Even when you are riding around performing the warm-up routine, keep a pair of tights on to minimise the wind chill effect and heat dissipation. Except in extreme circumstances, once you are racing, the heat generated by the working muscles is usually enough to keep them warm, so I don’t suggest that you race with tights on. This may cause overheating and dehydration and if it’s wet and muddy, they’ll soak up the moisture you’ll end up weighing twice as much by the time you finish. If your knee joints are affected by the cold though, you should wear perhaps three quarter length tights to help protect them.
• Keep it steady and aerobic: Don’t sprint off into the rising sun at warp speed. Start off by gently spinning the legs and as you make your way down the dusty track out of the race arena towards the road. Once you’re on the road, or have been pootling along for five minutes, step up the intensity progressively. Ride for the next ten minutes beginning at a steady aerobic pace and building this up to a more focussed effort, similar to you would muster for a hard aerobic training ride. After this ten-minute stint, step-up the intensity to a race-paced effort for about three minutes, then reduce the intensity so that once again you are spinning your legs lightly at a steady aerobic pace.
• Stretching: This subject will be addressed in a future feature, but until then, incorporate some basic lower body stretches into your warm-up routine. Jump off your bike and stretch your quads, glutes, claves and hamstrings - then jump back on and continue spinning for a further five minutes at a steady aerobic pace.
• Add a couple of sprints: Once you feel that your legs are warm and moving freely, perform a couple of flat-out ten-second efforts. This will test your bike and your muscles.
• Make your way to the start line: You should have timed this warm-up routine to perfection. Get yourself to the start with about five minutes to spare so that your muscles are still warm by the time the race begins. I know this can sometimes be a problem, because if you turn up too late for the start, you can get gridded at the back. Most race organisers however will avoid placing lengthy areas of single-track close to the start and will provide some open sections to allow the ‘warmed-up’ to overtake the ‘cold legged’. If the course necessitates a good grid position, warm up slightly earlier and keep extra clothing on until the last minute.
