How long you all take to warm up for a TR session and do you do anything extra? I’m finding that I need at least 30min, otherwise my first interval pretty much sucks. Most of the time, I do the LSCT for warm up. Please state your age too. I’ll be 59 next month.
I also have a secondary question–do you know if there’s any way to train so that one does not need to warm up so long? It seems, regardless of FTP, I still need require a minimum of 30 minutes.
I add extra warm up to make sure I have 10 mins before the initial short teaser efforts begin to get the blood flowing. I usually find that is enough. I definitely need a little longer than usually comes as standard though.
36 years old.
I’m 37 and my warm-up also takes 10 minutes. Like @djreynolds wrote, all a warm up should do is get your juices flowing and your muscles warm and primed. When I am in the gym, I add 10-13 minutes of stretching. Needing 30 minutes seems quite long, although I don’t know how age plays into all this.
I’m 53 and for me it depends on the session and the warm up it already has. If it starts of with just a couple of minutes at 50% and then quickly begins to ramp up I’ll extend the 50% by 5 minutes and generally find that that and the rest of the sessions warm up is enough for me.
Aged 61. Definitely need a good warm up first thing in the morning but any other time and I only need 5-10 minutes. Most of the workouts have at least a 10 minute w/u which is sufficient for me.
I trust in coach chad, and just do the workout warm up. I sometimes extend the cooldown if it’s very short (some minus versions are only a minute). I’ve extended warm up a couple of times too thinking about it, but only by a minute or two.
Extending a cool down can’t really hurt, and I often find it quite relaxing then, knowing I did my job and I can tack on a few minutes in my bike oasis.
Regularly extend warm down but v rarely warm up. I’m 36
37 here, usually 10 mins is enough, but I tend to wear a warm jersey and have fan off during those 1st minutes. Never extend warm up or cool down. I’d love a feature where you can jump to cool down any time during workout, however, just in case I had enough.
54, always pushed for time so usually 5-10 minutes then spindown calibration then straight into the workout.,
It always felt like I needed more warm up!!!
Im 38 and it takes me roughly 45 mins to warm up and feel comfy doing anything more than an endurance effort, i normally just do the normal warm up routine and accept that my first part of any session is going to make me feel like wanting to quit but over time ive realised i just have to hang in till the magic 45min mark, however i realise this may now be a physcological matter
I know how you feel. Usually, the first interval is the hardest for me. Seems like I have to endure a taxing interval to really get warmed up…
42 yrs old, MV plans, I always add +10 with -20% intensity just to spin the legs and get my mind right. Increase intensity a little each minute until 100% by end of 10 minutes.
I have a 15 minute warmup that I always do. It consists of starting at 50% of FTP and raising it every minute to about 85% and then I descend back down to about 60%. After that I do x4 30 sec VO2 max efforts with 30 sec in between. I find this puts a little tension into the legs and also gets them moving fast. I am 51.
I’m 35 going on 36 this year and I’ve noticed that the normal warmups are sufficient enough even though I
usually feel like the session is going down the drain during the first couple of minutes.
using the Humon oxygenation sensor has shown me that all of my old 15-20 min warm ups (or sometimes, I’d just jump right in to sweet spot, feel rough for the first five minutes, then get going) were inadequate.
Your oxygenation levels drop during the first 10-15 minutes of exercise, then recover to start level around 20 minutes, but then don’t elevate above starting level (meaning your capillaries are dilated and everything is ready to go) until about 25-30 minutes.
My warm up for an interval session (say, 2 sets of 5 x 2:00 @ 380w, :30 soft pedal recoveries) would be something like this, now (FTP is 350):
Starting SMO2 might be around 70%
5 minutes at 240w: SMO2 drops to 65%
5 Minutes at 260w: SMO2 drops to 60%
5 Minutes at 280w: SMO2 steady at 60%
5 Minutes at 300w: SMO2 rises to 65%
5 x :30 on, :30 off, ascending from 400-450 w: SMO2 drops to 60%
5 minutes at 200w: SMO2 rises quickly to 75%
A step warmup gradually raises oxygen demand and the system gradually opens up to compensate. A set of short hard efforts gets the capillaries dilated and fully primes the muscles for hard work.
I’m 46, and I feel like the warm ups given in the workouts are sufficient. In the real world though, I really struggle with warm ups. Whether I’m riding road or MTB, the local topography dictates that pretty much anywhere I go, within a few minutes, I’m going to be on a vey steep hill, which demands that I be putting out more effort than I should be in a non-warmed state. When I ride by myself, I can take it easy until I feel like myself, but when riding in a group, I feel like I’m the only one who has to give it a thought. I can really screw up a ride by overdoing it in the first 20 minutes. It’s pretty annoying, and I wish I understood the phenomenon better than I do.
41 - warmup is whatever coach chad makes it. I wear a t shirt and have a remote on my fan, and I train in our office, usually in the 50s or 60s in there at 6AM. So usually the 10-15 min prior to the first interval is enough, particularly if it has warming efforts. I usually leave the fan off until I’m sweating, then I ditch the t-shirt, start the fan and away we go. I add to the cool down on occasion, never had the need on a warmup.
20 minutes or so for me.
41 y/o male here. I do some dynamic stretching like leg swings, hip hinges, and squats before getting on the bike/trainer and then turn the pedals for 5 to 10 minutes while I get the trainer, HR monitor, cadence sensor, and phone all talking to each other, get some music going, and figure out what to put on YouTube, then I start the workout. So far, (just finishing SSB LV 2 having already completed SSB LV 1) I haven’t felt any need to extend any warm-ups before getting into whatever TR has in store for the day.
