Warm up day before A-race?

Racing
1

My A-race is coming up (430k hilly road race). It starts in the evening and goes through the night. The day before (24 hours before), my training plan says extended warm-up, 30 mins. (Laurel). Is this a suggested right-before-start warm up, just placed a bit wrong in time, or is a proper day-before-race, keep-your-legs-turning workout? The term extended warm up makes me wonder. Anyone?

2

Those “opener” workouts can be done anytime within 24 hours of the start of the event.

It might be beneficial to do these openers the morning/day of the event if the duration is shorter to ensure that you’re ready to give your all from the very start of the race, whereas longer events sometimes start a bit more gradually and allow for some warmup time so these openers could be done the day before.

It comes down to personal preference at the end of the day, but it is good to warm up one way or another shortly before each event.

Let me know if this helps and if you have other questions about this.

Good luck!

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3

That 30-minute “extended warm-up” sounds like a mislabel. It’s not a right-before-the-race warm-up, it’s your day-before primer to keep the legs fresh and the engine ready. You’re not aiming to raise heart rate or prep for a hard effort like you would pre-race, just staying loose and keeping neuromuscular connection. Think of it more like a short, easy spin with maybe a few light efforts if you’re used to them.
If it were meant as your actual warm-up for the race, it wouldn’t be scheduled 24 hours out. So no, it’s not just “placed wrong

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4

That makes sense, thanks!

5

I can’t speak on behalf of a 430k hilly race, but for a typical 100-110 mile gravel race, I follow a pre-race day warm up from one of Dylan Johnson’s videos.

Target around 1 hr. Easy warm up with most of the ride around bottom half Z2. At about halfway through, I’ll do a 5 min, 3 min, 1 min effort. Not at 100% effort, but maybe 85-90%. The 5 min might be at 90-95% FTP, and progressively higher from there. After each interval, take enough time for a full recovery - around 5-8 mins.

Everyone is different, but this has been near perfect for me. Each persons fitness level might need less or more. I’d suggest writing down what you do this time and how you felt it worked so you can either do the same or tweak as needed for the next race.

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