Question for the coaches here - what do you recommend as a pre-race warmup ? Need not be a SUF workout, I’m just looking for wisdom on what works especially well immediately prior to a race.
I typically do 15 - 30 min in tempo / endurance (but sometimes as little as 6 and as much as 40) with a few surges to threshold and beyond, but I’ll admit that I haven’t got a super structured or principled approach to it.
Also curious - would your recommendations change for a steady-state effort like a TT vs a more dynamic mass start race ?
My race warmups vary a lot, depending on the type of race. The warmup I need for a 45 minute cyclocross race with a full gas sprint off the start line is very different to a 10+ hour mountain bike endurance race. For the warmup for a shorter race, I try to do some steady state tempo warmup for 10-20 minutes, followed by some short, sharp efforts that simulate the efforts in the race. For longer races, I may not warm up at all, other than making sure everything is working OK on my bike - the first few kilometres of the race will serve just fine as the warmup.
I’d say you want to hit the TT start well warmed up, as you know you will be going hard straight away. For the mass start race, it will depend on how you expect the race dynamics to play out - will you get time to warm up during a neutral rollout, or is it full gas attacking from the gun?
Suggestions would be Igniter or GCN Ready, Steady Go.
I did a write up on the importance of warm up (and listed my preferred warm-up at the bottom) if that helps at all!.