Don't overlook a solid warm up! Athletes', who are widely strapped for time, often like to skip right into a workout. Sometimes, coaches and pre-defined workout plans are too vague in outlining exactly what a good warmup is. The warmup is an important part of the workout and, done right, will improve the quality of the work to come. Without a good warm up you could find your legs feeling flat during your workout, and sometimes have trouble holding higher cadences. Starting a workout feeling this way can take a till mentally, and inhibit the quality of your workout.
A good warm up will:
1. Heat up your muscles, and get the blood flowing to them, preparing them for the work ahead. Possibly, even helping minimize risk of injury.
2. Prepare your joints and muscles for proper cadence and effort during your workout.
3. Wake you up mentally, and give you an idea of how you are feeling for today's workout.
4. Sometimes, if your not feeling quite fresh, a good warm up can work the soreness out of your legs, and wake them up even if you didn't think it was possible.
In planning a solid warm up, remember to make it relevant to the elements of the workout ahead. For example, if your workout today will include climbing drills, you should incorporate some short climbs in your warm up. If you are doing intervals at Lactate Threshold, you should include a warmup with short intervals slightly above LT. If you are testing FTP, or going to be doing intervals above FTP, you should include some of those short efforts in your warm ups. Those short efforts will help you get the benefits, we discussed above, out of your warm up.
So here are 3 of my go to warm ups for specific bike trainer efforts.
1. Warm up for hill climbing
2' soft pedal
30" soft pedal 100+ cadence
1' soft pedal
1' soft pedal 100+ cadence
30" soft pedal
5' build 60-80% FTP 85-95 cadence
1' 80% FTP 60 cadence
1' soft pedal
2' 80% FTP 60 cadence
1' soft pedal
4' 80% FTP 60 cadence
1' FTP 60 cadence
5' soft pedal
2. Warm up for LT efforts (most steady state workouts)
2' soft pedal
30" soft pedal 100+ cadence
1' soft pedal
1' soft pedal 100+ cadence
30" soft pedal
5' 70% FTP
5' 80% FTP
20" FTP
40" soft pedal
30" FTP
30" soft pedal
30" FTP
30" soft pedal
30" FTP
30" soft pedal
30" FTP
5:30 soft pedal
3. Warm up for FTP or efforts that will include intervals above FTP
2' soft pedal
30" soft pedal 100+ cadence
1' soft pedal
1' soft pedal 100+ cadence
30" soft pedal
5' 70% FTP
5' 80% FTP
20" FTP
40" soft pedal
30" FTP
30" soft pedal
30" FTP
30" soft pedal
20" FTP
10" 110% FTP
30" soft pedal
30"FTP
10" 110% FTP
5:20 soft pedal
Enjoy!
Coach Meulen
www.tzcoaching.com
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