A WORD ON WARMING UP

HOW LONG SHOULD I WARM UP, DIESEL?  The question reminds me of the old Benz turbo diesel SSB drove.  It had glow plugs which needed to heat up before the engine would fire...

... we’re a lot like those old diesels.

We need to warm up.  A proper warmup can be the difference between winning and losing, PRing and flailing.

But, before we get to answering the warmup question, the part a lot of us foul up – I know I have – is arriving late to the venue.  Not only do we arrive late, we waste all kinds of emotional energy stressing about it...

... energy lost, perhaps costing the win.

I like to arrive at least an hour and a half early, sometimes two and half hours.  How long I’ll need to warm up will determine how early I should arrive.

Here’s the formula, the amount of time spent warming up is inversely correlated to how long the race will last. 

Track racers, whose race might be as short as 60 seconds, often warm up for an hour or more.  Endurance racers, who might race for 9 hours, don’t warm up at all. 

Tonight, I’m racing for about an hour.  I’ll warm up for nearly that long.  Leadville, no warmup at all.

In a nutshell...

... the longer the race, the shorter the warmup.

Play with it.

Master it.

How to warm up I’ll save for another day.

I should point out the main advantage of a proper warmup...

... hitting it hard the second the flag drops.

Depending on the course and the style of race, it's not uncommon for an early gap to form and the leaders never seen again.

Just something to think about.

My friend Char always arrives early.  She's a National Champ on the track, so she's used to showing up way early and getting a proper warm up.

Note, she's also sporting a sweet and very custom RaceDay Bag™.

I'm pointing this out for two reasons:

• If it's good enough for a champ, you probably need one, too.
• If you have one, you probably have a friend who could use one and trust me, you'll want to order that way before Christmas this year.

Go here -> https://pedalindustries.com/pages/all-raceday-bags

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165.7
8 hrs
10 PullUps 30 PushUps
Stretch and Hypervolt
18 pages + journaling
https://www.strava.com/activities/5885674867

Ride with us: https://www.strava.com/clubs/pedalindustries