best way to warm up for a 10 mile tt?

kevin_stephens

on a turbo or on the road
durations at % max heart rate
cadence
etc

(sorry if this is a faq, didn't find anything by searching)

BeaconRuth

Like most things to do with training and racing, there's no one-size-fits-all 'best' way. Some people prefer to warm up on turbo, others prefer to ride on the road. Everyone is different in how much warming up they need, too. The best thing is to try a few different routines and decide which works best for you. The general advice I'd give would be:

a) Warm up very thoroughly (20-30mins min)
b) Do some hard efforts (short race-pace efforts)
c) Don't leave yourself with a panic to get to the start!

Ruth
www.rutheyles.co.uk/

knedlicky

A turbo isn’t realistic if your event goes from A to B, and you don’t have the support a profi or top amateur does. I also think it doesn’t give you the right road ‘feel’ shortly before a TT.

To Beacon Ruth’s good pointers, I’d just add, don’t cut it too tight (allow comfortably more than 10 mins between warm-up and start) and don’t eat anything in the last 20 mins, not even ½ a banana.

BeaconRuth

knedlicky wrote:

A turbo isn’t realistic if your event goes from A to B, and you don’t have the support a profi or top amateur does. I also think it doesn’t give you the right road ‘feel’ shortly before a TT.

Sorry, Knedicky, you've lost me there. Why does the event's course have a bearing on how you warm up?

On the plus side for turbos, you can do a very controlled and repeatable warm-up on a turbo, possibly with your favourite motivational tracks on an ipod or similar. The other good reason is that you're not risking getting a puncture while on a turbo, though you may choose to use a spare wheel rather than your best racing wheel on it.

Sometimes the start line is a good ride from the HQ and so you might have a ready-made warm-up opportunity just getting to the start. (That was the case this afternoon in a local 25mile TT I've just ridden.)

Ruth
www.rutheyles.co.uk/

Ric_Stern/RST

BeaconRuth wrote:

knedlicky wrote:

A turbo isn’t realistic if your event goes from A to B, and you don’t have the support a profi or top amateur does. I also think it doesn’t give you the right road ‘feel’ shortly before a TT.

Sorry, Knedicky, you've lost me there. Why does the event's course have a bearing on how you warm up?

On the plus side for turbos, you can do a very controlled and repeatable warm-up on a turbo, possibly with your favourite motivational tracks on an ipod or similar. The other good reason is that you're not risking getting a puncture while on a turbo, though you may choose to use a spare wheel rather than your best racing wheel on it.

Sometimes the start line is a good ride from the HQ and so you might have a ready-made warm-up opportunity just getting to the start. (That was the case this afternoon in a local 25mile TT I've just ridden.)

Ruth
www.rutheyles.co.uk/

Ruth,

You obviously haven't ridden your turbo enough... I've punctured at least 3 times on mine, and once or more on rollers.

Ric

andrewgturnbull

knedlicky wrote:

A turbo isn’t realistic if your event goes from A to B, and you don’t have the support a profi or top amateur does. I also think it doesn’t give you the right road ‘feel’ shortly before a TT.

To Beacon Ruth’s good pointers, I’d just add, don’t cut it too tight (allow comfortably more than 10 mins between warm-up and start) and don’t eat anything in the last 20 mins, not even ½ a banana.

HI there.

Sorry to disagree, but the ideal warm up (in my opinion) should finish right before your start. Obviously you don't want to risk missing your start, but I wouldn't recommend arriving at the starter with more than 1 or 2 minutes to go to the start.

It's worth watching the starter, and which numbers are being pushed off, then setting your watch before you do your warm up!

Cheers, Andy

ps I find that a swim works best as a warm up!