Forums >Racing>When to Warm-Up before a Race
I posted an introductory thread a while back outlining how I got back into running after a many year layoff while I was cycling exclusively. Anyway, I’ll be doing my first race since my return to running today. I would have preferred the 10K distance but this is only 5K.
The venue is about a half hour from my house but there will be a total of about 75 minutes from the time I leave my house until the race starts. My question is whether a warm-up can be performed successfully 90 minutes or more before a race. I’d love to have my warm-up complete before getting to the race venue but I’m wondering whether that would be too long a wait and it would be best for me to only warm-up right before the race. I’m not too familiar with the area so don’t know how easy it will be to find a good place to do so. Since this is only a 5K distance, I’ll be going fast from the outset so I definitely want to be completely loosened up. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
Personal Records:
5K - 20:07 ran in September 2021 (The second half split during the 10K run listed below.)
10K - 41:10 ran in September 2021
8 miles - 56:15 ran in November 2021
Half Marathon - 1:39:06 ran in September 2020
Mmmm Bop
I would leave a bit earlier and do your warm up just before the race. I’m not a 5k expert but I usually run a couple of miles with strides and some dynamic stretches which takes about 20 minutes for me.
5k - 17:53 (4/19) 10k - 37:53 (11/18) Half - 1:23:18 (4/19) Full - 2:50:43 (4/19)
an amazing likeness
You want your actual warm up to finish fairly close to race start time, ending 5-10 (ish) minutes before. Not before your drive to the race; that would be a separate workout. Use the race course for your warmup, it will be marked and may even have portions closed to traffic already.
Check out this previous discussion, lots of good advice. Someone tell me how to warmup for a 5K
Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.
not bad for mile 25
With the situation you describe, I actually would do both. Two or three easy miles at home, then a real warmup of a mile or so at the race site.
Can yo not warm up on the course?
For an all out 5k I generally do about 3 miles, most of it at a very easy jog with the last half mile or so working up to "not a jog"--maybe marathon pace. Then 4-5 ~100m strides with full recoveries. Try to time the warm up jog to finish about 15 minutes before the gun, then linger in the starting area doing a stride every minute or so. You'll probably see a bunch of skinny people in racing flats doing the same.
Runners run
Thanks for the replies and the link to that helpful thread. I’ll be doing foam rolling at home so that begins the preparation process. I’ll save the actual running part of the warm-up for the event itself. I’m thinking about 10 minutes, starting very slowly and then ramping up a bit.
I’m going with my wife and son so I can’t go too early. Google gives it a 20 minute drive time so I plan to leave 75 minutes before the race starts. That should be time to get there, get my packet, do the warm-up, and get to the starting line.
I haven’t raced in 29 years so am unfamiliar with how things are set up now. I assume there will be different waves of runners probably based on expected finish times rather than age but I’m only guessing.
What race is it? I doubt it will have a wave start. The starts of most 5k's are not super organized and it's usually up to the runners to self seed themselves, which generally works ok.
Mother of Cats
a) I would be very surprised if there were multiple waves in a 5K - I only see that in the largest of shorter distance races.
b) as noted, you should have plenty of space to warm up by jogging the 5K course
c) I would always to prefer to warm up AFTER driving to the race, as I find that I tend to stiffen up and get tight when I drive.
d) how much of a warm-up you need depends both on the distance of the race (the shorter the race, the more you need to warm up before) and your personal needs. Are you the sort of person who never feels good on the first few reps of a workout? Then you need a longer warm up with a fair bit of intensity. Do you sometimes run out of gas during workouts or struggle to complete longer easy runs? Then keep the warm up a bit shorter.
e) I tend to need a longer warm-up with a great deal of intensity. For me right now, I go with about 2 miles easy jogging. Then...
-3 minutes at half-marathon effort, then jog 90 seconds;
-4x30 seconds at 5K effort with 30 seconds jogging between, then jog 90 seconds after the last;
-4x10 seconds at mile race effort with 20 seconds jogging effort between.
I try to finish that about 20 minutes before the race. Then I do some drills, easy jogging, and 4 strides right before we line up.
Everyone's gotta running blog; I'm the only one with a POOL-RUNNING blog.
And...if you want a running Instagram where all the pictures are of cats, I've got you covered.
The most you are likely to have are some signs indicating where you should line up based on your expected pace.
Dave
[side question for the peanut gallery: is it "warm up" or "warm-up"? I'm going nuts over this one - note that I spelled it both ways in my response above]
Warm up as a verb, warm-up (or just warmup) as a noun.
This is the race:
https://www.melrosewakefield.org/event/stride-for-healthy-communities-5k-run-walk/?fbclid=IwAR1JiV7irlQI1O67zRh_R0-Khd7dzEkTXF8nfhFFrE3tAb8Eyn5QfGBzvto
Will there at least be timing chips? I don't know if they're ubiquitous now or only at the more high profile races. They are giving out prizes for quite a few categories. I don't see how they could do it otherwise.
Interesting. That's 2-miles from my house and it's supposed to be a nice night to run ...
I suspect they will have chip timimg--its not clear from the website which timing company is doing it. It shouldn't matter though. In a race that small chip timing is no more accurate than hand timing.
Btw the club that's putting on that race does a weekly 5k series at the lake that's like $1 and definitely doesn't have chip timing. Tonight's race must be in place of their weekly.
mta: found last year's results, which were chip timed by north shore timing: http://www.coolrunning.com/results/18/ma/Sep29_Stride_set1.shtml
Interesting. That's 2-miles from my house and it's supposed to be a nice night to run ... I suspect they will have chip timimg--its not clear from the website which timing company is doing it. It shouldn't matter though. In a race that small chip timing is no more accurate than hand timing. Btw the club that's putting on that race does a weekly 5k series at the lake that's like $1 and definitely doesn't have chip timing. Tonight's race must be in place of their weekly. mta: found last year's results, which were chip timed by north shore timing: http://www.coolrunning.com/results/18/ma/Sep29_Stride_set1.shtml I've had a couple people ask me if it will be difficult to have space running. They said something about a path that goes around the lake rather than roads being used. Do you think that will be an issue?
I've had a couple people ask me if it will be difficult to have space running. They said something about a path that goes around the lake rather than roads being used. Do you think that will be an issue?
I can't figure out how to quote messages and still have my reply be separate...