Taking too long to warm up

[TPetsch]

This has been on my mind lately, any one else have this issue.

I did 46 miles today on my road bike but didn't get warmed up until about my 18th mile at which point I started to feel in the groove, it seems to take me longer and longer to get warmed up these days. My average is about 20 MPH, my average ride is about 43 Miles 3 or 4 times a week, I'm 48.

This is a problem because lately I've been struggling a little on the faster paced group rides when the pace builds up early in the ride -damn young guys. But after 18 or so miles everything starts clicking and I can ride for hours at a brisk pace.

Any tricks out there that will help me get warmed up -get in the groove- sooner?

[Gummee]

I've got some of the same issues. I've started riding to the ride as much as possible.

Still get hammered on, but it seems to be helping. One of these days I'll stop riding with Cat 1s...

M

[carpediemracing]

I'm no trainer/physiologist/doctor but my own experience is that the more I train the more I need to warm up. When I ride a lot of hours, typically in the winter or many years ago during the regular season, I'd need to ride an hour before I felt okay, and in fact I'd want to ride 2 hours the day before so I'd feel okay on race day.

In the past few years it seems I ride 1-3 hours a week during the season, so about one day's worth of riding for you (I typically go 15-17 mph on a flat training ride). I've jumped in races with zero warm up, literally ride to the line, and been good. If I ride 2 hours the day before I'm sort of cooked on race day (heh). I do okay if I do 30-60 minutes the day before. If I don't ride I'm usually not very good the day after. I'm 46 so about the same age. I've been doing this for a while, the zero warm up thing, most of the 30+ years I've been racing (mainly at a Cat 3 level, focusing primarily on crits so they allegedly start off fast).

For warming up when I need to warm up there's nothing like going out and riding. When pressed for time I just suffer at the beginning of the ride/race.

A long time ago I made it my goal to win a sprint on the first loop of the Tues Night Sprints at SUNY Purchase. The loop was just 2 miles long and I'd get there, get on the bike, ride against traffic on the loop until I saw the group, jump in, and try to win. It came down to making a massive effort in the first 5-7 minutes of pedaling. It might be worth experimenting with making a massive effort relatively quickly, meaning as a warm up, and then seeing how you feel after you recover.

[fogrider]

yeah it sometimes takes me about the 20 miles and a couple of long climbs to get warmed up. try doing short sprints about 3 or 4 miles in. go hard for about 60 seconds and recover. this really wakes the body up and gets the blood flowing. when I do lunch time rides, I do 3 or 4 sprints. I think the third sprint is typically the fastest.

[kgreene10]

I experience the same thing and I echo the suggestions to ride to the ride and put in a bit of an effort along the way -- as long as you can spin for about 20 mins before you do.

I often do 5x1x1 spin ups rather than sprint efforts. Start at about 100rpm in an easy gear and increase to above 120rpm by 30 seconds, maintaining for the next 30 seconds. For those last 30 seconds, power (if you have it) should be at or a bit below threshold. Rest/go easy for one minute. Repeat four more times. Go easy for 10 mins before the big efforts on your ride start.

That should get the blood pumping and the muscles firing.

[oldpotatoe]

This has been on my mind lately, any one else have this issue.

I did 46 miles today on my road bike but didn't get warmed up until about my 18th mile at which point I started to feel in the groove, it seems to take me longer and longer to get warmed up these days. My average is about 20 MPH, my average ride is about 43 Miles 3 or 4 times a week, I'm 48.

This is a problem because lately I've been struggling a little on the faster paced group rides when the pace builds up early in the ride -damn young guys. But after 18 or so miles everything starts clicking and I can ride for hours at a brisk pace.

Any tricks out there that will help me get warmed up -get in the groove- sooner?

Show up 30 minutes earlier, stuff some cotton in your nose and hop on your trainer....

or ride to the ride?

or ride with a slower group(damn old farts)?

or struggle, cuz it's supposed to be fun, until you get 'in the groove'??

[shovelhd]

My first thought is that you need to rest.

[Ozrider]

It could be a sign of over training

[ghammer]

you need to rest. then rebuild. add some very short intervals or effort bursts to jumpstart the system. it happened to me when I used to ride tons, pre-kids.

[MattTuck]

I've been in your position before. When the first hour seems to be warm-up, it is kind of a nice feeling if you can actually ride for 2+ hours because you feel like you keep getting stronger throughout the ride.

However, it may be a sign of over training. The easiest and first thing I'd try is to do a week of easy spin rides. And when you're done, add in some shorter higher intensity rides into your training mix, a short intervals day for instance.

However, there are plenty of pros that warm up for more than an hour before time trials. So I don't think you can automatically assume "over training".

What is your pre-ride warm up?

[mcteague]

20mph average? No hills where you ride? If those rides do include hills you should start looking for a team.

Tim

[Exonerv]

At age 53 and primarily riding with my 30 year old son, there is no question that it takes me longer to warm up...so I can feel your pain. I've had to learn to give myself adequate time as it seems if I push too early, the more I bury myself for later in the ride.

A variable that hasn't been mentioned yet is food. I seem to feel my best on a morning ride if I eat something that is quickly digestable at least 30-45mins before I get on the bike. Any less and my legs will protest for at least the first hour.

[TPetsch]

20mph average? No hills where you ride? If those rides do include hills you should start looking for a team.

Tim

Thanks everyone for your valuable input.

No -real- Hills on my usual training route on Long Island.

But when I do the North Shore Rides we run into -I don't want to call them hills but- overpasses and some short hills, some steep but always short.

My usual warm up is just to ride until I feel warmed up. From what I'm reading here this seems to be a common issue thing for regular riders. I'll try a Pre-ride warm up / sprints / 5x1x1 spin ups / and throw in a few short ride plus sprinting days as some suggest and see what happens.

[zap]

I always required long warm up's……..even when I raced. One hour warm up with 2 super hard efforts would usually do it.

If I eat crappy food the night before (chinese and the like) it could take me 30-40 miles before I feel normal.

[MattTuck]

I'd also look to do some stuff off the bike. google some combination of cycling active warm-up dynamic stretching

Since cycling has a constrained range of motion, some active warm-up stretches might help activate/loosen some muscles that may not get much help once you're on the bike.

Two that I like:

1.) Lift you knee to your chest, pull it in tight, hold for 1-2 seconds while stepping on your tip toe and really trying to stand tall. release, step forward to repeat with other knee. repeat 10x on both sides.

2.) walking lunge with hip flexor stretch.

Here's a video of one of them. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lqlD3KD0_w)

[shovelhd]

Thanks everyone for your valuable input.

No -real- Hills on my usual training route on Long Island.

But when I do the North Shore Rides we run into -I don't want to call them hills but- overpasses and some short hills, some steep but always short.

My usual warm up is just to ride until I feel warmed up. From what I'm reading here this seems to be a common issue thing for regular riders. I'll try a Pre-ride warm up / sprints / 5x1x1 spin ups / and throw in a few short ride plus sprinting days as some suggest and see what happens.

If you do that, don't be surprised if you bury yourself further.

[Coluber42]

I've always ridden to the start of most group rides, and it has really helped on the ones where people go hard right out of the start (of course, lots of the guys who do that are warmed up because they rode to the start too).
But I've definitely found that when I'm tired it takes a long time to warm up. Sometimes a really long time. I did a 600k this past weekend, and was pretty tired when I started - the combination of a bunch of really hectic weeks, punctuated by long, hard rides of one kind or another every weekend, and I swear it took about 15 hours to feel warmed up. But I took it easy as much as possible, and I did find my groove eventually. I figure I eventually found my groove as much out of habit as anything else.
Of course I'll be paying for it all week.

[unterhausen]

it usually takes me at least 10 miles before I warm up. This seems to be true even if I'm really wiped out, like on a multi-day ride. I often joke that it takes me 100 miles to warm up, because I usually hit a down period from 50-100 miles. But I'm never surprised when I need some time to warm up. I suspect this was always true, it's just I never figured it out before I was 50. lotta things like that, unfortunately