Triathlon Race Day: Warm Up

Triathlon Race Day: Warm Up

It’s race day and you find out that you’re not allowed into the water prior to race start – so that pre-planned warm up in the water is no longer possible. 

What do you do?

• Hope for the best?
• Use the first few minutes of the race to start slowly?
• A few stretches?
• Swim cords?
• A short run?

Whatever you decide, have you practiced it? Have you thought about it prior to race day? Is it a strategy or all a bit random?

You need to give it some thought.

What might a ‘no swim’ swim warm up look like?

For me, the idea of a warm up prior to a swim is to …

• Raise your heart rate
• Find your rhythm
• Get your range of motion feeling good
• Get a feel for power
• Calm some of those pre-race nerves

What Might It Look Like?

A pre-race warm up could therefore include one or more of …

• A short run (5 minutes or so) to lift your heart rate.

• Some stretching / movement, with the aim of loosening up your shoulders, torso, neck to provide good range of motion when the gun goes.

• Some work with swim cords to get your lats and shoulders firing and think about stroke rhythm (likely to raise heart rate a little too).

Doing some of the above will also provide a focus, calming some of those nerves. However, only do these if you’ve practiced them! Race day is not the time to get the swim cords out for the first time.

Why don’t you try one or more of these before your next training swim – open water or pool – and see how you feel?

Swim Warm Up

In some races, athletes are allowed to get into the water for a warm up.

If you get this opportunity, take it.

Once we’re in the water, though, what should we do?

Again, it should be something you’ve practiced before – and know that it works!

In our recent open water swim sessions, we’ve been thinking about the warm up, practicing it and then setting off on our main set at our proposed race pace.

Key Principles Of A Good Race Day Warm Up

For me, I would suggest:

• A few minutes of easy swimming to calm yourself, settle your breathing and get used to the water temperature.

• Then, a couple more minutes where we are thinking about our technique. I like to do some ‘distance per stroke’ swimming, feeling strong, powerful and ‘controlled fast’.

• Finally, I would include some ‘accelerations’. This might be a few repetitions of 20 – 30 seconds worth of strong, fast swimming followed by 20 – 30 seconds of easy swimming.

This warm up should leave you feeling relaxed whilst having a good feel for your swim stroke. And you may even find that many of your pre-race nerves have disappeared, lost on the bottom of the lake.

How does that sound?

Do you do anything differently in your warm up?

Triathlon Race Day: Warm Up

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