Gems from Kikkan's blog #1: race warm-ups

Many skiers are apprehensive about getting tired during the warm-up for a race and racing poorly. The absolute worst thing you can do is to not warm up at all. Racing requires high blood flow to your locomotor muscles and this takes time. A warm-up, even at a L1-2 level, will ramp up the sympathetic nervous system to increase your cardiac output (via both increased heart rate and strength of heart muscle contraction) and increase your the rate of air flow into and out of your lungs. What about a more intense warm-up? That's a good question. In my own experience, it takes time for sympathetic system to settle down into its "setting" for my L3 or L4 pace and as a consequence the pace "feels" too hard. After a few minutes, the feeling goes away and the pace feels right. I think one advantage of a more intense warm-up then is to go through this initial "too intense" stage PRIOR to the race. There may also be some metabolic advantages if say, your locomotor muscle actually functions better in the cell/tissue environment generated by intense exercise but not L1-L2 exercise. But enough science hand-waving. Let's let the experts speak:

Hi Kikkan,

As a junior skier, coaches often tell me to “get a good warm up” before races. I was wondering what that looks like. Can you give me a picture of what your warm up looks like, and what you change in it for sprint vs. distance races?

Abe Meyerhofer,
Alaska

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Hi Abe,

Getting a good warm-up is important for both interval workouts and races, to make sure your body is open, warm and ready to perform at it’s best! I usually start all of my warm-up routines by skiing or jogging easy for 15-20 min. Sometimes it can be hard to keep this pace easy with race nerves surging and an exciting atmosphere around, but try to keep a lid on the effort if you can.

Towards the end of the 20 min, I start picking up the pace just a little bit and then transition into about 5-10 min of L3 or sub-race pace skiing. This is a pace that is a little slower and easier than your goal race pace and helps switch on the aerobic system. The next part depends of whether it’s a sprint or a distance race.

If it’s a distance race, I usually just add on a couple minutes of race pace skiing to the end of the L3 interval. Nothing too hard or too long, but it does help to wake up the body to the pace it will be racing at. After the interval, ski easy for another 5-10 min and then throw in a few short bursts. In the start pen, I usually jog around, swing my arms and just work on staying loose.

If it’s a sprint, I next add in some 30-60 second short intervals at race pace with a couple minutes rest in between. I usually do 3-4 of these on important parts of the course. I finish up my warm-up with some easy skiing and a few short 6-10 sec bursts. While I’m in the start pen, I continue to stay warm with some track-style drills like high knees, bounding, skips, etc. The key is to feel warm and sweaty when you start!

Practicing your warm-up routine on interval days will help you figure out what works for you. Everyone is a little different. Sometimes the situation at the race site
May cause you to change plans, so just remember the basics and be ready to be flexible.

Best of luck!
Kikkan