4. Warm Up Time:

How many times have you hit the line unprepared for the explosive energy demands of the start? By knowing the course, the distance and yourself it is possible to hit the starting line well prepared to inflict the suffering, instead of being subjected to it. At a minimum your warm up should last 30 minutes. The first 15 minutes of any warm up should be spent pedaling a small gear. Let your body gradually adapt to a ready state. Once warm start to increase your tempo. Throw in a few hard efforts to blow out the cobwebs and really prepare the body for hard efforts. Efforts that open you lungs, get you breathing hard and sweating a little are best. Don’t spend 45 minutes doing hard intervals before a 30 mile XC, spend 5-10 minutes doing a few solid intervals that bring your body to optimal readiness. A good rule of thumb is to warm up so that the total duration of the days effort matches your average to slightly longer ride. For example if my average ride is 2:30 and the race is going to last approx. 1:45 then I know I should warm up for about 45 minutes.

The second component of warm up has to do with the type of intervals you do to prepare your legs. If the start is 3 miles of pavement before a downhill to singletrack you want to approach it differently than a 1/4 mile sprint to the 10 mile climb. For the first scenerio get your body into a good solid tempo warm up at just below LT (lactate threshold, approx. 80% of your Max Heart Rate), then recover after about 5 minutes before doing a few more efforts. For the second scenario practice short hard jumps with a gradual scale back of the tempo for the coming climb (not too much or you’ll go backwards up the climb!).

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