rideBjj

As the title suggests, I seem to take a ridiculously long time to get warmed up. I'm talking a good 45 minutes most of the time. Before then, my breathing is labored for no reason, my legs feel pumped with blood, my pedal stroke is choppy and I just generally feel crappy. Then there's my various issues with an arthritic hip and knee, which often feel creaky and painful when I set off.

Half the time, I want to just turn around and go home after 20 minutes. But then, if I stay with it, around 45 minutes in everything will *usually* smooth out and I'll be good to go. Most training plans suggest a 15 or 20 minute warm up phase, but for me that's almost always impossible. It's kind of annoying, especially on days where I may only have an hour or 90 minutes total to ride. Who wants to spend such a high percentage of that time hating it?

First world problems! Amirite guys?

Doug28450

Is two blocks a long time?

rideBjj

NYC Blocks or LA Blocks?

intransit1217

While i can't say how long it actually takes me to "warm up", I can easily induce the sweat glands with minimal effort. But I don't feel fully "on" until after the first hard effort or drill.

hueyhoolihan

i have to say, with the risk of being contradictory, that i usually feel the best for the first mile or so. then things go down hill, but not in a good way.

chaadster

Sounds just like me...and yes, it makes it rough, particularly mentally, because even though my rational mind knows I can hang with just about anybody around here, my 20mins-in-on-first-climb stressed mind is freaking out like I might not even make, although I always do. The craziest part is that once I get home, I usually think I should have gone harder. It's pretty schizo, really. (Okay, not really; respect to those who suffer mental illness. We have it in the family and it's truly devastating).

intransit1217

Weirdly enough, I've had several sessions where i thought, "was there more? did I burn ALL my matches" and i leave thinking i hadn't.

Carbonfiberboy 

IME this is totally normal. The first 15 minutes I can't even remember how to pedal. Then my lungs hurt even at a moderate pace. Yeah, then after about an hour I'm thinking, "Hmm, that guy in the lead isn't really going, is he? I wonder what I have today?" My usual group ride theory is to burn 'em in the first half, then just try to finish. It's not a race. Everyone thinks I'm nuts.

OTOH when we've climbed right out of the parking lot, that's been OK too, maybe because everyone has about the same problem.

lyrictenor1

Are you perhaps suffering from overtraining?

RomansFiveEight

I take a long time to warm up too. 20-25 minutes. It's sort of a strange feeling. Starting out feeling tired and then feeling like you're in a rhythm and ready to go!

rideBjj

That's pretty much it, except make it 40-45 minutes.

"Are you perhaps suffering from overtraining?"

While I have been training much more and harder these last few weeks, in preparation for a century race (er.. I mean "fun ride") I don't feel overtrained by the usual metrics. Even if I was, this phenomena happens most of the time, even when there's no chance I'm not-recovered from recent hard efforts. I think I just have a faulty system somehow.

gamby

4 miles is my magic number. Way too often, I shove off thinking "uh-oh--this ride is gonna suck" and then I hit the 4 mile mark and I'm feeling fine.

BoSoxYacht

25-35 minutes is when I start to feel like I'm warm, and ready to go.

Pirkaus

For me the first 15 or 20 minutes I feel dead, heavy breathing even though my heart rate isn't out of zone 2, my legs feel like lead with no rhythm. Then just like a light switch I'm all good to go!

Grambo

I would try to alter my approach to warming up. 45 minutes is too long and target cutting that roughly in half to begin with. I would make sure I'm keeping my cadence high during the warm up to raise my heart rate.

- 15 minutes easy to mild high cadence spin
- 16 min hard one minute spin up. High cadence > 90 rpm and raise heart rate to high zone 3
- 19 min hard one minute spin up. High cadence > 90 rpm and raise heart rate to mid zone 4
- 22 min hard one minute spin up. High cadence > 90 rpm and raise heart rate to high zone 4

From there you might want to do a 5 minute interval pushing a large gear at a relatively low cadence of approximately 80 rpm. This will force your legs to work hard but keep your heart rate from spiking. Experiment and see what works for you but from a physiological stand point I'm sure you could cut your warm up time in half without any problems.

Good luck.

abby4000

i am a good 20 mins to half hour before i am in game on mode.

mapeiboy

It will takes me good 30 minutes to warm up before I can put in any hard effort on a 4 hours ride . I can see it takes me longer to warm up as I get older each year .

velociraptor

On the trainer, it usually only takes me < 10 minutes to get warmed up because I can spin a constant 95-100rpm at an easy to moderate effort.

On the road it's different. Where I live you can't go 20 feet without hitting a hill and my bikes are geared standard (52/39 & 11/25).

As a result my avg cadence is much lower (mid 80's) and not consistent – so it takes my legs a good 20-25min to warm up. During that period, it's definitely sucky.

I'm 41, btw.

obed7

for me it is usually at least 3 to 5 miles down the road before I feel warmed up and begin to enjoy myself.

Jarrett2

I'm kinda like this too. There is some mile mark where things just switch on, then I'm good for the next few hours.

When I go solo, I don't feel this as much (assuming I rate output unconsciously) but when I ride with a group at someone else's warmup pace, I really feel it. I'm a slow starter, but I also notice I have a ton left in the tank when other riders start to fade later in the day.

Wanderer

Usually somewhere between 4-5 miles. Dependent on temp. Higher temps work out to 4, while cooler makes it around mile 5. Once there, the next 25-35 come easily.

Yet to find out this year, with all my new meds.................

Bob Ross

I don't seem to have this problem, but my wife is an interesting case: On many long rides if the first 10-20 miles isn't a controlled, smartly-paced non-hammerfest, she's toast; she needs a good warm-up or her fitness suffers for the entire day. However, if she does get a good 10-20 mile warm-up in at the start of the ride, she is an absolute beast for the last 20 miles, and most of the riders who were trying to turn the first 20 miles into a hammerfest can't hang with her. It's a pretty wonderful thing to see!

rm -rf

I seem to be warmed up right away. But after 40 minutes, I do notice the difference. I feel stronger, and in winter, my fingers are finally warm after freezing for the first part of the ride.

chaadster

Is it just getting the balance of aerobic and anaerobic work right? I mean, early ride, high aerobic efforts are the most uncomfortable, but once I've hit the anaerobic threshold and gotten that system working, things smooth out and feel better, especially if I don't drop down to low aerobic efforts again. I'm more like a diesel than a high revving, punchy gas engine; I'm best at high Tempo work, less so at surging. Maybe this is a basic physiological expression that accounts for the difference in how we feel during warm up?

Stucky

Takes me 10 miles or so to warm up. The hills start before 1/2 a mile, so it can be rough- but I've learned to just struggle through it.