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I haven't seen this address well anywhere.
How much warmup do you need for a sprint tri and what type do you do? I am afraid if I get my muscles too warm when they hit that cold water they will contract and majorly cramp up.
So is just stretching the order of the day? a slow swim (hate to be in the water too long) a little spinning on a trainer? a brisk walk?
What does everyone do ? ? ? ?
If I can... I try to get in and swim a good 200-500 yards.
It's kind of hard though... because you set up transition, that closes about 30-45 minutes before race time... and then you race. So, if you want to run, you have to run before transition closes (shoes). Even if you swim, you have to be out of the water a good 30 minutes before the race, so the warm up is all but lost.
Typically, I just stand around and wait for the race to start. That's my warmup.
Hi there... I'm not a triathelete, just a cyclist...
But I have heard (and it works for me) that you should warm up one minute for each year of your age. So I always try and bike for 30-40 minutes in Zones 1-3 before a bike race.
I don't know how this translates to your discipline, but perhaps it helps?
Really- I don't warm up. I do some yoga-type stretching before the swim starts, but that's about it. If it's open water and an in-water start then I'll swim for about 3 min before the start. Otherwise there's no warm up for me. Even for the IM I only had a 3-4 min swim as a warm up. With transition closing and the wetsuit battle that ensues before it closes, there's not much time for warming up unless it's 40 min to an hour before the race (and then really, what's the point?). Shorter races I don't even bother. They're over fairly quickly, and I figure it's not worth tiring myself out to get a warm-up in. I always start the swim slow for the first couple minutes- so I figure that's my warm-up.