鈥淧robably one of the best things you can do is move your warm up closer to your race. You might have less time for whatever routine you normally do, but you don鈥檛 want to warm up and then cool down,鈥 says Jon Clemens, coach of San Diego鈥檚 Milestone Track Club.
from the United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine backs Clemens up. Researchers found that a 30-minute wait in the cold between warming up and racing nixed the benefit of warming up. (Namely, preparing the body to work by increasing blood flow to your muscles.) But a five-minute delay had little negative impact on performance.
Layer Up
If you must warm up more than five minutes before the race, make sure to dress in layers. 鈥淏uy cheap sweatshirts to keep your skin warm,鈥 says the study鈥檚 lead author, Sergeant Marissa Spitz. Many runners like to buy clothes at second-hand stores, then leave them at the start line, where races often collect the clothes to donate to homeless shelters.
Improvise
Clemens usually recommends a marathon warm up of 10 to 15 minutes of easy jogging. But if that鈥檚 going to leave you cold and miserable as you stand in a never-ending start corral, reconsider what it means to warm up.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e stuck in line, try doing some push ups or air squats,鈥 Spitz says, to get the blood flowing. That can be enough to get you ready to race.
鈥淚n the marathon, you鈥檒l have plenty of time to warm up,鈥 Clemens says. You don鈥檛 have to be prepared to haul right off the gun. 鈥淚t鈥檚 more important to be in a great mental state,鈥 Clemens says, 鈥渢han to stick to some routine, just because.鈥
Stay Happy
In Spitz鈥檚 study, runners were exposed to 41-degree temperatures between their warm up and run. Spitz believes the performance loss in runners who waited 30-minutes to race wasn鈥檛 entirely due to cooled muscles. 鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 feel good,鈥 Spitz says. Performance is 鈥渁lso about how you feel at the start of the race.鈥
The bottom line: It鈥檚 best to move your warm up as close to the race start as possible. If marathon logistics make it difficult to finish warming up within five minutes of your race, you can warm up earlier, but be sure to dress in layers to help keep your muscles warm. Or do a simple warm up of air squats and/or pushups while you鈥檙e hanging out in the start corral, and use the first few miles of your marathon to get fully primed to go. Good luck!