How to Warm Up for a Marathon

Audio Transcript

Coach Hayley: Hey everyone. I am your community manager here at Runners Connect. I will be here with your daily podcast this week.

I hope you are all having great day and thanks for tuning into the show. We’d love to help you improve as runners. If you have a question do not hesitate, send it in. You can submit your question at runnersconnect.net/daily.

Today’s question is from George

George: What are your thoughts on warming up for a marathon? My thought used to be save energy for the race, but now I’m leaning towards maybe a one to two mile warm up,at least. Any good routines I can do maybe warm up dynamic drills?

Hayley: Hey George. That’s a great question. Most of us know just how important a warm up is. It’s well proven that doing a warm up boosts performance, increases core body temperature which increases the rate of oxygen to delivery to the muscles, loses up the legs, and primes them for running. This can have a huge effect on the shorter races.

Over the longer marathon distance there’s an additional consideration. Doing a long warm up can use that precious fuel stores that you need later on in the race.

This isn’t a problem for shorter races as you’ve plenty of glycogen stored up to get you through. Conserving this energy is a vital part of marathon running.

You need to get the balance right from getting your body raised to run to conserving most energy supplies.

To get yourself to the start line both mentally and physically ready to run without unnecessary fuel depletion, you need to begin your marathon warm up as soon as you wake up.

That removes the need to do a long warm up just prior to the race when you should be conserving your energy.

I’d recommend getting up at least two and a half hours before your race. I like to get up three to four hours before.

Less sleep the night before the race won’t hurt your performance but there are several benefits to getting up several hours pre-race.

After waking up, it can take a while for all your body systems to be functioning optimally. You also need that extra time to make sure you correctly fuel up whilst avoiding digestive issues during the race.

After you’ve woken up, the next step is something that pretty much all elites do and it can help you too.

Put on that running gear and your running shoes and go for something that saves shuffle not speed e.g. long trousers, heavy trainers, etc. and go for a short shake out jog or a walk.

The shake out run is something I try and do for every race.

It’s amazing how it helps calm the nerves, get the blood flowing, wake up the mind, and even stimulate digestion a little so you can go to the bathroom before your race.

The jog needs to be easy enough that it doesn’t tap into your glycogen stores at all and you have plenty of time to get that fuel back into your body afterwards. It needs to be good a few hours before the race.

The pace is one that doesn’t require you to put in any effort at all. A brisk walk it’s fine if that’s what feels easy and comfortable. This just starts to get blood and oxygen flowing to the muscles.

Cap it around 10 minutes, include some light stretching, and then go and get a pre-race meal on board.

After you’ve performed all your usual pre-race routine, getting to the start line early, getting your kit on, visiting the bathroom, you get the actual pre-race part of the warm up.

In many cases, keeping warm is a huge part of this as you might be required to go to the start line way before the actual start time and not be able to take much in the way of extra clothes.

That can make any warming up that you’ve done useless anyway if you allow yourself to cool down too much.

I recommend bringing with you some old clothes that you don’t mind discarding when the race starts. An old race shirt or something you’ve had for years and are ready to throw out is perfect.

I’ve even seen runners heading to the start line wearing open line on rainy days. Keeping warm like this will stop you spending too much energy trying to do so.

Now for that actual pre-race jog, I generally don’t recommend jogging for more than a mile. I usually do just five minutes a very slow jogging to keep warm before a marathon just to get things moving a little bit whilst not using up any glycogen.

You may even be limited in the space you have to do this in your warm up area. That’s why the shake out jog in the morning is important. It reduces the amount you need to do now.

In the marathon, you want to start of the first few miles a little slower than your goal race pace anyway. This acts as part of the warm up. Not doing too much jogging is really what I recommend.

I find out that keeping my jog to just five minutes prevents me from starting off too quickly and though I feel worse at the first mile or two, I’d then start to feel great.

You also mentioned dynamic stretching, and this is important and is great as it can be done with small space if necessary.

It primes the legs, keep you warm, and make faint cramping later in the race. This dynamic stretching can be any exercises that you like e.g. leg swings, skipping drills, high knees, and lunges. Don’t do anything that you haven’t done in training.

You want to practice this pre-race dynamic stretching routine before your hard sessions so that you know how your body responds.

Don’t make this pre-race stretching too vigorous either. You’re gently preparing your body in getting loose. You don’t want to risk a pulled hamstring on the start line.

A couple of sets of lunges, a couple of steps high knees, and some swings maybe plenty for you. That honestly all I do.

Hopefully that’s given you some ideas on how you can warm up for longer races. Honestly, it’s worst to warm up too much before the marathon than it is to do too little.

Most elites I know don’t do more than five to ten minutes jogging, so you are being good company with a short compact warm up.

Thanks for asking that question George the pre-race preparation is a crucial part of running a great marathon. Best of luck for your next one.

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