“Am I going to waste my race in the warm-up?” That's the question I got the first time I asked my cross country team to run a fast stride right before the gun went off. It made sense as a worry. Conventional wisdom says keep your warm-up easy, save your legs, don't burn a match you'll need later. So a new study caught my attention, because it tested that assumption directly, and the answer surprised a lot of people who believe in the "stay easy" approach.
ARTICLE BELOW:
The Research
Thirteen trained male runners ran two separate 5K time trials on different days, each preceded by a different warm-up. One warm-up stayed easy the whole way through. The other included three short reps at a hard effort, run at the pace from a 12-minute all-out fitness test called the Cooper test (close to Vo2 Max effort). Worth knowing, that pace is actually faster than 5K race pace for most runners, closer to a hard 3K effort. So this wasn't rehearsing race pace, it was a short, sharp reminder to the system that fast running was coming
What They Found
The research suggests these are the key takeaways
Runners were faster after the high-intensity warm-up, finishing about 6 seconds quicker on average in the 5K
That might sound small, but it was a real, statistically meaningful difference, and what counts as meaningful depends entirely on the individual runner and what they're chasing
10 of the 13 runners individually ran faster after the harder warm-up
The benefit showed up specifically in the first part of the race, runners came out faster, then settled into similar pacing the rest of the way
Even though the hard warm-up raised effort and lactate right afterward, that didn't carry into the race itself feeling any harder
🟡 A small study, and it only included men, which the researchers themselves would likely want to see addressed with a larger, more diverse sample. But it's a well-designed comparison, and it lines up with something I've coached for years.
What This Means For You
I've been doing versions of this with my athletes for a long time, so it's genuinely interesting to see research back it up directly.
One way I use this is before fast track workouts. We'll finish the normal warm-up, then add a couple of primer reps, something like 2x200s at close to mile effort, or a 400m to 600m rep at 5K to 3K effort, before moving into the actual workout. It's the same idea as what the study tested, a short taste of real speed before the main event.
The other way, is before cross country races. After the jog, drills, and strides, we always add one longer stride, somewhere around 200 to 300 meters, right at or a little faster than 5K race pace. Athletes do this out on the grass while they're waiting for the start.
The first time we tried it, I got that same nervous question. Am I going to waste my race? But the feedback since has been consistent. Athletes tell me they feel more primed, more ready, like they've got a little more pop in their legs once the gun goes off. Nobody describes feeling stale.
Here's the part I think matters most, and it goes beyond what the study measured. When a race starts and the effort suddenly feels much harder than expected, that shock can spiral. Runners start thinking it shouldn't hurt this bad this early, and that doubt creeps in before the race has really begun. A primer effort closes that gap. Athletes settle into race pace faster, physically and mentally, instead of getting ambushed by how hard the opening feels.
🏆 How To Apply It
Before a hard workout, add one or two short primer reps at faster than your workout pace right after your warm-up, something like 200m at mile effort or a 400 at 5K effort works well
Before a 5K race, add a single stride of 200 to 300 meters at or slightly faster than goal race pace, then allow time to walk it off before the start
Don't confuse this with rehearsing race pace itself, the point is a short, faster-than-race-effort reminder to the system, not a pace run
Give yourself enough recovery between the primer and the real effort so you're not carrying fatigue into the start
This is worth trying before your next 5K specifically, that's the distance the research actually tested
Your warm-up isn't just about loosening up. Done right, it's part of how you execute the race you actually want to run.
Hit reply and tell me, have you ever tried a hard effort before a race, or does the idea make you nervous like it did my athletes at first?
-Keep running happy, healthy, and strong
Spencer
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