Will a warm up routine get me over the '1st mile blues'??

katozdad

Hi everyone, I have a question for you all,

I love my ride to work and back, but in the morning, the first mile is really tough. I swear its because I do not have a warm up routine, but finding or developing one that will have me jumping into the saddle is a but beyond me.

Any suggestions??

rides4sanity

It takes me a mile or two to get warmed up, but I just allow myself an easy 2 miles before I push for pace. If I push too soon it just feels like ****, and I don't get to enjoy the ride as much. Good luck!

fatboypup

just hit that ish hard from the start .....

TDGee

I generally work on spinning up my cadence for the first few minutes; low gear, high rpms. MPH/KPH isn't an issue for the first mile or so. Just a warm up. It gets things warmed up and the muscles and joints lubricated. It also seems to be increasing my average cadence as well, which equals faster. Good luck!

IronmanPanda

I usually swim anywhere from 1/2 mile to 1.2 miles before and it serves pretty well for a warm up to my bike.

bethlikesbikes

You could try some dynamic stretching. Some light lunges/squats (w/ bodyweight), slowly swinging your leg in front and behind, side-to-side and in slow circles, rotating from the hip joint. These will warm up the major cycling muscles.

TDGee

I usually swim anywhere from 1/2 mile to 1.2 miles before and it serves pretty well for a warm up to my bike.

That's because you are a BEAST!

RedSunshine365

You could try some dynamic stretching. Some light lunges/squats (w/ bodyweight), slowly swinging your leg in front and behind, side-to-side and in slow circles, rotating from the hip joint. These will warm up the major cycling muscles.

Good tip Beth. I have a similar issue - big hills whichever way I head out of the driveway and I find they are really hard on cold muscles. I'm going to give this a try next time I head out.

g0tr00t

My first mile is on 3 lanes of traffic with NO bike lane. That's my warmup before I can get on the bike trail for about 1 mile. I usually hit it doing about 25mph+ because of the idiot drivers. Once I hit that bike trial though, I take it down to about 18-20mph for 5 miles.

I guess a warmup would be a good idea, but on the days I work from home, I bike ride to the gym and hit the 45 minute spin class pretty hard. I do 16miles in that class burning over 600 calories. So, my legs are pretty much always burning. The weekends I'll ride long distance or just play with my kids all day.

One thing I do recommend before/after riding is stretching. I have on of those foam rollers and roll out my legs too along with the regular stretching.

That first mile or two though never gets easier........

katozdad

Thank you. I have heard about these foam rollers before but never seen one before. Have you got a link by any chance please?

Best rgds,

Kato (Carl)

IronmanPanda

Thank you. I have heard about these foam rollers before but never seen one before. Have you got a link by any chance please?

Best rgds,

Kato (Carl)

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