Is There A Way To Warm Up Faster?

As I was running this morning, I started thinking about my strategy for my upcoming fall 10K race.

There is no doubt that sticking to my 5-day training schedule and incorporating regular intervals into my program has helped me improve my splits and overall times. However, I am going to have to maintain between a 9:00 - 9:15 average pace throughout this race (which includes hills) if I am going to meet my goal time..and I am a ways away from that.

When I got home I started analyzing my runs for the past 30 days on Garmin Connect and noticed that it consistently takes me about 1 - 2.5 miles of running before I really get into a decent pace and doing sub-9:00 splits. Then- its gravy all the way, but those first 10-15 minutes are really killing me overall. I have assumed that the fitter I get, the less time it is going to take me to go through this initial "warm up" period, but I am not really sure.

Looking for some answers, I did some searches on the Internet and came across this good post from Craig Llewellyn, a former personal coach:

"In my personal training days I'd always advise a 5-10 minute warm-up. It warms muscles, lifts body temperature and prepares the body for increased blood flow and oxygen use. It takes about 20 minutes for your body to regulate its fuel type and settle into a routine of clearing away lactic acid, using oxygen, replenishing energy stores etc. If you don't warm-up prior to a race or training session, you have to do it during the session, and this can have a major impact on your time. People say they want to conserve energy before a race, but I read somewhere that the body (liver) stores up to about 2,000 calories in glycogen. At marathon pace consumption you'd hit the wall at 20 miles, but if you're doing, say, a 10K at 7-min miles there's plenty in the tank for a gentle warm-up provided you're used to the mileage."

 I also found this:

 "Before the Thanet 10-miler recently, I'd never warmed up before a race. I'd focus on conserving as much energy as possible. But I arrived late and had to jog five minutes to the start, then set off about 30 seconds later – and it made a huge positive difference to my nerves, initial pacing, heart rate and also energy levels. I'm now a convert to the pre-race warm up."

So it sounds like the point is that warm-up time remains fairly consistent - that the variance is really in your own personal physical needs and that a bit of experimentation is required to figure out what works best.

My fall race starts pretty close to my house, so it is conceivable that I could do an easy jog to the start, and if timed properly, this could get me where I need to be when the starting gun goes off.

 Does anyone have any experience with this? Do you warm up before a race and/or have you noticed any difference in your splits having done so, as opposed to not warming up at all? 

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