From the RunCoached guide
How to get ready for a hard run, and what stretching and rolling do.
Before a hard run, jog easy for about 10 min, or 10–15 min before a threshold test. Coach plans this time into the run.
Finish with about 5 min of drills: leg swings, walking lunges, high knees, butt kicks and skips. Then run 4 strides: 15–20 s quick but relaxed, with an easy walk or jog back. Start the hard part a few minutes later.
A warm-up like this may help you start the first rep in control. In races and time trials, it made trained runners slightly faster. It doesn't prevent injury. Strength training does more for that.
Short stretches, up to a minute for each muscle, won't slow you down. They don't make you faster either.
A minute or two of rolling may make your legs feel looser. Coach doesn't plan it.
Easy and long runs don't need one. Their first few minutes are the warm-up.
Race day has its own warm-up, set by the race distance. It is in Race pacing.
On the day of a hard run or a threshold test, until you run it. Turn this off in Settings if you have your own routine.
The drills and strides come from small trials in runners. The minutes and the number of strides are app choices.
Meta-analysis of 32 studies
Warming up improved performance in 79% of the outcomes measured. There was little evidence that it harms performance.
Few of the studies were randomized controlled trials, and most tested short, intense tasks, not distance running.
2 crossover trials; 11 trained 800 m runners and 13 trained distance runners
A few efforts at race pace after the easy jog made the 800 m about 1% faster and the 5000 m about 6 s faster than an easier warm-up.
Both trials were small, in trained runners, and tested races, not training runs. A study in 8 recreational runners found no gain.
2 crossover trials; 8 and 12 recreational runners
After a short easy run, dynamic stretching improved running economy. In the larger trial, it also let runners run longer at a hard pace than static stretching or no stretching.
Both trials were small, and the runners were recreational. They tested one warm-up, not training over weeks.
Meta-analysis of 15 studies, 181 people; scoping review
No type of stretching changed running economy right after. Static holds up to 60 s per muscle did not harm performance; longer holds can cost a little.
The certainty is low, and only 2 studies looked at stretching over weeks.
Meta-analysis of 14 studies; crossover trial in 16 trained distance runners
Rolling before exercise improved flexibility by about 4% and sprint by about 0.7%, with no loss of performance. In trained runners, running economy at 5K pace was better after rolling.
The gains are small, and only one small trial tested runners.
Meta-analysis of 9 randomized trials; 1,904 endurance runners
Exercise programs to prevent injury did not lower injury risk in runners overall. Supervised programs did better.
7 of the 9 trials were low quality. The programs were mostly strength and balance work, not a warm-up before each run.
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