Warm Up: More, Or Less?

I've suggested a warm up formula of 2.5f +1f+1.5f with gradual acceleration through the heats to finishing at :13sec/f rate. Where does this come from?

In the warm up--to achieve max performance out of the gate--we're trying to get to a certain point physiologically. This means

engage the energy producing mechanisms at the cellular level:
ATP, glycolisis, O2 conversion
engage nitrous oxide mechanisms and blood vessel dilation
increase temperature
increase heart rate
alert nervous system
gird for impending force at the cellular level
mentally--produce a little confidence--how are my legs today?

and probably 20 other things I'm omitting at the moment.

To get to the "correct point" for max performance is thus other than a formula or schematic. View this warm up process instead as an end point to be reached physiologically that might really be attainable in any of number of ways, leave it to one's imagination.

There are some things, however, that we need to observe in warming up to get to "that point".
And in this sense there really are two considerations:
1. We have to get there, and
2. We want to avoid going beyond.

"Getting there" means engaging everything for max performance. "Going beyond" means we've reached the point but are still continuing to use up energy in the warm up. Thus, getting to the point of max performance is a very fine line that we would prefer in the warm up to reach instead of cross. Why?

Obviously any physical effort including the warm up requires expenditure of energy. Hopefully we've fed and conditioned our horse pre-race so that it enters the track with the mitochondria of the muscle cells packed with glycogen, and that additional glycogen stores floating in the blood stream and stored in the liver wait to be used for the anaerobic energy process to come. Needless to say, in the warm up we want to use up as little glycogen as possible.

Thus, when we consider a warm up formula we're trying to come up with something that both warms up the horse and stops before we use up unnecessary energy. In terms of the "more or less" title of this post then we want to avoid both doing too much and too little. Within that basic definition we can come up with whatever warm up formula that works.

TRAINING ERROR
I've learned over the years that you never never make training decisions on the fly. Conditions at times dictate on the spot improvisation. However, to reconsider things while you're out there saddling a horse that you've already resolved inevitably leads to costly error either in terms of injury or delay.

Such were things Monday night on Labor Day when a shoeing took longer than expected and we walked out of the barn at 7:15 p.m. with 4 horses to gallop and 30 minutes of daylight left. Stupid to be in that position--what excuse to fail to start earlier besides sloth and lack of discipline--but, what now. The RR mind is spinning and in retrospect in total brain freeze.

To illustrate--Groovin' Wind's planned scheduled had been:
Sat: 1 mile breeze
Sun: off
Mon: 1 1/4 mile easy gallop
Tues. 1 mile breeze at Eureka or on farm.

And here is what RR came up with given lack of daylight: all horses are exercised riderless fast, we'll rest Tues. and breeze Wed. Brilliant plan, not! For numerous reasons that became clear to me even as the whim of the moment was being carried out. First, after a mile breeze Sat. it's awfully hard without producing injury to get away with speed work 48 hrs. later. Ridiculous. My thoughts were that it was riderless and the Wind would easily do the riderless work. As it turned out we had warm shins after he finished--cooled down this morning--but there was risk!

Moreover this riderless exercise completely threw off the schedule. Now instead of breezing Tuesday we have to rest, and when we commence Wed. the last tack work out will have been four days ago. Can one day of screw up really produce all this commotion and upset? Yes it can. Hopefully the horse in his shins will be ok. How I'll get out of the mess created by last night's training mistake I'm still considering.

All horses last night galloped fast riderless at about :14s for 2 miles with some much faster spurts.