Is warming-up severely over-rated?

I only ask because tonight I raced straight off the sofa -- and didn't do too badly.

Over the last few days I've been engaged in an ongoing "workshop" about the mental/emotional and yes spiritual blocks to running fast -- the head stuff. It's challenging, exhausting work digging out the roots of my current "fear of discomfort". Yesterday's one-on-one session with coach Bobby McGee was a corker. And my wife Abby gets to run the follow-up. Heh heh. Good job she is a therapist, what?

So after early-morning drills and an deliberately easy afternoon Pilates designed by teacher Richard Rossiter as "race preparation"... I slept for 12 HOURS. Woke up and was still tired. Afternoon coffee didn't quite work. At 5pm I was asleep on the sofa again. At 5.30 Abby rang and woke me up. "What time are you racing?" About 7pm, I think, I said, wandering sleepily over to the computer... got on the Boulder road Runners' site to check the schedule for tonight's all-comers track meet at Potts Field. Hmm, let's see... mile or 1500m - starts 6.20pm. Ah. Quick change and jump in the car...

To cut to the chase, I found myself wandering languidly across the infield to a bunch of runners gathered at the 1500m mark. Marci and Bobby gave me odd looks. "Are you running the 1500?" they asked, with a glance at the starter. Well, I might as well, I said, seeing as I'm here. Funny, I was completely relaxed, as if I had taken a sleeping pill, I guess. I strolled over the the starter. "Mind if I jump in this one? I haven't entered yet, I only just got here?" Sure, she says, offering me a choice of faster or slower heats. "The fast one is starting now, so get your sweats off and get on the line".

And so I did. My warm up was a ten-metre jog and some hops and jumps in place. Then we were off. I was determined just to get in there and allow the discomfort, not run away from it. The first lap was good and brisk (80 seconds I found out later)...but then I had to catch my breath -- it was, in effect, my warm-up -- I had tucked in behind a fast-looking woman runner, but into the wind down the back straight couldn't resists taking the lead. Second lap 87 seconds and I was being chased by a heavy-breathing man and the woman making a comeback. Through the second and third lap I just focused on making them run the long way round the bends as they tried to pass. They fell back and I kicked the last 300m in 60 seconds -- for a last lap at the same pace as my first; shame about the slight slump in the middle :)

But... finishing time 5:12. Equivalent of a 5:32 mile. Which is kind of where I thought I would be on a "normal" day, arriving in good time to do a full warm-up and get fully hydrated with enough cups of tea to sink a battleship. Bobby and Marci didn't seem too excited with it, but I am.

After all, if I can do 5:32 pace in my sleep.....