Matt Wilpers has been a coach and judge for The Decathlon for four years. He is a former NCAA Division I cross country/track distance runner and now is a full-time coach and creator of the training app CoachCasts.

I cannot stress how important a good thorough warm-up is to your performance in The Decathlon. The point of a warm-up is to prepare the mind and body for the task ahead. A good warm-up will elevate your muscle temperature and heart rate, stimulate the nervous system, and open the pathways that deliver oxygen to your muscles. Remember that a good warm-up is something that you should develop and practice during your training so that it is routine by competition day.

Here's what I give my athletes to help guide their pre-race routine:

1) Warm-Up Run for 10-15 minutes. You want to be sweating at the end and you do not want to skip this.

2) Dynamic stretches for legs and upper body. Make sure to dynamically stretch the primary movers at minimum (ie hamstrings, quads, calves, and glutes).

3) Running Drills - High knees, butt kicks, and skips.

4) Striders/Accelerations - 15-30 second accelerations up to about 90% of max effort with 30 seconds to one minute for recovery.

Now stretch your head - prepare yourself mentally. Just because your body is warm does not mean your mind is ready for the challenge ahead. For one to five full minutes prior to your workout or competition try these three visualization techniques.

1) Think through the race or athletic event where something did not go to plan and recall exactly what you did to fix it, considering every single step you took. Having fixed it, realize that success is now the only option.

2) Think through good race or athletic performances that you have had in the past. Focus on reinforcing what you did well and revisit it step-by-step.

3) Relive the hard work you have put into your training and let that fuel your confidence going into The Decathlon. Think through the progress you have made training session by training session. You are ready.

If you have any questions for Matt you can reach out to him by email mattwilpers@coachcasts.com.