Did you know that just in our two feet we have 38 muscles and tendons, 214 ligaments, 52 bones, and all wrapped up in this amazing stuff called facia?

We are so fantastically well put together a machine that is designed to do things in a certain way, to optimise its natural gifts. So when searching for ‘the secret to performance running’ we find it in the phenomena known as…

Do you like being injured? Do you look after the little things as well as you could? Massage, nutrition, sleep, relaxation, balanced lifestyle, etc?

One of the key areas outside of training & sleeping to enhance performance for me is something called ‘Pre-Hab’.

What is Pre-Hab?

Pre-Hab (Pre Habilitation or doing things to prevent injury) is often low down the list of priorities for most people trying to balance training with the rest of their lives.

This is normal; we have jobs, families, and lives and are simultaneously trying to get better at three disciplines (and transitions). However, as a coach one of the most difficult scenarios I come across is the athlete struggling mentally due to long-term and sometimes short-term injuries.

The third in our series of “Done in an hour” articles are looking to give you three run sessions specifically targeting skills and technique, technique and aerobic capacity, and finally lactate tolerance and strength.

Running is by far the predominant area in which triathletes pick up most of their injuries and this can be caused by poor technique, over-training (as it is the only weight-bearing discipline), or conducting brick-type sessions thus running tired off the bike (again poor technique/ poor economy of motion).

Done in an hour: Bike You know, and I know, there is no substitute for putting in the miles when it comes to cycling, the more revolutions done in training the easier the racing!

However, some of us work upwards of 40 hours per week and therefore can’t afford to just jump on our bikes and do 3 – 5 hour rides three or four days a week. So, what sessions are going to benefit you the most given our intention that you can get to your bike/gym and be done and dusted in under an hour?

There are three areas we are going to look at:

1. Technique

2. Force

3. Sustained power

Done in an Hour: Swim This is the start of a series that is intended for all of us who are constrained in the amount of time that we can devote to our training. The series title, "Done in an Hour…" formed the basis of the brief -- come up with a selection of workouts for the swim, bike and run that can be done in an hour, the sort of time we can squeeze in before work, as a long lunch or after work but before we have to deal with all the family stuff.

In this first of three articles, I look at three swim sessions that are designed to improve your technique, your race preparation, and your open-water swimming. All of these can be fitted into that magic hour as long as you focus on the task at hand.