With the increasing popularity of the Pose method of running, I have noticed a number of athletes that believe that allowing the heel to touch the ground is "wrong". As a result, they tend to run toe down all the time. As an endurance athlete aim for the following:

Run tall -- Good alignment of body (shoulders, hips, ankles)
Quick, light cadence -- Turning over at 85-90 cycles per minute when running at AeT Relaxed face, neck and shoulders Footstrike at base of stance line

If you do the above then it is near impossible to be a heel striker. Given the pace and build of most AGers, trying to run with your heel constantly off the ground may reduce your economy. Focus on the above points. Once you have them well established, then you can work on increasing your body lean and you'll feel yourself come forward on your feet.

Reminder of arm carriage tip -- rotate wrists slightly outwards to externally rotate shoulders, open lungs and ensure that arms don't swing across the body.

Nutrition and running -- if you in the bottom 50% of AG run splits then your key run limiter is likely the quality of your nutrition.

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Swimming

Having watching a range of tri-swimmers at the Ultrafit Camp in St. George, Utah, I've 'hardened' my position on paddles. Until you are a 65 minute IM swimmer or faster then you are best swimming without paddles. The clearest indication of this was watching the video analysis of the athletes -- only the athletes that were 65 or faster had a stroke that should be reinforced with increased intensity. Even these athletes may find that they don't have enough strength in their deltoids and shoulder rotators to swim perfect technique when wearing paddles.

For those who have solid balance and alignment, the next step is to ensure that you are doing swim cords (or Vasa) each week. All it takes is 3x10 minutes for you to notice material gains. I recommend that you place a mirror in the front (or side) so that you can ensure that you are doing the technique properly. A reminder:

Step One: The catch -- forearm and hand move as one unit, no bend in the wrist, no backward movement of the elbow
Step Two: The pull -- pull straight back, palm faces back through the stroke, wrist never "falls behind" elbow, push straight through

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Cycling

Those of you who use powercranks (or ride a lot on the trainer) should place a mirror in front of you when training. You want to make sure that you don't kick your knees out at the top of the stroke. See if you can maintain vertical alignment of your knees.

For all of us, the critical component of fitness that we need for IronSpeed is the ability to ride 112 miles at aerobic threshold. There was a post on my board the other day that reminded me that there is a big difference between rides with stops and continuous, even paced, aerobic riding. As we move closer to our A races, we will want to ride without stopping. For now, our main goal is simply to increase our bike volume. Once we have the miles in our legs, we will start to focus on IM specific bike training.

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Nutrition

Eliminate as many processed foods as possible. What's processed food? Anything with a label.

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