Training for the Triathlon Run

"OK and now we're going to talk about the run. Especially for a hard workout on the run, the best way to warm up is to do some form sets. And basic thing to start with is a low skip. After the low skip, move into a high knee drill, also call that an A-form. From the A-form, you can move into what we call a B-form, emphasizing the extension and touching down the front part of the foot. The basic idea with all these drills, one, you're moving and so you're blood's flowing so it's serving as a warm up. You're using body weight to extend out and so you're getting a stretching effect, and you're also emphasizing tiny little parts of the stride. And so you get that neuromuscular training effect where you're teaching your brain those positive little parts of it. So you're breaking the stride down into each individual little part like getting your knees up, and getting your foot out, those kinds of things. Then from the B-form we move into a C-form and the C-form is what we call butt-kickers. The emphasis here being to bring the heel up. When I first starting running, when most people started running, and maybe it's because I was a bike racer first, but there's a tendency to pound and just drive the foot down. It is the exact opposite that you want to do. You want to touch the foot down soft and then really kick those heels up and emphasize the push off. And that's what the butt-kicker helps to do. Another form we can do that improves neuromuscular coordination and it loosens up the hips, your hips are your primate movers for any activity, is the, we call it tapioca. And another drill you can do, you want to do in both directions because you?re emphasizing this lift of the leg, which crosses over and loosens up the hip, you need to go in both directions, we call the carioca. You want to do that both ways, give the hip the opposite side."