You may be thinking about your first ultra endurance event*, ironman triathlon, adventure race, Etape du tour or ultra marathon. Amazing, that just off the top of my head I came up with quite a solid list of events, which are designed to test the limits of human endurance! What’s even more amazing is that these events are not just completed by superhuman elites, they are completed by you and your buddy in the office working 40–50 hrs a week and hey, no afternoon snoozing! That’s superhuman. [*Ultra endurance is determined as an event lasting longer than four hours.]

Many performances are already lost in the days or weeks leading into the event as the person/ performer succumbs to negative thoughts or feelings.  As a response, we release too many of the key stress hormones (adrenaline & cortisol) from our natural fight, flight or freeze response, thus leaving the body in a sub-optimal condition to perform (a little is good, a lot is not!).

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).