Everyone competing in triathlon has taken a different path to this sport. Whether you were a competitive swimmer, a professional cyclist, a gifted runner or a couch potato, the goal remains the same: to get faster. In many ways the run is the most effective area for improving your times: concentrating on achieving a quick 10km time will pay big dividends at the end of triathlons. Your quest for better foot speed off the bike begins with a stop in the efficiency department.

1. Run mid-foot The old "heel-to-toe" adage is fine is for joggers, but if you're after a PR, try to strike the ground just behind the ball of your foot and roll forward onto the ball. Changing your foot-strike will make you much more efficient, and faster, than if you run with a heavy heel strike.

2. Stride it out The distance from the front of the left footprint to the front of the right footprint is your stride length. There are two common stride-length mistakes: overstriding, running with too long a stride with the foot strike too far in front of the body, and understriding, with a stride too short due to an insufficient knee lift, drive phase and heel lift.

Overstriding with a bouncy, floating stride gives you a cadence, or stride rate, that is too low. Understriding makes your cadence too high. Peak efficiency occurs between 170 and 190 steps per minute.

3. Carriage On relatively flat terrain, your upper body should have a slight forward lean of 7-9 percent and your hips should be forward. Your arms should be slightly flexed, horizontal to the ground surface and relaxed as they swing back and forth. Your arms should move slightly toward, but not across, the body's mid-line as they swing forward. Your shoulders and hands should remain relaxed, with hands lightly cupped. Drive with your arms only to generate power when you are sprinting or climbing.

PR 101

Focusing on these techniques during each run, you should put in regular structured miles. Commit to running at least three days a week -- four to six days a week if you are an experienced runner.

Build your endurance: The primary limiting factor for many athletes is a poorly developed aerobic system. Prolonged sub-maximal training will reduce the rate of lactic-acid formation and hasten its removal. Base training during the foundation phase (and subsequent phases) is the best way to improve your aerobic system. Short-course athletes should strive for a weekly long run of up to two hours at 20-40 beats below the anaerobic threshold.

Be steady: Once you've built a solid aerobic base, your fitness, and race times, may plateau. To jump to the next level of fitness you will need to begin increasing your intensity by including steady-state workouts. Steady-state running is a controlled, sub-anaerobic threshold effort, during which your heart rate elevates but you do not struggle to maintain pace.

For example, run 30-45 minutes off the bike with your heart rate 10-20 beats per minute below AT. You should be able to talk, but only in short sentences.

Beginners should add one of these workouts to their training schedules per week and gradually build their time at that intensity. Advanced runners can add one to two of these sessions into their training programs and should progress up to 60 minutes at steady state.

Get vertical: Intermediate and advanced athletes should schedule a weekly hill-training session to develop strength and endurance at higher efforts while bridging the gap between aerobic and anaerobic training.

Start by incorporating hills into your aerobic runs, but reduce your effort level when climbing so that your heart rate does not rise too much on the hills. Once your muscles have adapted to running on hillier terrain at lower intensities, begin to maintain or push your intensity on the hills. Finally, progress to hill repeats. This can be as simple as two to 10 times up a 50- to 100-meter hill at the end of your run, or hill intervals can be the focus of an entire workout.

Reach your threshold: Once you're comfortable with steady-state efforts you can incorporate lactic-threshold workouts to push your race pace. Your heart rate should reach 10 beats below to five beats above your LT during these runs, or five to 15 seconds per kilometer faster than your current open 10K race pace. For Olympic-distance triathlons, try a 10- to 15-minute warm-up run followed by 30 minutes at tempo pace, then a cool-down of at least 10 minutes. You can also break the LT effort down into two to four work intervals with a few minutes of easy jogging for recovery. Remember to structure your training week so you have plenty of time for recovery after these threshold sessions.

A little speed goes a long way: The next step is speed workouts, which build strength and power while increasing your efficiency and foot speed. Speed work usually consists intervals at efforts above lactic threshold. One longer example: 3 x 1 mile at slightly faster than tempo-run pace, with a rest interval of 30-50 percent of the work interval.

Shorter speed-work intervals involve very fast running over brief distances followed by long rest intervals. For example: 4-5 x 800m or 6-10 x 400m very fast, with each effort followed by two to three minutes of active recovery such as slow jogging, stretching or walking.

Such intervals can enhance the body's tolerance for hard work, with gradually increasing levels of lactic acid -- as in a race. But note that these interval workouts are particularly demanding and should be used sparingly ¾ no more than one speed session per week.

The bump and run: One of the best ways to learn to run faster off the bike is to practice it in training. Brick workouts, or stacking two training sessions back to back, are a great way to train your legs to run efficiently as they will help your muscles adapt to changing demands placed on them in a triathlon

Begin by doing an aerobic run following an aerobic bike ride every couple of weeks, but progress so that you are adding intensity to both the ride and run. You can play around with the distance and intensities, but beginning athletes should build to where they are doing steady-state brick sessions every seven to 10 days.

Experienced racers should progress so that they are doing tempo bricks and speed brick workouts that have several short intervals of hard cycling immediately followed by intervals of hard running.

These structured workouts will help you maximize your performance, but dedication and perseverance are key factors to success. You will not be running five minutes faster for a 10K next week, but if you incorporate these concepts into your training, you'll be on the road to a PR.

Beginner training plan

2-4 runs per week

Long run on Sunday. Build to 60 minutes

8 weeks of aerobic base building. Include runs off the bike after fourth week

4 weeks of aerobic and steady-state run training. Include runs off the bike

4 weeks of aerobic, steady state and threshold running. Include steady-state runs off the bike

Intermediate training plan

3-5 runs per week

Long run on Sunday. Build to 75 minuntes

6 weeks of aerobic running. Include runs off bike after fourth week

6 weeks of aerobic and steady-state. Include runs off bike; include hills

4 weeks of aerobic, steady-state and threshold. Include LT runs off the bike

Advanced training plan

4-7 runs per week

Long run on Sunday. Build to 90 minutes or more

6 weeks aerobic running. Include runs off bike after fourth week; can be hilly

6 weeks of aerobic, steady state, hills and threshold. Include runs off the bike

4 weeks of aerobic, steady state, threshold and speed. Include all types of runs off bike