Triathlon is hot. In the past five years, participation in the sport of swimming-biking-running has tripled in the UK. It's estimated that nearly 100,000 people in this country will race the triple this year. Who are all these multi-taskers, and why

efficiently - improving your times by 20 to 25 per cent," says Taylor. "Once mastered you'll never go back. Practise on a turbo trainer or leaning against a wall, then move on to cycling with one foot clipped in and building up speed before clipping the other

the equivalent of eight large glasses of water every day, and probably twice that in warm weather. It also means taking in about half a pint of fluid every 15-20 minutes of running. For runs of an hour or more, you also need to replenish spent energy stores

:48 and on that day I passed through the half at 1:47 and 25km at 2:09, which was also a PB. I think it works better for longer distances - I've done sub four minutes for 1K and 23 mins for 5K but never dipped under 48 for 10K. I can run fast for short distances

with 10 minutes of very easy running and walking. Stretch gently for a few minutes and mix in four or five 100m strides (at 90 per cent of maximum speed) to get you ready for the upcoming effort. To keep your heart rate up, move around or jog on the spot

can see which non-running factors may have contributed to it. Learn to breathe. Most runners follow a 2-2 breathing pattern: two steps while breathing in, two steps while breathing out, which means you always begin the breathing cycle on the same foot