Fit, Fat (sort of), and Over 40 Group FULL (Page 2)

Felice

(fixed spelling)

I'll update my log to.  I have kept it on my paper calendar but have been behind with entering it online.  I'm also interested to see my elavation changes for the 10k walk I did on Saturday.

Gotta go an get some biking in now (in the rain) I spend SEVEN HOURS today trying to register for the Danskin SheROX Seattle Tri (Aug 16th) and finally made it in.

Which leads me to the question: How far apart should I space events?  I've only done one Tri before and that was in September.  Now I'm on deck for an Aug 16th and Sept 20th event.

my first tri is in 20 weeks and i've planned my training around the Michael Pates Total Sprint with a few modifications - hoping you guys can give me some thoughts on it -

the training time available to me consists of MWF from 8:30 to 11:30 while my daughter is in pre-K plus one swim session on the weekends.  (last week i swam 700 yds in 30 minutes)

in theory it seems simple enough, that I could just stack a bike and a run together every training day and do only one of the two swim sessions.  i've tried to make sure I don't have a long run and a long bike on the same day.  also, i can often but not always manage an additional 30 ride on T and TH. 

i have been doing weights since last october, and i know they have helped me immensely - and don't want to give them up -  legs/chest/bis/shoulders/back/tris/abs.

Q1.  Is there any reason I should not do a bike/run brick every time I train (MWF)?

Q2.  As my biking distance increases per the MPTS plan, is there more additional benefit to riding the extra 30 minutes on Tuesday and Thursday if that's all I can work in or would I be better off to give my legs the day to recover from the MWF workouts?

Q3.  I'd like to continue doing the weights, but i didnt' know if trying to do 2 of the 6 areas each session would work, or if that would be too too much, or if I should stick to weights just 2 days per week - and if not, would I do them before or after the bike/run brick?  Is this just totally unrealistic? would I need to scale back on the number of repetitions or the amount of weight?

Q4.  The running concerns me a lot.  I have generally bad knees, last fall had terrible plantar fasciitis (which is what put me on this whole physical therapy-weight training-going to the gym-tackling the triathlon kick), and I have not run since the 5th grade.  I'm 40.  I'm just starting the walk-to-run transition and I'm not even sure on the treadmill how fast I should be walking and how fast I should run during the walk28/run2 or walk26 run4 weeks.  I have the treadmill on a 2% incline.   My feet seem to slap more on the treadmill than is normal. I don't have a clue biomechanically what to do when I run.  My PT suggested I look into chi running.  The people at my gym tell me just to go ahead and do what's natural and it will feel more normal in a few weeks.  Are they right?

 So that's my first round of questions

Thanks for the help   I've been doing the bike 30 min/walk-run 30 min on MWF for a few weeks now, but I was wondering as far as physiological improvement, whether it was bad to always do them together or not. 

I've been shopping for a bike this week and I had to laugh - the dealer was explaining that the main difference between a particular $900 bike and a $1200 bike was about 8 oz.  I mean, I know for the speedy people that 8 oz could be a make it or break it number - but I've been biking on an old cheap (read: heavy) slightly rusty mountain bike that is a little bit too small, towing a trailer bike that converts us into a tandem bke, carrying my 40 lb 5-year old daughter and our full water bottles and her snacks, and now she wants a basket for the front of her bike so  she can bring along some stuffed animals.  Plus I'm an athena.  So I had a hard time listening to the 8 oz discussion with the requisite gravitas, but I tried. 

I've been looking for a used road bike on craigslist, but most of the bikes for sale are mtn bikes, so i think i'll most likely end up going with a new cheaper bike, unless I luck into one. I'm going to advertise in the locals gyms too, thought maybe someone there might be upgrading and have an old one they want to sell.

  The best thing I've done for myself for training was to let my daughter know what my training schedule is.  It's posted in her room.  At night I check her chores and give her a sticker and her allowance and she checks my exercise plan and gives me a sticker and tells me she's proud of me.  So knowing that she is watching has made me go to the gym on a few days when I would have slacked.