Does This Training Schedule Make Me Look Fat?

I'm re-looking at the Hal Higdon 8-week spring tri training schedule and I'm a little concerned about it preparing me for a sprint tri. It seems to be heavy on the running side of things. It has me running four times a week while I'm only biking or swimming once or twice a week.

http://halhigdon.staging.racersites.com/training/51327/Triathlon-Training-Triathlon-2

Does anyone have any suggestions? I was thinking if anything I should be running less than I'm biking or swimming. Am I way off base here? Thoughts from the peanut gallery? Any other good plans you know of?

LET'S DO THIS! LEEEEERRRRROOYYYYY... JEEEEENNNKINNNNNS

I did it. I signed up for a triathlon. So I'm committed to doing this or losing money out of it; so barring no injury I'll be (fingers crossed) completing my first triathlon at the end of July this year. My concern is that I'll end up being doing something like this:

I'm hoping that by biting the bullet and signing up (and paying) for the race I will not be tempted to slack off or train sporadically, and that I will complete my first triathlon twenty years after I first wanted to do one. =)

I signed up for a different tri than the one I originally planned:

http://www.dallasathletesracing.com/races/twu-sprint-tri/

This one has a pool swim instead of a lake swim that's also a shorter distance (300 meters vs. 500 yards), and a slightly shorter bike as well, 16.1 miles instead of 17.6 (for those who speak metric the bike ride is approximately 2.5 kilometers shorter in this race). The race is also two weeks later, which, given my schedule, makes me feel a little more comfortable preparing for it. =)

http://halhigdon.staging.racersites.com/training/51327/Triathlon-Training-Triathlon-2

I have eight weeks from now to train. My plan is to do a hybrid of Hal Higdon's Sprint Triathlon and "The Idiots Guide to Triathlon Training". Slight concern, I still won't be home for two of the six weeks of training, so I'm going to have to improvise those weeks; which occur during week 1 and 3 of my training, eek, but better than week 6 and 8 I guess.

LET'S DO THIS! LEEEEERRRRROOYYYYY... JEEEEENNNKINNNNNS!

"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Triathlon Training"

I'm in Week 2 of the training program in this book for a Sprint Triathlon program. I have not signed up for a triathlon yet. My friend is trying to get me to sign up for one in mid-July, but I'm a tad concerned I may not be ready for the bike portion by that time so I told her to let me start training for a few weeks and I'll see how I feel. There are a couple more triathlons in our city in August and September, and I may feel more comfortable doing one of those.

Here's the link to the triathlon if anyone's interested:

http://www.dallasathletesracing.com/races/disco/sprint/

I do like the distance for the swim and run, 500 yard (457.2 m) swim and 3.1 mile (5 km) run, but it's the 17.6 mile (28.3 km) bike ride that concerns me.

The training program is 12 weeks long, I have room in my schedule to repeat a couple of weeks and to miss a couple of days here and there. I know there will be two weeks between now and then where it will be difficult for me to work out, and if I do get the chance to workout, I may only be able to run during that time.

It looks fun, and I'm sure I can do the swim and run without killing myself (or anyone else), but I'm lacking in bike confidence. Even if I get to the point where I feel comfortable I can complete the distance, I'm concerned about being in a bike race when I've never done one before.

If anyone has any suggestions, comments, advice, feedback, I'd love to hear them. I need some help getting over my mental block about biking. Thanks! =)

2012, Another Year, Same Goal

Unfortunately I did not make my goal of doing my first triathlon in 2011. On the plus side, it is still a goal of mine. I am going to keep working on losing weight, eating better, and if I get myself healthy enough I can start training.

I have two accountability people for the next 4-6 months. Our weigh-in days are Friday, and with one we also have a work-out goal for every week. Unfortunately I already told her I won't make our work-out goal this week b/c I'm sick, so my short-term goal is to rest, drink lots of liquids, and get better soon so I can start working out again next week.

I made a daily weigh-in chart and posted in on my mirror. My goal for the next 5 1/2 weeks is to lose one pound every three days. Before everyone tells me that's too much, just know that comes out to 2 1/3 lbs every week. My goal here is to get into my red dress for a function in Feb. Even if I don't get into that dress, I'd like to at least fit in one of my other dresses better. Oddly enough the problem isn't my hips like it usually is, its my waistline, so I'm going to have to do cardio and core/weight training (I have a bad habit of skimping on my core and weight training even when I do get into a good workout routine). If I could keep up the pace of losing a pound every three days I could reach my goal in four months, but life usually doesn't work like that, so I'm glad I have almost six months to do this.

Luckily my husband also wants to work out more this year so I hope we can encourage each other without crossing over to nagging each other about staying on track. =)

Here's to 2012; may it be a joyful, healthy, and prosperous year for everyone!