Wow...thanks for all the good help, advice & suggestions!
First & foremost.....yes; I will do some serious research and look into various threads to see how others learned. Good idea!
Second, there's a store near me where you take off your shoes and run barefoot on some treadmill while they video-tape you and some impression-sensor reads your foot steps....then they review your movement, factor-in lots of details and proceed to advise you which shoes are best suited for your running needs. Generally we're talking somewhere between $120 to $180 and it falls between 3-4 particular brands. I think I recall either FF or G8 straight-up proclaiming one brand/model the out & out best shoe ever.....??
Thirdly....maybe this is a good time for me to back-up and review. About 18 months ago the doc's wanted to put me on meds and I finally hit my mid-life health-snap and decided to finally get serious. I did. I've lost a lot of weight and developed some fairly good endurance. Compared to you guys, I ain't got nothin'...but the rest of the mortal world thinks what I'm able to do is insane-good.
I think I may be making a wrong jump in direction...so let me quickly explain:
Monday is busy in the home-office, I do 1 spin-class & 1-mile swim and then meet racquetball buddies for a lite dinner.
Tues & Thurs is weights & training
Wed & Fri is my 3-hour spin/run/swim
Sat or Sun...one day I'll try to take off or just do elliptical...the other day is a mix of either mountain biking and/or weights.
Each week is different based on life events, but PLEASE...do not think I'm doing 3 hours of cardio each and every day! At this point I'm doing about 11-13 hours per week, and that includes all exercise.
Weight-training is weights, no need to discuss that here. Moving on to my cardio component.
The cardio I chose back when I started was mountain biking...as time went on I was able to bike longer, faster & harder. I only extended my time/length because anything less just felt like I was slacking. The thins is, unless I feel like I'm "pushing it" and a bit sore, it seems like I'm just not going to make progress. Like a drug addiction, it seems like my body only responds with further fat-loss when I break further from my comfort-zone....so my rides got longer & longer. I already know what you're saying: instead of riding longer, why not just keep the same distance but push harder?....to that I say, I do push hard, but I keep a max-rpm of about 160-165 rpm...I just don't feel comfortable pushing my heart harder other then for very short burst or macho-competitive instances. Also, I LOVE these long rides....it's very theraputic, my favorite ride is the long one (ends at a scenic outlook) and doing medium-intensity, steady-state is good for burning calories....so there's that. I cruise at 145-150 HR.
As summer hit I added swimming in my own pool (right after my ride)..it's a great way to get some upper-body, stretch a bit, keep burning calories and clean myself and the outfit.
As winter hit, I retreated to the gym where I discovered spin-class and the pool right afterwards. Up until a month ago that was my thing: spin/swim. Love it, it's my routine.
Then, with my recent stall in weight-loss it was suggested I perhaps mix-up the cardio with something else....so I decided to venture into the world of running. I had heard that while swimming may encourage the body to store fat, running is the opposite: it almost shakes the fat off the body in that it places a demand for a ligher/leaner body. Is this true? Who knows...but nobody could argue that adding running was outside the routine-box. I also got some exposure to running with my physical therapy with my knee...and to my surprise (and with my weight-loss and built cardio)...I discovered I could run!
So here we are...I'm adding running between spin-classes. Instead of sitting there for 15-20 minutes w/o music waiting for the class to start, I jump off the bike, throw on my running shoes and get on the treadmill.
Guys...I'm just trying to lose weight, BUT I do enjoy the notion that if I keep it up and train for it...perhaps I could do a triathlon. But to break it down honestly, it's 90% about weight-loss and getting in shape and only 10% the trophy-notion & inspiration of training for a tri.
I just presumed the natural training for a tri would be to do those activities in succession at the gym. I know I finish with swimming and I'm doing it all out-of-order, but at this point (given that I'm 5' 8" and still about 230 pounds)...I don't think it's time to quite hone it all in towards competing. Perhaps it's more realistic to say I'm traing in a triathlon-like manner?
Jeez...where am I going with this? I guess I just figured I hadn't given you all the info to understand where I'm coming from and where I'm going. So there it is. Much of what I'm doing is about losing weight and having fun at the gym...the whole notion of training for a tri is inspriation and direction.
My hunch is that, as suggested, my running will quickly improve and I'll be able to go longer & faster on the treadmill. At this point I like the treadimll because I can get off at any time and not find myself stranded somewhere on the road, plus I'm just doing it to break-up my routine while at the gym.
I think I should pass on the first spin-class and instead work on the treadmill...then take the spin, then finish with swim. I have too many friends in spin-class to back out of that...there are social factors. I love the pool too much to pass on finishing-up with that...and this thread was all about discovering the world of running.
