I continue to bodybuild and do tri's. I'm 5'8" and hover around 210 lbs. It's only detremental if you are seeking pure speed and podium appearances, although last year, I got two 2nd place awards for clydesdales over 40, over 200 lbs. I willl never give up bodybuilding, but I too have been wrestling with this dilema for years now. One year I stopped lifting completely and my arms got skinny, my legs shrunk and I just didn't like that look. I'm a good swimmer, pretty strong on the bike from years of leg workouts, but carrying all this extra muscle wight makes the run hard. I run very slow, although I'm usually first out of the water in my category. It all depends what you want. It bothers me a little bit that everyone I pass on the bike, passes me on the run, but not enough to stop lifting.

Interesting discussion, Gus. I think for sprint tris and maybe olys on relatively flat or gently rolling courses, weight isn't much of an issue on the bike. Matters even less for the swim. If an event has long bike climbs and a hilly run, you might be more at a disadvantage with extra weight. I would suggest a third swim workout most weeks, but with your sprint Sunday I understand only two swims. Also some bike intervals.

But the question is what's important to you? If you want to win then maybe less lifting, more swim/bike/run. If you enjoy your current situation, hey, it's your life! Do what makes you happy or content.

Anyway, here's my schedule this week. I hate tapering and don't do it very well most of the time. Notice no days off. I don't like off days and thus it impairs my improvement. Oh well.

Sat: 1 hour swim in quarry, 45 mile bike (hills)
Sun: 7 mile run, medium
Mon: 1 hour stationary bike, 1 hour evening swim in quarry.
Tue: 7 mile run... skipped usual 2 miles at tempo pace due to race this Sunday.
Wed: 1 hour stationary bike followed by 1500 swim with 5 x 100... then 45 min stationary bike real easy in the evening.
Thu: 6 mile run, medium followed by 1500 swim (easy)
Fri: 15.5 mile easy bike ride... went to quarry in the evening for an 1000 yard easy swim and didn't feel well.
Sat: 15.5 mile easy bike ride
Sun: Sprint tri.

That's about 10 hours race week. Normally I strive for 7 or less hours, but couldn't do it this time. My avg week is probably around 12 hours.

If I were you, I'd want more time on the bike. One 3+ hr ride each week will do wonders for your bike fitness. Just keep up on the food with rides that long so you don't lose bulk. If you can't do 3 hrs yet, just go as far as you can and work up to it.

Steven, one problem I see with your routine is you are not giving your upper body a chance to rest and grow if you are doing heavy weights sandwiched in between days of chinups, pullups, etc. Also, your original concern was to compete in tri's while maintaining muscular bulk, and not to take anything away from bodyweight exercises like pushups,etc, they will not bulk you up. I also have done my own "solo" tri's on occassion, doing all 3 disciplines in 1 day. Go for it, it's fun! At least you take off a day or 2 a week, I'm guilty of only taking 1 or 2 days off a month. Exercise has just become such a part of my daily constitution, that I'm lost without it, but I try and vary my days, if I do a brick one day, then the next day, no lower body work, maybe swim and weights. I think a lot of overtraining is actually under rest and under nutrition, IMHO.

Steven

I am having this same issue - loss of muscle mass from tris. I've only been doing tris for a year but when I started I was 6'3", 207 lbs and had a fairly consistent weight routine and considered myself in good shape. As I prepare for my first IM in Aug, I lost too much - down to 185 lbs. My coach even instructed me to stop lifting. It was noticeable as suddenly all my clothes were too big and colleagues constantly commented I was looking thin. Bottom line I did not like this look.

In the last three weeks I've gone back to lifting 3-4 times per week while maintaining the tri workouts. And eating all the time which I personally think is the key. I make sure I eat quality before and after all training. I'm back up to 190 lbs and I am using this weight as my floor. I hope to stay between 190-195 throughout the summer until the IM and then I'll add a little more as I decrease distances in swim/bike/run and increase weights again.

Mike

To Gus:

Thanks for the advice, man. I found it very helpful. I'm going to solicit some more assistance - you've noticed another big problem in my training program: the presence of exhausting exercises (endurance exercises) on the days that I have heavy lifting days. This happened for 2 reasons:

(1) As a personal fitness goal, I try to always maintain a level of fitness required to exceed the entrance requirements of the Navy Seals training program. True to my Type-A personality, I also try to negotiate my level of fitness to surpass the level required to excel in the actual training program itself. Since this is always guess-work at best, I imagine I overdo it for the most part, but I'd rather shoot for the stars and land on the moon. To do this, I've learned I need to be constantly developing both type-I and type-II muscles, which forces the body to train with endurance exercises as well as "explosive" exercises. Since time is one thing I never have enough of, I'm open to new programs that achieve this contradictory blend of muscle group development more efficiently - this is just the only way I know how to accomplish my goals. Advice?

(2) I often found that I didn't "feel" like I'd worked out my muscles following my heavy weight sessions. I've always assumed this is because the exercises are compound versus muscle-group specific, and am currently in the process of adding more weight, but I just don't have the time to appropriately develop each muscle group by itself. Because of this, high repetition has been the only way I can feel that I've caused my muscles "trauma" to recuperate from and thus get stronger, when doing compound exercises. More advice?

Let me know if you have anything to add - I'm always open to improvement.

SJ

for example, you can host your image on imageshack.com

Allright, first shot at posting pics, hope this works. Here's Mr Bulky doin' tri's. I'm #2 on the awards platform. Where's # 3 you ask? I ate him! See Steve, it can be done.

http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=5805923

Thanks a lot, Gus, for the advice. I'm going to rearrange my workout to coincide with the pointers you gave - I'll give it a couple of months and see how it goes; at first glance, it seems like a much more efficient and comprehensive schedule than what I'm on now. Any opinions on where to place the pushup, situps, pullups & dips?

Monday; cardio 30minutes morning
Chest
Run 30 mins

Tuesday: swimming
Bi's and Tri's
Bike 30-45 mins

Wednesday: cardio 30mins
Back
Run 30-45mintues

Thursday Bike 30 mins morning
Legs
run 30 mins

Friday am nothing
Shoulders
run/bike 30 for both

Saturday nothing

Sunday circuit trainning.

-Mat
PS I do abs almost everyday

OMG, I'm not the only one! This lunacy is spreading!!! Pretty soon there will be a posedown on the awards dais.

So you're a NY fan living in Boston. How's that working out for ya?