Composing Training Schedules

Here's some information passed on to me from my training group's beginners' program coordinator. I had asked her if order was important. For me, during the week, balancing training, work and family sometimes... okay OFTEN requires juggling. For instance yesterday I was supposed to swim, but it was much faster and easier to get a run in; so I wanted to swap Monday's plan for Tuesday. Here is a portion of her response...

"The order is not that important. The main thing is you get in 2 runs, 2 bikes and 2 swims per week with one of those training days being a brick. A long run and a long bike day is important also, but what day of the week or what order you do these things is not important."

"The schedule is based on the fact that most of the triathletes around here [in the club] belong to a running club and those clubs always do their long run on Saturday mornings. So, that only leaves Sunday for a long group ride, which makes Monday the "off" day to recover from those 2 long sessions. Just try to get it all in."

"A lot of folks cramp up if they try to swim too soon after a run or ride... Everyone is different. You'll be able to tell after your first race where your weak points are. Lots of people spend more time on the sport they like the best instead of the sport they are bad at."