Can someone please explain overtraining and how much to eat?

That looks reasonable, but of course it depends on where you are starting from. As I was telling some of the people in our "New to the Sport" workout last week, you can't go from working out 3 days a week for an hour to doing nine workouts a week! You have to gradually build up to it.

Also I'm not sure why you are doing Couch to 5k *and* half marathon training. It seems like they might be working at cross purposes.

What week are you on in Couch to 5k? Once you get to the weeks where you just run for X minutes, it's really a tempo run workout (in the scheme of the Half-marathon training) so that's fine assuming the Sat. training is either intervals or long runs. If it's also tempo runs, then it's redundant and one of them needs to switch.

OTOH, if you are still on the weeks where you combine walking and running, that's interval training and it can be compatible with longer runs for the Half-marathon assuming you don't do a lot of interval workouts on Sat.

A typical run training program is:

(1) One day of speed work
(2) One day with a tempo run
(3) One day with a long run

But don't do speed wor****il you have built up to it or you'll get injured. The rule of thumb is that you should be able to run comfortably for an hour before you start speed work. But you can make exceptions depending on what your speed work is. Just be careful.

For the long run, long for you is how long you can currently run without stopping. That could be as little as a mile or as long as 2 hours.

Personally, I wouldn't run more than 2 hours at a time in training at this point no matter what. Running wears out your body parts so you want to ration it. You can do a half-marathon without every having run 13.1 miles in training or running more than 2 hours.

Also, if you can't work in 3 run workouts a week (and, with you doing multiple sports, that's going to be hard), you can get away with less long runs by doing a lot of strength training and a lot of interval work. Short burst of intensely hard training have been shown to work just as well as doing a lot of long workouts with moderate work output.

Though this just contradicts what I said about not doing speed wor****il you can run for an hour. It's one of those things where you have to feel your way to what works for you. What works for me is to do lots of strength training. Every time I up my strength training, my run gets faster even if I have done nothing to change my run workouts.

This is an explanation of why fitness gains happen at rest:

When you workout, you tear down your muscles. At the end of the workout, you get a bunch of microtears. When you rest, your body repairs those tears and that repair is what makes the muscles stronger. So, if you are constantly tearing down your muscles but never letting them repair, you aren't getting as strong as if you allow for adequate rest.

Hope that makes sense.

 I don't really run, not yet.  I've done 3 half marathons starting with Napa last summer which I walked.  I did Run Surf City in Huntington Beach on Feb. 3rd and did a walk/jog for the first 4 miles keeping up with the 3 mile pacer.  So now I want to learn to run a 5K.  I signed my hubby and me up for the fun run at Guadalupe River Park Conservancy on April 23rd and I want to run it with him, so I'm sort of doing C25K, but really doing more interval training.  Like, I'm on week 1, but Monday I jogged for .25 of a mile (slowly, but still jogged), walked for about 2 minutes, jogged .25 of a mile ... until I had done 1 mile jogging.  My old dog couldn't go any farther.  So I'm trying to learn to run a mile, then 2 then 3.  The half marathon training is with Team Challenge to raise money for CCFA.  Both my kids have Crohn's, and we do the Napa to Sonoma half in July.  We start together, but do the course at our own rates, so I do my interval walk/jog at Sat. training.  This is week 2 so we are doing the Stanford loop for 4 miles.  I can walk that pretty fast, but now I'm adding in the jogging.  So I think I'm working the C25K philosophy into my half training.  I don't plan on running the whole half.  My goal right now is to run the whole 5K.  I don't really care about speed yet.  Maybe after I can actually run a mile.  LOL

I don't know what Tempo training is.

Your explanation of why fitness gains happens at rest makes good sense now.  And I see the importance of rest.

Thanks for all your help.  Maybe I'll see you at a race someday.
Jan

Argh, I can't believe I didn't explain tempo training. It's when you run a shorter distance at a faster pace than your planned race distance and pace.

So, once you can run longer, it would look like this:

Planned pace for 1/2 Marathon - 12 min. miles

Long run starts around 6 miles and is at a slightly slower pace, say 12:30 min. miles, builds up to about 10 miles over the course of the training, all still at a slightly slower pace

Tempo run starts around 3 miles and bounces between 3 and 5 miles throughout training (based on what the long run is). But it's at faster than 12 min. miles, say 11:30.

The purpose of the tempo run is to train your body to run faster so on race day you can do the 12 min. miles. even though your long runs have never been at that pace. The long runs are slower so you can get through them. Their purpose is to increase your endurance and you don't have to go at race pace to d that. The speed work also helps with speed.

But right now you have to get through the Couch to 5k. If you do those workouts on Tues. and Sat., it will take you longer than 9 weeks to get through the program but it will still work. I started out with 2x a week Couch-to-5K because I had to also bike and run and I still was able to make progress. I had to do some weeks twice because I was only doing 2x a week but that's okay.

Also, I didn't learn this until this year, but you can do Couch-to-5k either with time or with mileage. So, if one doesn't work that well for you, you can try the other.

Okay now we are getting somewhere. So you want to run and tap dance and it sounds like in that order of importance with running THE priority and dancing the secondary activity. So what you need to do is prioritize your running and use or view tap dancing as a hobby. All other activities at this stage of your physical development will take away from the TIME you spend actually running and will lengthen the TIME that is needed to recover for your next run. In other words you need to become a runner. With me so far?? This is the reasoning. What you need to do foremost at this stage, as it sounds like you are new to this, is to build a base of running time or miles and I prefer time to miles. It isn't pretty, it isn't fancy, it is just putting one foot in front of the next over and over, slowly with walking breaks at first. This builds muscle memory, capillary development, the ability to burn fat as a fuel source, produces a more efficient heart and builds your system at the cellular level. Once this base is established, you will have it for the rest of your life, as long as you do moderate maintenance and upkeep. Once a base is established you can cross over or cross train to even higher fitness levels with little difficulty on your system using other exercises.
If you wish to continue, post back and I'll explain the next level based on any new info. And when you say intervals, explain exactly what you are doing. As far as I feel, intervals should hardly ever be done in a group. But then again you have to tell me what you are doing and what your definition of interval is. Are you with me so far?

 Wow, me a runner?  I just want to learn to run.  LOL  I've never been athletic, so it's hard for me to define myself in those terms.  What you say makes perfect sense.  I've been taking it slowly and can run .25 of a mile now.  Each time I do it, I feel stronger.  

For intervals, I run for .25 miles or longer, then walk for 1-2 minutes, then run again for .25, slowly increasing my distance as I feel able to.  Sat. we are doing a 4 mile course so I will jog/walk it, jogging at least .25 or more at a time, walking for 1-2 minutes, then jogging again.  I don't jog fast but I don't care about speed right now.  Just learning to run.

Thanks for all your help.  It really makes sense and helps.
Jan

 Ill let the others help you with the running thing - something I just cant seem to master - 
but the ellip and weights - pls tell me what you are doing and in what order.

 For my elliptical, if I'm not doing weights, I do 4-5 miles depending on time at program 2 which starts at level 3 and goes up to level 5, up and down for the time I'm on it.  My intensity varies from 8-10mph.  If I'm doing weights, then I warm up for 2-3 miles depending on time.

For weight lifting, I got the Women's Home Workout Bible by Brad Schoenfeld.  The routine I set up is:

Arnold Press sitting on stability ball, 10 reps, 5lb weights
Squat, stability ball against wall, 10 reps, 7 1/2 pound weights
Prone Reverse Fly on stability ball, 10 reps, 5 pound weights

Repeat above for total of 3 sets

Leg curl on stability ball, 10 reps
Arm curl sitting on stability ball, 15 reps, 7 1/2 lb weights
Seated row with resistance band, 15 reps

Repeat above for total of 3 sets

Pull Over on stability ball, 10 reps, 5lb weights
Incline Row on stability ball, 10 reps, 5lb weights
Reverse Hyperextension on stability ball, 10 reps

Repeat above for total of 3 sets

This is using the equipment I have at home.  I don't have a bench, but the stability ball works well and I tried to cover a wide range of muscles, targeting especially my back and upper body since my legs get the hill work and running training.

I figured this out on my own so if you see something I should be doing differently, please let me know.

Thanks for all your help.
Jan