How much exercise is too much?

For all intents and purposes, I'm pretty much at goal.  I started exercising at month 3 of my journey and have gradually increased what I do.  I'm happy and excited about exercise now and that's something I haven't felt for YEARS.
So here's my question:  how much exercise is too much?  I've had a couple of people say I'm doing too much, but I'm not feeling like I do.  I know your body needs recovery time so I want to make sure I'm maximizing my workouts/recovery for the best results.  I'm also in the process of training for a 14k race in September.

Here's my schedule:
Monday:  run 3-4 miles in the am, take a yoga class at 6pm, a bootcamp class at 7pm
Tuesday:  Kickboxing class
Wednesday:  run-3-4 miles in the am, bootcamp class in the pm
Thursday:  Kickboxing class
Friday:  run 3-4 miles
Saturday:  long run (6-8 miles, gradually increasing my distance in the next few weeks)
Sunday:  rest

So what do you think?  Do I need to tweak my schedule?  What's your best advice?  I LOVE being active again and just looking for suggestions.

Thanks!
 

I understand the excitement about joyful activity indeed!

I will ask YOU some questions - how do you feel physically (not emotionally).  Do you feel like you are making gains in all of the fun things you have going on? Or are you fatigued and just going thru the motions on some?  Are you staying healthy, or are you finding you have colds or pulls or strains more often?

For me (and you know.. we are all such unique little snowflakes! :} ) that schedule would be me going thru those motions, but not actually being able to put as much effort into all of them as I would need to for actual gains.  Course though, another thing too consider (with me) is that I am not a cardio bunny.  I do zumba cuz its good for my soul and my attitude - not so much to mark cardio off my list.

I think for me too (again, just me!) I have a past-based concern that the more I pile on me exercise wise in order to maintain, then the deeper in trouble I get when for whatever reason, I am not able to do all of the things I usually do to maintain. 

For me, I have had to cull things I wanted to do for the things that I deemed BEST for me to do, only because while I *say* I can do many things well, if I really look at me, and whether or not I am gaining strength or endurance ability or whatever - truth be told I am not making strides like I would be if I had a few things to focus on being great at, as opposed to doing many things at a lower level of ability.

Does that make sense?

But honestly!  I think if you feel good physically, if you arent experiencing things like insomnia or the brain fuzz, or getting sick often, or pulling/straining things, then carry on McDuff!  (if that's your real name!).

Good job girlie!

Thanks for the response, B!  And to answer your questions, I feel GREAT physically.  I really enjoy the workouts and being able to push myself the way I haven't been able to for a long while.  I love feeling my body getting stronger and leaner.  I love having terrific flexibility and the good kind of aches when you know you've worked something just enough to make it stronger.  My hubby told me the other day that he could see me running bootcamp classes or some such later on.  LOL  

It's not realistic but if I could take a class every day I would.  But even I know that would be too much!  I figure I will continue to try new classes and new activities, maybe even go back to some of the ones I loved when I was younger.  (Sand volleyball, anyone?)

Part of me does worry that if I slow down my weight will come back.  Part of that is head issues I'm still working on (great book suggestions, BTW) because I'm still early enough into the process that I'm afraid this will be like all the other times I've lost weight and gained it all back and then some.  Yeah, I've got some work to do in this area.  

Eventually, I may have to cut back some of my activities because of life or whatever.  I'll cross that bridge when I get to it!

Thanks again for the input!  I always read your responses to everyone else's posts and you have no idea how much your words and experience have helped me put things into their proper perspective.
Take care of you! 
 

When people tell you that you are exercising "too much" what they usually mean is: you do it more than I want to so there must be something wrong with you. (Because there couldn't be anything wrong with them, right? )

Let's put it this way, Ironman athletes often workout 20-25 hours a week. And are in great health.

So it's not really a matter of too much in general, but sometimes we do overtrain or don't train smart. When I look at your schedule, it seems good to me. You aren't running two days in a row and you have a rest day. Maybe you might want to only run 3 days instead of 4 but that's more because our body parts wear out and it seems like we all have a certain amount of running in us and no more. So the more you ration your running, the longer you'll be able to run.

The other thing is that the best way to get good and fast at running is to structure your week with one day of speed work, one day of a tempo run and one day with your long run. What I see is one long run and 3 tempo runs. So maybe make one of those 3-4 mile runs some speed work instead.

If you find yourself getting sick a lot or burning out, you might want to cut back on something or change something up because that's a sign of overtraining. I found for a long time that I could do double workouts but I couldn't workout 6 days a week. I had to have 2 rest days. Now I get more sleep and I consume a recovery beverage after most workouts and now I can workout 6 days a week and more than 10 hours (before, any time I went over 10 hours, I would have issues.)

Recovery beverage.  is that code for "margarita" ?  :}

Ha!

But no.

I just didn't want to sound like an advertisement for Fluid, my sponsor and recovery drink of choice.

Thanks for the input and suggestions.  Just so you know, I JUST starting running in February of this year.  Before then, I had no interest, no desire, no WAY was I gonna do it.  Now, I seem to crave running.  On the days I don't run, I really miss it.
Now that you know that, you'll understand this question:  um, what is speed work and how do I do it?  LOL  Up until now, I've just been doing what feels good and the long run is typically something I build up to when I'm going to do a race.  (My next race is in September-a 14k-and I'm super excited because I've never done one this distance before!)

If you have any other suggestions or ideas for things I can try, bring them on!  I'm always on the lookout for new physical challenges and I welcome all the coaching I can get.

I'll be looking for the signs and symptoms you and BrandiLynn have mentioned.  I don't want to wear myself down and have to stop being active-that would be a super bummer!

Take care and keep the advice coming!  I'm sure I can use it although I warn you now, you may get more of those questions from me where you just wanna hit your head on the table and scream HOW HAS SHE NOT INJURED HERSELF BY NOW.  LOL 

 Speed workout are when you do intervals of intense fast running and then either slow recovery running or even rest. It makes you faster.

This explains how it all works while training for a half-marathon (which is close to what you are training for):

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244-258-9369-0,00.html

It talks about the tempo running too.

What is your typical workout schedule for a week? I know, it must be insane, since you are in training, but I am interested in hearing about how much working out you get done during a typical week.

Thanks,

Gail

So it really varies.

In Dec, I do hardly anything because most of my outdoor stuff goes away. I do a 1-3 hour bike ride maybe twice. I do water aerobics most weeks for an hour. Maybe I'll do a spin class or a group power class at the gym a few times. That's about it. It's my "off season" and I'm just doing enough to burn enough calories that I don't have to be so restrictive with my diet that the holiday treats are totally off limits and I don't lose ALL my fitness. It's my time to exercise with no goals in mind and to recharge.

Then in Jan, I start ramping up. I start out with a lot of strength training. I may do a Crossfit type of workout 2-3 times a week. I do some other short strength stuff on other days. So maybe 4-6 days I week I'm doing strength stuff. I'm doing more biking, maybe 2-3 hours every week it doesn't rain. I do the spin class once a week instead of "whenever". I start back to swimming in the pool once a week. I may start running again maybe 1-2x a week.

Then I start building up... in April I start doing open water swims on the weekend. The bike rides get longer. I'm running 2-3x a week and one of them is a long run. In May I start doing a tempo bike ride in place of one of the Crossfit workouts. As I start to do more endurance stuff, I do less strength because something has to give...

At my peak, which is for about two months right before I start tapering for my Ironman, I do:

Mondays - KB Workout for 50-60 min. (strength)

Tues - short tempo run and/or spin class