Half Ironman Back to Back Weekends?

We see a lot of good questions like this.

It's worth considering this: "What is likely to be the downside?"

If you have an adequate training base and practice good recovery there is likely to be no downside, except getting more fit. Racing is the best training. The more you race, the faster you'll get.

If you enter an Olympic distance event the third week get ready for a new PR.

Have great races!

I personally could not recover from a HIM enough in 1 week to do justice to another.  If your goal is to "complete, not compete" then you would be better off.

Just my $0.02.  It took me a month to feel like I was back to normal after my last HIM.

no.

recovery guideline 3-5days/hour raced.

minimum 3 x 5 = 15 days or 2 weeks and that's a stretch IMHO

Really???  I've only done three HIM's, but after all three I could barely walk for the first couple of days, and it took me a full 3 weeks or so to really feel right again.  I could train after the first few days, but not at full capacity - and to race, especially another 1/2, would have been out of the question.

**Caveat - I know that I recover slowly when I've put myself in the hurt locker, but that's what I expect when I race.**

If you're an "all-out" racer, which I suspect you are, then I can see that.  If you're like me (not balls-to-the-wall), I can see this being doable.  Depends on the OP's goals/athleticism/training and such.

Agreed. More time is needed for recovery unless you simply just want to finish. But you will be punishing your body without that recovery..

James Lawrence just did 30 IM distances this year (Iron Cowboy) one of those he towed a disabled kid round for.  Course it's possible...depends on your level of fitness I guess.

http://iron-cowboy/lake-havasu-my-race-with-dayton/

It's certainly doable.

Not that I think it's a good idea *at all* but I know a guy that did IMMT and then flew to Penticton and did IMC the next weekend.  Both overall race times were within 5 mins of each other right around 11:30.  He said he wasn't holding back at IMMT either as it was his A race.

Me personally, I was only starting to walk normally by the next weekend, no way I could have raced anything.

I thought the 'rule of thumb' for recovery after races was 1 day per hour racing?

I think its doable as long as you're not pushing to the limits of your fitness/ability during the races.

This.  Plus how cool would it be that you get to do a race with your dad.  If your dad is faster than you, go easy in the first race.  If your dad is slower, go hard in the first.  It will make the second race more fun

I think it depends what you consider recovery.

http://www.active.com/triathlon/Articles/Determining_Your_Race_Recovery_Time

As matter of fact, it's so do-able some people do two Half Ironmans in one day.

Some (two here in the U.S.) have even done it in under 8 hours.

Tom, that's not fair.

The people you're talking about don't do two back-to-back Half Ironmans.

They interleave the sports, and do 2x Half Ironman distance swims before moving on to the bikes, and 2x half-ironman bikes before moving on to do back-to-back Half Ironman runs.  While I haven't seen the studies on this, I'm willing to be that by interleaving the elements like this and skipping TWO WHOLE TRANSITIONS, these people are gaining a huge performance advantage.

but Tom, this site is called "Beginner Triathlete".

Most beginners are doing their first sprint, and a HIM is a big goal. IM even bigger.

To suggest back to back weekends are ok for multiple HIMs is one thing (still not what I would recommend), but definitely would not recommend 2 HIMs in one day or one weekend on BT.

MO that "beginners" need to learn about recovery and not destroy themselves early in the process. 

I might expand that to any triathlete actually, once you get to the "advanced" stage, you wouldn't be asking this question on BT (or ST for that matter).

It is absolutely foolish to suggest to a person which you don't know that it would be ok for them to do 2 half-iron races 7 days from each other.

...Foolish in the way that somebody else has to pay the consequences for your bad advice.

"Sure...what's the worst that can happen by buying a second home with a line of equity from your first home?"

Are you kidding me?? I guess since nobody knows this person we all should have just ignored the question?...What an asinine reply to a bunch of people who are answering a question posted on an internet forum.

The OP was asking the people of BT's opinion. They all vary based on the experiences of each individual which I'm assuming the OP was looking for. Why not take it a step further and say that no questions should be answered on BT unless we know the person asking the question?...