70.3's two weeks apart

No way would I do it.

My coach last year did two either 2 or 3 weeks apart, he is KQ guy, and then another 3-4 weeks after that and really fatigued him.

Unless you recover really well, I wouldn't do it. Sure you probably could do it but you'd dig a hole of fatigue that would take some recovery to overcome. Otherwise you will not race the 70.3 races and why do them just to do them.

My 70.3 races are 2 months apart this year.

Thanks for the quick replies!  I guess I will just suck it up and pick one of them then.  I know in my training I run 12-14 milers all the time as well as 40 mile bikes so I guess I was just getting a little overconfident.  I really wanted to race the second one because my brother will be in it, but the last thing I want to do is hurt myself before the "big race".  

Again, thanks for the prompt feedback. 

I had a friend do two 70.3s two weeks apart and she was perfectly fine.

The question for you is do you want to "give up" two weekends of your IM training for 70.3s? Where do they fall in relation to your peak weeks? In other words, what does your plan say you should be doing on those weekends?

 

Edited by lisac957 2010-02-06 11:23 AM

The 70.3's are 4 months out from IMWI so they are not even close to my peak weeks.  I have never really followed a plan.  Last year for IMFL I read a bunch of different plans to get an idea of what they wanted and then kind of did my own thing focusing on different likes/dislikes and strengths/weaknesses.  Granted I ended up blowing up at the end of IMFL but I'm fairly positive that was mostly due to a nutrition issue.  

Last year I did not do any races and solely focused on my Ironman.  This drove me rather stir crazy and I thought it might be a lot more fun to race a bunch this year and use those races as part of my training.  I don't plan on going flat-out until IMWI but I would like to have some goals and accomplishments in the meantime.  My brother and I had also talked about squeezing in another marathon together but I remember how long it took me to recover from my last marathon  so I am a little hesitant. 

I did back to back 70.3's last year in May-June prior to IMUK in August. I actually thought it helped me as I ended up running my best IM marathon, but I also had some mechanical issues on the bike so its hard to really tell what was the main driver for the marathon time. I recover pretty quickly and didn't need to take more than two full recovery weeks after the back to back, so it didn't hamper my training too much.

Thanks for your input.  I ended up registering for two races last night, IMFL 70.3 and the Rock N Roll Half Ironman.  The Rock N Roll Half is three weeks after IMFL 70.3.  I truly believe I can do it because last year in my Ironman training program I was essentially doing half Ironmans on the weekends for training week after week and never developed any problems.  I figured that because these are not my "A" races I will just go out and have fun and do the best I can without running myself into the ground.  

Hopefully with the races three months away I can get myself back into decent shape.  It is amazing how fast I put on weight after IMFL which was only 3 months ago.  Yikes!  Thanks again for the feedback everyone.  BT is a great resource for learning and bouncing ideas off people who have "been there, done that".  I really appreciate it.

Good deal. I was asking because I'm also doing IMWI and wanted to do a 70.3 in August but decided after looking at my plan that that weekend I should be riding 100 miles, not 56... that type of thing. The 70.3 - while it would have been fun - would actually have been non-value added to my overall training plan.

I'm doing a 70.3 June 6 (got free entry to Kansas) but beyond that just a sprint and an oly - per my plan on the weekends it suggests doing them. I'll just simulate a 70.3 on the weekend my plan says to do one; I can't justify the cost of another race this season

 

I did Hawaii 70.3 and Boise 70.3 (two weeks apart) last summer and accomplished my goals. Now my main goal was not to scortch both races but to really enjoy Hawaii and the course than have a good solid race at Boise.

You don't have time between races to do much more than recover and than start prepping for the 2nd event. If you are going for a PR, I'd never do this but if you want to enjoy a couple of great events than go for it.