Time between Iron Distance Races?

People do double. triple, deca-Ironman distances consecutively. Three months in between should be a breeze.

Unless. of course, you're different from those people. Can't really tell from your post.

I did my first Ironman in November this year.  At this point, I feel like I'm physically recovered, but mentally, I'm not sure I could start doing the 6 hour rides that another Ironman would require.  I'm training more or less consistently, but the long runs and rides aren't there yet.  Part of that might be physical, some of its definitely mental, and some of it is that I deferred a lot of social and family time to get ready for Ironman.  Now, that takes a little priority, especially with the holidays coming up. 

So, you could do it, but if any of the above applies, it may present some challenges.  On the plus side, you should come out of the first feeling pretty fit, so there would be a good base to build off.

I agree with Kmac, for me, the limiter would be the mental aspect of training.  Not only am I ready for a mental break but I'm also ready to get back to quality family time and anything else that i let go in lieu of training.

That said, I've read several times that an appropriate recovery from IM is to ease back into training by reversing the three week taper.  Even if you took an entire week off, then did a reverse taper, you'd still have 5 weeks of peak training before tapering for Bone Island.  

x2 - when we were at the race, we ran into a whole whack of people - one lady had DNF'ed at St. George, did IMTX, was doing IMMT same as us and was booked into do IMKY the very next weekend.  I chatted with a guy during the run who had done IMNY the weekend before. Both of those had done at least 10x IM's each but it can be done.  

Though, to add the personal note - I know I wouldn't.  I know after training all summer for my first i wasn't mentally ready to go back to long distance or structured training for a while.  I signed up for a fun trail run that was 25k and still barely trained for it - it was fun but really i wished i hadn't signed up.   But there are lots of other fun races out there to keep you busy without committing to so much ... 

Iron Cowboy did 30 Iron-Distance races this year..

*shrugs*

x3.

As a side note, B2B was not a "cool weather race" this year.  It was actually quite warm out there.

if you go by a rough rule of thumb 3 days recovery per hour raced, you're looking at about 4-6 weeks.

so you should be able to do it easily within 3 months in between.

The answer - as with all things in life - is "it depends."

Most people would caution against it - mainly for physical reasons (the wear you'll take after you race an Ironman is not something you want to continue for 3 months to race another full distance race).  

That said, there's tons of factors that play into it.  Can your body hold up?  Do you enjoy the insane amount of training?  Are you "racing" the Ironman, or just there to finish? (this makes a HUGE difference imo).

I second this, but keep in my experience the mental recovery is MUCH MUCH MUCH more difficult than the physical recovery.