Two IM races and recovery
I have 2 IM races on the schedule this summer 12 weeks apart and was wondering if anyone had any experience in how the recovery and race prep for the second race will look like?
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I have 2 IM races on the schedule this summer 12 weeks apart and was wondering if anyone had any experience in how the recovery and race prep for the second race will look like?
Comments
Jeff - I hate to see an orphan post in this sub-forum. The short answer is, 12 weeks is time enough for a standard 3-4 week recovery (look under "transition" in the wiki for details) and then jump into training for the second IM 8 weeks out. There are certainly people here who have done 2 or more IMs in a season, including closer than 12 weeks. In 2009, I did two 6 weeks apart, with a 10 day rest/ramp up then 3 weeks of standard training and 1 week taper, no ill effects. In 06, I did two 14 weeks apart, with a two week "transition" and 12 weeks of training, and had what was at that time a PR for the marathon in the second one.
If you had a good strong OS, and then 12 weeks of IM prep work for the first one, you don't really need 12 weeks to train for the second one. Just don't do any other races between the two.
You can take Al's answers to the bank on this one, Jeff.
I can add an observation about building up for the second that I plan to implement in the future: you have done ample miles in the first race, and the second IM build can take a slightly different approach, emphasizing quality over quantity even more than the first time around. Specifically, the number of long runs might be scaled back in your workup to race #2, and the duration of long rides might be decreased - with a increase in intensity - and culminate in fewer loooong rides in workup #2 (and perhaps only during RRs). Frequency and consistency continue to be key.
A tweak I had a few years ago building to Race #2 was to run only half marathon distances for long runs, but make these runs hard. This led to my IM PB in AZ after doing Lou earlier in the year.