For the last three years I have done at least two per year. I don't recommend it. But if you're going to do it, keep them within 5-6 weeks apart at the most. Don't do multiple builds.

I did three last year with separate builds and it almost killed me. After only one IM this year, I'm done for the foreseeable future. It totally killed my motivation and enjoyment.

Interesting. Which ones did you do that required you to do 3 separate builds? Did you do any close together? What was the sweet spot of time between IM?

Texas, Tremblant, and Arizona - three months between each of them, so basically training from January through the end of November. I also threw in two standalone marathons for good measure, one in January and one in October. With a busier-than-anticipated work schedule it ended up being awful. I won't do this again. Like I said, keeping them only a few weeks apart is the sweet spot if you're going for quantity over quality.

When it came time to ramp up for Whistler this year I had zero motivation. I got through it pretty well but now I am resting for the remainder of this year and probably won't do any structured training until February.

I did Santa Rosa and exactly one month later did Coeur d' Alene. I would say it worked out pretty good. My times did not suffer at all at CDA. In fact I PR'ed the swim and the bike was about average as expected. The training between was basically like a taper period for a race but just maintained for three weeks and then brought the training way down the last week. It's doable but I would not schedule them three months apart like the person above me posted. That would be brutal no doubt

Personal preference I think. I've tried both ways and the year I did Whistler + Mont Tremblant (July / August), was pretty miserable.I've had my best luck doing an offseason race like New Zealand and a summer one in North America.

For me, the builds are fine. It's the running marathon distance in back to back races that destroys me.

Will

consistency and good level of fitness all year long.

very short specific ironman build.

this will keep athletes from mental fatigue and putting too much stress on the family/work and other life responsibility.

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Jonathan Caron / Professional Coach / ironman champions / age group world champions
Jonnyo Coaching
Instargram

Hi Jonnyo,

How many weeks is a 'very short Ironman build?'

4-5 weeks of hard work, 2 weeks of taper.

the fitter you are, the shorter you can make it....

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Jonathan Caron / Professional Coach / ironman champions / age group world champions
Jonnyo Coaching
Instargram

My coach does multiple a year and from what I see him doing you want 5-8 weeks between races. Its all about recovery between races and your off-season will make or break you.

2013:
wisconsin, cozumel

2015:
tremblant, chatanooga

2017:
copenhagen, lousiville (in 6 weeks)

i prefer to piggyback fitness. if super close, i'll use one as a tuneup race and even walk part of the marathon to ensure i don't beat my legs up.

i use the swim to test my swim fitness, the bike for a good day of IM pace training. recover for 1-2 weeks with very easy or no training. do some training last half of 2nd week. then i do a 2-4 week build with taper again.

Interested as well. My current goal is one IM at every age between 40 and 50. The plan is to do one build and then grab a race on either side of my birthday; take the next year off; repeat. Luckily my birthday is in September with lines up well with the offerings.

Re: Copenhagen - I'm doing Copenhagen in 2018. Seeing as you have just done it, any advice re the course etc? Anything you can tell me about the swim, bike run would be useful.

Re: 2 IM How long has it taken you to be mentally motivated for the 2nd one after the 1st?

Thanks.

I have 7IMs (soon to be 8) under my belt, but 5 (soon to be 6) were done as doubles in one year:


2015: Challenge AC + B2B
2016: Texas + Maryland
2017: Lake Placid + Louisville (obviously upcoming in a few weeks)

I found my base fitness level is high enough all year that building into the full IM isn't really a big deal. I never get lazy after a race. My "off season" after an A-race is usually just a week of easy and light training then I get itchy to start working again. I look at the year as more like a "base/build season" and a "race season". During race season I do whatever work I need to do in between whatever shorter events I race to keep me going strong. I find I get bored way too easily if I back off too much after a big race so I just like to keep the ball rolling and the momentum high. During race season my volume ranged from 12-18hrs/week. In the non-race season I tend to just make sure I am putting consistent work week in and week out, keeping volume in the 10-12hr range.

This year being fresh in my mind, I raced IM70.3 Raleigh as a warmup before IMLP. After IMLP I took a week of lower volume, then started ramping back up to race IM 70.3 Maine, followed by 70.3 WC this weekend. I'll bounce back quickly from the WC race (unless I really screw up) and I'll have 3 solid weekends to work some long stuff before IMLou.

I think it depends on how well you recover from the full race. I find that the full, for me, is not that hard to recover from IF I executed the full well in terms of nutrition and hydration. If I dug myself into a fueling and hydration hole, the recovery SUCKS. But if I did well on race day, I can expect to feel just fine and ready to roll again only a couple days out.

For reference (not bragging or anything since I am not nearly as fast as some here) but my best-executed full races were B2B 2015 (9:57), IMMD 2016 (8:13 with the short 100mi bike course, flooded run and no swim, so figure an extrapolated time around 9:45-9:50) and IMLP 2017 (10:14). I say those were my best executed races as I knew I fueled well, I hydrated well, and I was able to run the entire time without any walking breaks. I bounced back from those faster than most of my shorter races.

Interesting. A couple questions if you don't mind: Which AG are you in and do you race the 70.3 races flat out or do you ever dial back the effort and use them as a long training day?

Thanks,

Will

M35-39.

For 70.3 I've done it both ways. A 70.3 done at IM power/pace is a pretty good training day. But I have also gone flat out (that is harder to recover from than a full in my experience).

I did it for quite a few years. I liked it and had a lot of fun. One in late spring (Texas) and one in the fall, self supported. And also an ultramarathon in the winter, usually the Rocky Raccoon 50 or 100 miler. Once you get your fitness up there, they're not that hard. The biggest secret is not having a job that takes up 50 hours a week or has a long commute. And getting in a few really long bike rides in the final weeks of buildup.

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Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com

I did Copenhagen in 2016. Swim is in a man made pond attached to the ocean. Water was cold, but I warmed up after a few minutes. You'll need a wesuit. Bike is pretty flat all around. There is one big hill but it's not very long and not very steep. Run is 4 loops in the city. One area with cobbles which were hard on my feet but not too bad. Lots of turns. Lots of support, it's all in the city so lots of crowds.

We stayed at Best Western Hotel City. About 10 min walk to the finish and only 100 yards from the run course. Was perfect for the family. They were able to see my plenty of times on the run and go back to the room for naps/bathroom breaks. Then they only had a 10 min walk to see the finish.

City is great also. Whole family loved. People very friendly, easy to get around. I plan on going back again in the next couple of years and do it again.

barlow,

send me a PM with your e-mail. i'll send you my blog where i wrote a really shitty RR. then i'll fill in the blanks as to where to stay etc. i really liked my airbnb. it was perfect if you go with a few athletes. (we had 3 racers, one brought his wife and 2 kids). the house was plenty large, the yard was really really nice. if there was a downside, it was the 10 min walk? to the train (i hate walking, everyone else didn't mind it). it was darn close to the swim start, and easy train ride from the finish.

i finished the race, spent a few days in KPH, then spent a week in iceland touring the country. needless to say, i came back and was ready to get back at it. KPH was a tuneup race for me, i purposely kept it easy so i wouldn't be burnt out.

john

I can't comment about balancing life with kids as I've never had that responsibility.

Whatever the interval between races, I've always found it easier to maintain a high level of fitness in between. In recent years, I have let my training slip substantially between "racing" IM once a year, mainly due to pursuing other sports. As a friend once said, "It's way easier to climb a mountain from base camp rather than from sea level."

That was my approach for many years, knocking over my first 12 IM races in 4.5 years. 2 in my first year, then 1, 2, 3, 4 (plus a double IM) in subsequent years. I definitely would have raced IM more often back then, if there were more opportunities available without frequently traveling overseas.

A couple of my best races came after short turn-arounds (as little as 3 weeks), but I was younger then and certainly trained harder.

I've done 25 Iron man distance races since 1996. Multiple race years were:

'05- April and November
'06- April and November
'07- April, August and November
'08- April and November
'09- August, and 2 races in November

In theory, I like the idea of evenly spaced races on the calendar with 2 full training/recovery cycles. But my personal experience with it was that my fastest times occurred when I stacked the races closer. If I were to race multiple Iron man races again, I'd stack them close together. Another benefit of stacking them close together is that you can get multiple races off of a single training cycle.

General reply to thread: race because you like to train, dont train because you like to race.

That's a pretty impressive run of 2 or more races/year.
Did you have a decent off season?
What was your training volume like through the year?
I'm just wondering how you managed to managed to avoid burnout?
Also, what made you stop doing 2/year?

Thanks,
Will

During that 5 year period, my off season began after Ironman Florida in early November and I would resume training at the beginning of December. When Ironman Arizona was an April race, I'd train unstructured until beginning of May. I never stopped training completely, Joe Bonness had advised me of the importance of active recovery.

My training during those years was lots of consistent aerobic work. My quality workouts were in group situations with real swimmers, real cyclists and real runners. I was tired a lot back then and didn't benefit from these sessions as much as I should have. My quality sessions were way too random and not really progressive. Hindsight tells me that I should have planned my sessions better than I did. But I had a lot of fun training and racing the way that I did.

The reason that I stopped racing long so much was simply return on investment. For all of the time, effort and money that I put into those races all that I really had to show for it were the t-shirts and a PR of only 9:56.

I was never burned out, I enjoyed the entire journey. If money was no object, I'd love to do 5-10 Ironman races per year.

I've done two IMs 4 weeks apart -- Lake Placid and Louisville before they moved the date. I kept it real easy after LP, then ramped it up one week before Louisville with an 80 mile ride/2 mile brick and a 10 mile run the next day. Had a good race in LP but went even faster in Louisville (and finished in top 20 of AG). I felt completely recovered. The key was not pushing coming off of LP, being disciplined to know the fitness was there and recovery was key.

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I wake up in the morning and piss excellence. --Ricky Bobby