Not the end of the world, but a little to close. A month out would be ideal. There is some different high quality training to be done that weekend instead of racing the full distance.

What if I didn't do much of a taper before the July 12th race, considered that event my final hard speed workout, then spent the following 2 weeks essentially recovering and doing shorter maintenance workouts before the 25th? From what I gather, it's probably not in my best interest to try for fitness gains in that last 13 days in any case (with the exception of the gains achieved through recovery). Just thinking out loud...

Just thought of another option. Think I'm going to register for the super sprint instead of the Oly for the 12th. It'll be good to get a race in, but I think the shorter distance is the better idea.

Depends on your recent training. If you've been knocking out 12hrs a week or more lately, I don't see why you couldn't do that Oly 2 weeks out, as long as you treat it as a "B" or "C" race. I wouldn't even worry if it were just a week out.

Glad you came to your senses. An Olympic race 2 weeks out is just too long of an all out effort at that point. You're going to be recovering right where you want to do some really dialed in sharpening the blade type of stuff. A sprint or super sprint works much better.

I say do the Olympic - you are trained for the distance and the speed. The super sprint might cause you to go faster than you should and risk injury. This is still sport for fun - so race away!

Depends on how much training you normally do and how long/ how much stress an oly race is in relation to that.

If it's not to far off what you'd normally do on a day of a weekend then I'd go right ahead, if it's way more intense or way longer than you'd normally train for on a given day I'd do shorter.

I used to prep for all my big races by doing a tune up race 2 weeks before, sometimes sprint sometimes olympic. But since my training load on a normal sunday was about the same as an olympic distance tri it wasn't much of a shift and not a massive increase to recover from.

Iain

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Wouldn't this cause you to taper quicker? You'd have an active recovery day instead of a 'normal' training day. Is there an option to do a 'sprint' triathlon or they just offer Oly? For an A race, I'd stick to my training schedule.

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I've signed up for a super sprint, to have a fun, fast race day without the burden of doing an Oly (which is more total volume than I'd normally do on a Sunday). That'll give me a short tune-up speed workout in each discipline without needing a lengthy recovery afterward. I'll then have some flexibility in what my taper will look like in the subsequent 2 weeks before my Oly A race. I'm trying to maximize my fitness gains without sacrificing rest and recovery between now and then -- I feel like my current F40-44 age group is a place where everyone is crazy fast, yet I'm at the point in my life that I no longer bounce back like rubber. It's tough!

itu guys do an A race every 2 weeks (maybe not an itu race but something on another competitive circuit)

They're also young, and have all day to either train or rest. ;)

Using most traditional definitions of "A races", they don't. A big race with prize money is not necessarily an A race from a training/peak/taper perspective. In fact, most ITU races aren't A races. They race this way because they pretty much have to, to be an ITU pro. To get the absolute most out of their bodies on one particular day of their choosing, they would likely take a different approach.

Also, as has been pointed out, they are young. And they train 30+ hours weekly, so there's that.

For almost everyone, going all out for 2-3 hours racing an Olympic race, 2 weeks from your "A" Olympic race, is not the best use of your time. It's not terrible and might work very well for some. But tapering is a fickle bitch, best to proceed with caution.

I like to do {30:00 @ race wattage + 15:00 race pace run followed by 20:00 @ race wattage + 12:00 over race pace run} about two weeks out. A bit easier than the full race but still a kick ass and dig deep breakthrough type session. I do this session very tired, run the last 2 miles nearly all out, and generally want this day to be the peak of my fatigue. There is still hard work to come, but the fatigue will begin to decrease after this session.

I had an itu pro stay out my house for 2 weeks who made the olympics, and he gave me the low down on everything. you make it seem like their life is easy. but take in the account the jet lag the face, they have to ship and rebuild their own bike (in a cardboard box) , deal with training unknowns (will there be a pool for him?) , diet unknowns (americans take food and water for granted...ever been to china? i only ate rice and beans there fearing all else)

Could you elaborate on that? Because I have no idea what you are talking about.