If you haven't been carrying a lot of fatigue it would be a good time to test you fitness to set realistic racing levels for your HIM. It kind of leaves only 1 real full training week before you start tapering for an A race.

5 Normal easier week
4 Second to last hard week (maybe race)
3 Last full hard week
2 Start taper on Wed
1 race week

Personally I'd look for a sprint triathlon but either one would do.

Thanks for the advice. I have just seen that they have a sprint race option at the same event so that could be a goer.

I wouldn't have a problem doing an Oly 1 week before a half. If you've done your training, you'll be able to recover nicely from even a hard Oly effort without any impact on your HIM. Seems like a pretty fun way to add some speedwork in before/ during the taper

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

A tune-up race two weeks prior to your A event would be ideal IMO. Preferably an Olympic in this case. You’ll recover even if you’re 90 years old.

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

No problem with a 4 week gap. Its just an Olympic which is nothing more volume wise than a good weekend workout.

A couple of problems I have with small races before the big race is you or people around you might cause crash, getting hurt or damaging the bike.
One weeks might not be enough to heal, recover and repair, so I try to avoid those small races before the big race.
My LBSs are totally booked solid, so there's a long wait list if I try to get some work done.
I can do most of maintenance stuff, but I can't replace aero or handle bars if they break.
Anyway, just be careful.

I think that is not a bad idea but there are a couple things to consider. How have you previously bounced back from sprint/oly races? Are you ready to put in an important weekend of 70.3 training 7 days later? If you do recovery well I would absolutely recommend doing the race. My advice would be to hold off on intense workouts until mid week after the Oly race to ensure you aren't carrying extra fatigue from it.

Racing hard is the best practice to learn how to race hard and pace an all-out effort. I would rather have my athletes race an Oly 4 weeks out of a 70.3 than have only one race on the season.

If you can't do a normal training day on Saturday, race on Sunday or race on Saturday and then go ride 3-4h on Sunday and still recover by mid week you've got bigger issues with your training.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

When I was in my best racing shape, I did an oly the week before my best ever 1/2 IM time.

I think the pros just did three 1/2 IMs in a month between Galveston and St. George.

It will be fine. It is a great chance to test your fitness and pacing. A couple of weeks ago I did an olympic which was 6 weeks out from my 70.3 A race. I raced it, got a great feel of where I'm at and what I need to work on and I was able to get right back to training.