theoretically speaking, would it be doable to do 3 full distance Ironman races over a three month period? I’ve been slightly inspired after seeing what some of the pros are doing this year, eg Kat Matthews racing Nice last sunday and then racing Ibiza this week end.
Something along the lines of:
Leeds 28/7
Copenhagen 17/8
Wales 21/9
I’ve got 6 years + of continuous base load and 3 years of ironman distance racing.
Only aiming to be fairly competitive at Copenhagen (close to 10 hrs as possible), the other two I know will be slower due to nature of the courses.
I typically take 1 week off running and 2 weeks gentle exercise after each race and so imagine its just a case of ticking over to the next one, but actually using the races themselves to get fitter too.
Last year did 2 full distances with 12 week gap and had the best run to date in the second one, despite it being a more challenging course.
Possible but not ideal. Based on what you say above, your schedule looks something like:
Week 1 - Race
Week 2 - No running, gentle exercise
Week 3 - Gentle exercise including running
Week 4 - Actual training
Week 5 - Race
Repeat
One single IM is not the fitness boost you’d think it is. In general the recovery afterwards causes a relative fitness loss in comparison to immediately before the race (basically why people don’t do IM’s or marathons in training). So your choices are: 1)gradually lose fitness over 3 months, 2) reduce rest after races to get back to training sooner, risking over-fatigue, 3) reduce the taper into the race, risking race day fatigue.
Wouldn’t a better value proposition be to do Copenhagen as your competitive goal, then do Wales as a fun after party?
The other thing is an IM is ~$2000 (or Euros) total. It’s your money, but 6k to bop around a course over-fatigued or under-trained seems like a silly thing to pay for.