How close together would you be willing to schedule 2 x 70.3s?
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2 weeks? Really depends on your experience, fitness, age, and goals for each race.
Are either/both your “A” race for the year? If neither is your A race then a few weeks is fine, if the first is you A race then a few weeks is fine. You may want to alter your taper for the first race depending on the answer.
I did LP70.3 and then 2 weeks later did AC70.3 back in 2018.
Probably helped that the first one was hilly and second one flat. May have been much harder the other way around…
both of these were ‘A’ races and I was fortunate enough to get to world’s based on the day in AC, which stands as my PR for that distance.
(I thought the Rev 3 ‘full revolution’ was much harder on my body—raced the Oly-Sat; could barely hold pace on the 70.3 -Sunday —*although rain and cassette issues worsened that day too)
edited to add: this is certainly not the ideal way to race but sometimes that’s the circumstances and you figure out a way to get it done
Much better to peak once in spring and once in fall, IMO
You could certainly get by on 2-4 weeks between 70.3’s (just kind of doing a reverse taper at that point, racing off of the same fitness, increased injury risk) but I agree that it depends on what your goals are. You shouldn’t expect any sort of drastic improvements in a short timeframe. I think most mortals (non-pros who aren’t lining up a ton of 70.3’s for income) should probably target 2ish 70.3’s a year, spaced out by something like 12-16+ weeks, to get the most out of each performance & give yourself some time to improve. Something like that gives you two separate 70.3 builds with recovery/down time in between. You can race a number of sprints/olympics during that time & you’ll probably have some training days where it’ll feel like you did a 70.3.
If you like racing a lot & would rather do that than trying to peak for 1 or 2 70.3’s then you could line up 6-10 in a season & treat them as training efforts. That’s fine if that’s what you like & you have the money for it.
I did WC 70.3 and then Memphis 70.3 two weeks apart in 2021. I was in top form, but I definitely do not recommend. I was physically and mentally cracked after Memphis. I finished well in Memphis, but I did not enjoy it.
I feel fully recovered from a 70.3 after 8-10 days, so conceivably I could race after two weeks. In reality, I would never want to do that. The mental burden would be too much and I can’t imagine I would enjoy the second race at all. The closest I have ever done two 70.3s was seven weeks apart and that felt about right. Race, recover, do a short training block and mini-taper, race again.
Last year, did 2 x 70.3s six days apart late US season in Michigan & Utah.
In 2020, I scheduled other combos but only competed in a single race due to postponed and canceled races everywhere.
In 2019, I raced in 3 x 70.3s in 15 days in three different European nations.
A decade before, did 4 Olys in 4 consecutive weekends, and a month earlier did an Oly and 2x70.3s in three weeks.
And somewhere in between, I did a combo weekend of a Oly & 70.3 out in New England.
That’s what I’m willing to do.
Looking at your past postings, you look relatively new to tris, especially since the COVID disruption limited racing experience. You ask a lot of questions in your postings but do not respond with follow-ups, so it’s difficult to know where exactly your thoughts reside. So what would be too close for you? As David said, it depends. You looked at races in Europe with direct flights from NYC. If you want to do multiple races there cost-effectively, then racing consecutive weekends is a great way to get race experience while experiencing the world tri scene (and beyond). If you train in endurance for a peak 3–5-week block, then you could put in 2-3 races over a month.
If you want to see the US and experience races in new places, back-to-back weekends in close proximity are cheaper than flying and carting a bike in separate roundtrips.
If your goal is to gain race experience for longer races, then quantity is better than quality until you target a race for optimal placing and time.
If you want to simulate a full IM without the full race, then two back-to-back 70.3 works like a broken 500 in swim workouts. You string them together to learn a sense of what to expect when doing a full.
If you lack confidence in your racing experience, then scheduling 70.3 far apart is probably a less effective strategy to learn than racing in them too close together.
If you are confident in knowing how to recover from races actively, then set the time period based on recovery time-to-prepare time for the next race. If you don’t know yet, think through how you train in your builds, recover, and taper periods to establish a similar guide for race recovery.
Once you convince yourself mentally, you’d be amazed at what the body can do race-wise with a targeted taper and smart recoveries of rest and refueling combined with imaging and relaxing.
The best decision filter should be, if you think you can race the schedule you set, or think you can’t, you will be correct either way.
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A day? In the summer my usual was 4 weeks.
I’d do Muncie, then racine, then steelhead. 2019 was planning on back to back weekends but it didn’t work out. As many have said it kind of just depends on your fitness level and what you want to get out of those races.
Agree with what’s been said about your goals and which one is your ‘A’ race. I did Chattanooga 70.3 first then 3 weeks later Eagleman 70.3. Neither were my ‘A’ race and it was early-ish in the season. Felt horrible after Chattanooga because I think I had some heat exhaustion. Took about 7 days before body felt good again (usually takes 3-4 days). Rolled up to the start line for Eagleman feeling great. Did a PR and knocked 26mins off of my Chattanooga time and qualified for WC. Granted Eagleman was cooler and flatter but body was ready and able to perform with the 3 weeks apart. I’m 47-48 yrs old. Been doing tris for 15+ years and am pretty regular with my training, so I think my body can take it. With that said, I don’t think I will do that again because I felt like a** after the Chattanooga race and it probably took an unnecessarytoll on my body. Planning at least 4 weeks between my tris. Scheduled 3 x 70.3 this year plus 2 Olympics in between. Aiming for a tri a month May through Sept. Avoiding ‘hot’ races because of my Chattanooga 70.3 experience🥵.
Hope that helps.
Good luck!
Sunday to Saturday is a full no-go in my book. Not many good memories of that second race.
Sunday to Sunday is do-able if you’re fit, recover properly and the travel between races is reasonable.
Saturday to Sunday is actually pretty nice. I felt ready to roll on the second weekend. Again, assuming you’re fit and recover appropriately.
Two weeks is doable for most anybody that is “racing” vs. “finishing”. Assuming you really are ready to race.
I’ve done 2 70.3’s with 2 weeks apart. First one was a miserable failure & the 2nd two weeks later was a PR. So…it depends on your fitness I think. We see pros doing back to back weekends very well and not sure if we saw 3 weekends in a row–I’d think there would be some crazy efforts like that in the past. It can be done but do one well, and maybe not the other. Maybe it can be done very well–either way, set your expectations knowing what you’re possibly getting yourself into from a demand on yourself.
In December 2020 Rotorua hosted the inaugural Suffer Double - back to back 70.3s saturday/sunday, on a genuinely tough bike/run course at that. i suspect many who did that would admit this is maybe a bit too close together, but then some went faster the 2nd day!
just goes to show that, as has been said, it all depends on your fitness level, goals for the races and willingness to suffer
It is going to depend on your experience and how well you recover. A few years in and the recovery time from races just seems to get shorter. I could do 70.3s a week apart. But I’ve done lots of them and that amount of work is close to training for a full.
I routinely train to 70.3 fitness and race 3 times in 6 to 8 weeks with no issues.
Then I transition to 140.6 for a late season race. I have no issues with this schedule year over year
I did LCN and Triple T NC on consecutive weekends but that was only time.
If i was scheduling to be my best at both races then 6 to 8 weeks between them.
My 2 fastest 70.3s are 1 week apart. If you’re at a fitness peak its very doable. In hindsight I did too much “training” the week in between, and definitely felt it on the run portion of the second race, but it still turned out well.
It depends, like everything else that’s asked on here. Provide some more context.
Based on the info you provided (nothing), I would say 4 weeks minimum.
Not much new to add other than my n=1 experience. To directly answer your question…
How close would I be willing to race back to back 70.3’s?
3 Weeks if my training base is solid:
mileage is good, body feeling healthy/no little niggling aches/pains, workout consistency across all three disciplines, good balance of intensity and aerobic workouts, plenty of sleep/rest,body able to handle the higher training loadI prefer to have races back to back (Oly and 70.3 7/8 days apart OR two 70.3’s three weeks apart).
The first race will go OK, but I feel like I’m missing that top end “in-race” fitness which gets re-discovered during that race. Sort of rediscovering how to suffer in a race. The second race almost always goes even better because the body felt primed after that first race and mentally I know I’m willing to dig deeper in the Suitcase of Courage. But the key is always having sufficient training volume to handle the higher workload. If training volume isn’t where it should be, body won’t recover from the first race.
I have always felt that a shorter, higher intensity race in proximity to the “A” longer race is a great primer for the body. Taper too much and your body is weak and sluggish on race day. Taper to little and you can’t find that top end speed and power on race day. It’s not easy to figure out that part of the training puzzle. I don’t race a lot which is why for me have two races proximate to each other works with the first race as a nice set up to the second race.
Training and racing for me seems to always start with shaking the rust off before finding that peak form. I see this with 3 day training camps. The first day I feel like crap - the body is sore, stiff, not putting out the normal power, and fatiguing prematurely. The second day the body is feeling normal and everything feels good. It’s the third day where I see the biggest difference - I feel like I have Pro-Tour legs and climbing on the bike is the best of the three days.
Similar to what others have said, it depends on your fitness and goals. Back in 2011, I was in really good shape, maybe the best of my life. I did Lake Stevens on Aug. 14 (qualified for 70.3 Worlds), a local half-ironman on Aug. 27 (basically the same finish time as Lake Stevens - felt really good), and then 70.3 Worlds on Sept. 11 (pretty much crumbled - about 25 minutes slower than both the previous races). 70.3 Worlds was much warmer than I was used to, and it was not a wet suit legal swim, and I didn’t handle either well. I think that was the main reason for my lackluster performance, rather than too much racing. But who knows.