HIM during IM training

Moab,

 If you are new to IM then I would do the HIM months (rather than weeks) out from the IM.  No closer than 10 weeks.  

If you are experienced at IM, and recover fast, then up to 3 weeks out can work.  However, I prefer 7 weeks out.  

Hope this helps,

g

I did Eagleman in the middle of June and IMLP was the end of July, so about 6 weeks in between.  The caveat for me??  Eagleman was actually the BEGINNING of my IM training for the race, so I only really got 5 weeks or so of real training in for the IM.

(Since Eagleman was epic heat/humidity I actually dropped out after less than a mile into the run knowing I would not be able to run the whole thing, so I shortened my recovery significantly and actually rode a 100 miler the next weekend).

No coach (certainly not gordo) and not a speedy racer (certainly not Daremo), so with a grain of salt.....

I wanted one as well (I had done 2 already) in prep for IMAZ (first IM), only one I could reasonably schedule time and money wise was 5 weeks out.  Ideal?  Probably not, but I approached it as an IM training day to get pacing and nutrition down.  I did not taper going into it, in fact had a 90 mile bike the sat before and a 20 mile run the monday before.  I kept to my IM pace (actually, IM effort) and just went slow, yet still PRd by 25 minutes.  And it was a fairly difficult course with lots of climbing on the bike, which came in handy at flattish IMAZ, if I could properly pace that HIM I could do the same at IMAZ

It kind of messed with the last 5 weeks, instead of a last 2 week build and 3 week taper, I had a .5 week recovery, 1.5 week build and a 3 week taper.

I don't think it affected my IMAZ performance, since I came in pretty much where I thought I would.

Keep sharing -- if you go into the rec.sport.triathlon archives then you'll find some pretty entertaining stuff I posted in the early days!  I learn a tremendous amount from my novice athletes.  

g

I think as important as how quickly you recover is how hard to tend to race.  There is a big difference in recovery time between a training run of 13 miles and race of 13 miles and big difference between a training ride of 56 miles and a race of 56 miles. 

So if your tendancy is to go balls to the wall and leave everything you've got out on the course, it's gonna take longer to recover than if you race it for fun and as a good training opportunity to work on logistics, transitions and nutrition/hydration plans.

I have a different motivation for doing a HIM on the road to my IM.  I'm gonna do a HIM relatively early in the season to put me in good starting fitness for my IM training.  Kinda of a little more motivation to build my base before I ramp up to IM training mileage.

~Mike