Back To Back Triathlons 1 Weekend Apart

It all depends on your ability level and training loads you've been doing.  And some people just recover faster than others.

Oly to sprint or vice versa?  I'd say sure.  Oly to HIM?  I would usually not suggest that.

I dnf'ed at the Du Nationals last weekend but did about 1/2 of the race.  I'm racing again this coming weekend in a sprint.  I've got a lot of back to back races this year, but never with something as long as a HIM the second one.

Oh, and welcome to BT!!

Thanks for the advice. I am hoping to only finish both and not going for any time or breaking any record.

Would it be unreasonable to use the Olympic as a "warm-up" and not "race" it, or is doing this combo just nuts period?

I'm of the philosophy that you pay to enter a race, you race it.  Even if you are going into as a hard training day, you still race it the fastest that you can based on the fitness you have that day.  Which means you are still going to need the recovery time afterward.  To me if you pay to enter a race and then make it a slower effort than what would normally be the pace you'd race (assuming you intentionally are going slower) then you are throwing away money and why bother?

I certainly don't think its nuts, but we simply don't have a lot of information to work with to provide suggestions (training volumes, past racing experience, typical recovery experiences).

Would I personally recommend it?  No.  There are always other races that you could make quality efforts and not sacrifice one over the other.

There's no reason to think you can't finish both back-to-back (as long as you are trained to finish the HIM in the first place).  Having a good HIM a week after an oly probably requires a high level of fitness and very good recovery capabilities.

I think I will hold off for now. The HIM is just really close to where I live and wouldn't require the "travel" expense that others would so I thought I'd give it a shot. I do not have high training volumes and do not know what my recovery would be. I'm just one of those guys whose always been "fit" from various activities and will wake up and do a 1/2 marathon one morning without any prior running experience or training. Granted my most recent 1:59 finish isn't stellar, but I was pretty happy given my lack of training. I am training for the Olympic currently and think I will stick to that and race it as hard as I can. There's always next year for a HIM or maybe even an IM.

Or even a late season HIM that you can train for.

Waking up and running a half versus waking up and doing a HIM are two completely different animals.

I certainly believe that. That's why I am training for this thing!

Believe it or not, their is quite a difference between an oly and a HIM. To do them back to back would require an incredible amount of fitness on your part. If you were doing a sprint and an oly back to back, I would say that would be much more   manageable.

It's not impossible if you are going just to finish either race, however, you wouldn't be racing either race, but instead pacing both races, which you could do in training and not have to pay $$'s for it.

 IMO I would stick to the oly training, and race that one competitively. After that race you will know what your recovery time is. I'm sure you'll be glad that you didn't do an oly and a HIM back to back. You still have time to train for a HIM, and then do one late season. Good luck!!