How to train for a "Back to back"

Just think of the sprint as a warm up and take it easy.  Dont try to beat your previous times, enjoy it and get ready for sunday.

I have no experience in the matter, but am in the same situation. I'm planning on doing AG Nationals and then a marathon on back to back weekends in August. I get eight days in between!!!!!

As others have said, train for the half and the sprint will take care of itself, just don't kill yourself on the sprint.

Personally, I'd do the HIM training plan with no changes. I'd do the sprint as a workout. The only question is how hard do you want to go. I'd go hard but not all out.

My $.02, not a coach.

Thanks for all your advise

But some might have misunderstood this.

The Sprint is on Saturday at 12pm and the HIM is the day AFTER (not a week after) at 12pm. Thats why they call it the "extreme". A week in between would be no big deal at all.

I will do HIM training but maybe add some volume on some weekends to simulate the race and see what happens

I don't see it as a big deal.  Will be a great warm up for the HIM.  Just don't kill yourself.  Would just go with HIM training and the sprint will follow.  I am running a HIM on a Sunday and a sprint on Weds in the summer and I am not going to worry about the Sprint and put my focus on the HIM. 

I think the biggest challenge in the mental piece. "Can I do it?"  Yes

This is an easy question!

Your HIM training will have you plenty fit for the Sprint.  Do nothing different in your training (I say this unless you have aspirations of winning/placing in the Sprint and just want to finish the half).

No special race strategy needed.  Just bang the race hard, then eat a LOT, then sleep well, drink until you are making more trips to the bathroom than you are used to and the next day you will be fine for the half.  In fact, you will do BETTER in the half than you would have if you'd taken the day before completely off, which many people mistakenly do.

Every season I end up doing 2-3 or more weekends with double headers.  The 2nd day I often feel better than the first.  There seems to be a temporary boost that comes from a short, hard effort.  But once I tried 3 races in a weekend and it really didn't work out well. 

The sprint and the HIM is treated as ONE event if you register for the "extreme". Both times will be combined for placing in your age group and so on.

Thanks to Jeffy and Yeats for sharing your experience. Sounds like a good plan and thanks for reminding me of how important the recovery period after the sprint TRI is.

Will see how training goes

yeats - 2011-03-07 3:24 PM

Just bang the race hard, then eat a LOT, then sleep well, drink until you are making more trips to the bathroom than you are used to and the next day you will be fine for the half. 

I'm doing this kind of racing 2x this year, with the American Triple-T Ohio as a Sprint on Friday, Two Olympic Tri's Saturday, and a Half-Iron on Sunday. Did this race last year and had a blast. In July I'm doing the Musselman Sprint on Saturday and the Half-Iron on Sunday. For TTT, I'll train a bit more volume than for a HIM but less than for an IM. For Musselman I'll just do HIM training. Agree with the quoted above that your race success hinges on pacing and recovery. I'm taking the early races (Sprints + Oly's) as warm ups -- just smiling, enjoying the scenery and keeping a pace at which I could maintain a bit of a conversation. After I cross the finish line, it's all about taking in fluids, replenishing spent carbs, and eating some lean protein. Stretch everything that is even remotely sore, hit the foam roller, and grab an ice bath. Compression tights if that's your thing. Sleep as well as you can and pace the HIM according to your plan. As always, have as much fun as humanly possible

This.

And emphasis on going easy the first race. Resist the temptation to go fast. It will catch up to you. Oh, and stay off your feet when you're not racing. Easy to get caught up in the touristy thing, the expo, spectating, dinner and sights, but it extends time on your feet - don't need to burn those matches unless you're racing.

FWIW, I don't think that you need to take the sprint race easy.  I think you can do the sprint hard and still be fully recovered for the HIM the next day.

But you can gauge this earlier in the season by finding one or more Saturday Sprint tris, then testing the waters by doing a longer brick workout the following day...see how you feel.

Sounds like a fun challenge.

I haven't done anything similar but have considered the TTT.

How you recover best I would think is important.