Stupid or just crazy - marathon followed by HIM

I did a HIM (my second) about two weeks after a marathon (my first) last year and would have had a personal best HIM if not for some tire issues. I think my fitness was just right, and two weeks was enough recovery for me after my first marathon. Definitely doable, but of course, I'm a triathlete that's just in it to finish it, so I'm not really going very fast.

Bonkers

I think it depends on how fast you personally recover from a marathon.

Also how do you plan on running the marathon? Going for a PR Is your wife faster or slower than you? If she is slower and you are running with her the whole time you may recover well since your not pushing hard. However if she if faster than you, your male ego will force you to try and keep up at which point you will be wiped out after the marathon, and recovery before the HIM may not happen.

For myself I would not do a HIM the week after a marathon, 2 weeks after I would. However I'm in my late 40's so recovery does not happen instantly like when I was younger.

It depends on your ability to recover and how you plan on running.

I personally couldn't do it. I need two weeks just to recover after a marathon.

For myself, stupid. As in have my surgeon at the HIM kind of stupid.

For you, probably plain crazy.

Seems like a waste of money. Two entirely different races with two entirely different training approaches (unless you've got unlimited time to train). Train for both, and fail at both.

I agree with the poster above. They are two different beasts. If you have never done a HIM, I think you might be underestimating how much recovery time you'll need before taking on a HIM.  Plus, I don't see how you could train properly at the same time for either race.

Edited by ingleshteechur 2015-04-30 9:24 AM

It's certainly possible. It's not advisable.

I'd say if you were consistently running 80-100 miles per week, the marathon wouldn't beat you up that much.

I did a sprint du 6 days after a PR marathon and won the overall. I did my first HIM a month after an even faster marathon.

It's all about the training. You don't have anything in the logs. Hard to tell if you've got enough base to get from here to there.

If you are young and tend to recover quickly, you might get away with it......Back in the day, I could often do a really good race within a week or two of a hard marathon. But it would always come back to get me later with a series of minor illnesses and injuries, and a protracted period of feeling physically exhausted and mentally stale. A similar thing happened after my first HIM--I felt "recovered" after a week or so, but then struggled for several months with this kind of stuff, probably because I resumed hard training (for a half-marathon in my case) too quickly. Then again, I was 43 at the time.

If you do it, I'd suggest taking a few months off and kind of serious training (and probably a few weeks off ANY training) to let your body get back to normal. Not sure how serious you are about time for either race, but if the goal is "just" to finiish the HIM, if the run gets ugly (I really don't see it having a catastrophic impact on swim or bike, unless you totally trash yourself in the marathon or aren't well-trained for either event) you can always just walk.

Thanks everyone for the input. I am young (30's) and if I do both (still haven't decided) would run the marathon with my wife who tends to be about a minute per mile slower than me at distance race pace.

I agree with Ziggie. I just don't understand the concept of " My goal for the HIM is just to finish.".

Damn! You could just walk a marathon with that attitude, but why? I like to compete, so maybe my perspective is different. And to this point I would never enter an event where I couldn't prove something to myself.