Training for multiple races of different distances in the same season

x2. You can go hard for your sprint three weeks out from your Oly. Just take it easy the few days before the sprint, and feel free to give yourself a recovery day afterwards. Or, just treat the sprint as an intense training day. In June 2007, I did a sprint with an Oly three weeks later. Feel free to look at my logs to see how I managed my training for those races. I did like a mini 3-day taper type deal for the sprint just to practice some of the stuff I would do at the end of my Oly taper (Oly was my 'A' race). I did well in both races....aside from not freakin' pushing myself hard enough of the Oly run (that was a mental thing, not a physical thing; I was prepared to do better than I had). My training volumes might just have been a little higher than you'll be doing as I had a HIM later in the season.

Ha! I know where you are coming from.  This whole season was basically trying to race and not get hurt for MOO.  My last oly a month or so before, I didnt even want to race cuz I was sick of keeping stuff in the tank.  I felt good and uncorked it a little and was the best race of the season for me outside of doing the first IM.

To the OP, it is a good idea physically and mentally to prioritize your races and do them according to your overall long term season game plan.  For example, while hammering the heck out of my HIM would have been fun, there were bigger fish to fry so I made it a more casual day with other goals including testing nutrition and some other things (ok, had a secret goal of peeing on the bike but couldnt get er done).  So dont make every race about PRs necessarily, maybe steps or things to focus on as part of your bigger race.  Also did this at my oly by putting myself in the 2nd row of the swim to get the feel of being in the mix though a weak swimmer.  Fun stuff like that!

I train for the "big" race I have planned and everything else just shows up whenever it falls .....

Before IMFL I did an irondistance aqua velo (the swim and bike of an irondistance race) then 2 weeks later ran a BQ time at a marathon and then 3 weeks later was FL.  I treated the two before the race as intense training days and gave myself about a week to recover between them and ramping up training some more.

In retrospect I would have gone a lot easier at the marathon so that I could have recovered better for FL.