giving it another tri

Y'all think doing another half IM June 5th would be too quick for me?  I have a choice of an olympic or half.  With the full august 28th, I want to get at least a couple more races in to get used to the open water craziness.   there are two near me June 5th, the black bear olympic and sprint in the poconos, and the rev3 in quassy (which is a much bigger event with a lot of pros) which has a half.  

I'm leaning to the olympic in the smaller venue, but on the other hand, I think another half before the full would be a serious confidence booster for me.    

Well not having been through one yet and just speaking on how I am.  Doing another half would be a serious confidence boost for me and give me the reassurance I would need to go into a full.  Either way you chose your are just awesome.

I can only ask a question to you on this. Would you rather have the confidence or be fresh and injury free. Overtrained and nagging injuries would suck going in to something you have put a lot of effort in to.

I have no experience to speak from so I'll leave it at that.

I'm no expert, not by a long shot, but I think another HIM June 5th might be too soon, you still need to completely recover from Sunday. Plus I'm sure you want to gain some more fitness before doing the HIM distance again, today is May 18, so a June 5th HIM will just give you enough time to completely recover, and then you can't really put in many hard training days because you will have to taper again for June 5th.

Maybe shoot for early July for an Olympic or a half, will give you enough time to recover, get a few hard training weeks, and taper again. You could always do the HIM in Muncie July 9th with me (wink), but there are plenty of races all over the country in early July. Also, there is an Ironman 70.3 in Rhode Island on July 10th.

Once again, I am no expert, so just take this as one person's opinion.

 I think you're right on the half.. but the Olympic isn't much more than a typical long  training day in terms of volume based on my plan, so long as I don't go all out.  I would do Muncie, but my wife would kill me if I did another travel destination event, I gotta keep it somewhat local till Louisville :)   I'm also in the outer banks from the 2nd to the 10th so I can't really even do the RI one (though I wanted to).

I am thinking of just doing the olympic, more for the swim experience than anything, and not going all out on the run for sure.  I might not even really taper much for it, maybe just lay off the running for a couple days prior. 

We have a couple of sprints in mid July I want to hit as well.  My only reason is really just to get a lot more comfortable in the mass swimming starts.  I am a little bit worried about the way Louisville starts off the dock.. I need to work on not getting excited at the start and just getting that tunnel vision so I can focus on form until I get into a rythym.  

Also, dont freak out about the swim so much. Louisville is the only time trial swim start in Ironman. They send swimmers into the water every 3 seconds, so no mass start here. It was not congested at all on the swim. It really is no biggie... Orlando was probably WAYYYYYYY more traumatic than Louisville will be.

Coming from a guy who ran 75 miles in 19 hours and then PR'd at Ironman Arizona last year 3 weeks later, the crazy man within me says go for it. But, I am used to the distances, so on this one, I am going to side with Nate & Jillian. RACES do NOT build confidence, SOLID TRAINING DOES! Races only validate the training. SO, if you do not have the confidence going into 140.6, you should probably do a few centuries and brick 5-10 miles afterwards. THAT would give you far greater confidence than another half. IMHO...

Besides that, If you do a race in a couple weeks, you are still recovering now, you would maybe have a week of training, then taper before the next event, then recovery. You would, in escence, lose 5 weeks of valuable training for the sake of another race. Focus on the big daddy, as Louisville will take you to your limit...

i'm with dan and gang on this one... quality training for a bigger race will trump the shorter distance (especially if the recovery of this one and the next one will cause a delay in your training).  eye on the prize.  but i'm also a competitor, so i totally get the urge to race again quickly.

You should do a few sprint races, they are so much fun, and to me, they build confidence. I love to race, and doing a sprint race every few weeks breaks up the monotony of training day in and day out. My last sprint is on June 11th, my last race that is all about fun, then on to the HIM and IM.