If YOU were running the Oly Trials, Which prep races would you run?

Bump? I'm just trying to get some idea of the kind of prep races people will be looking at.

Ignore my "assumptions" - Are you running a fall marathon before the February race? Running 10ks? Halfs? Altitude training?

Any insight is appreciated.

New Haven 20k on Labor Day, RnR Philly end of September, BAA Half Marathon second weekend of October, Philly Half middle of November.

For a good prep 6-10 weeks out, you will have to travel. December and January just don't offer good, long races in NE. Houston Half marathon is at a good time in January. Club Cross country is in December, but will be in CA I believe.

I'm doing Chicago in the fall. It's pretty close to the Trials, but 4+ months will be enough time, considering it will be my first marathon race in over 1.5 years.

Also planning on New Haven and Houston. I think Houston Half will be flooded with guys looking for a Trials tuneup and last minute guys trying to sneak under 65.

Grandma's marathon 6/20

Beach to Beacon 10k ??

US 20k road champs 9/7

Monumental half marathon 11/7

Nice, thanks! A lot of these should be on the short list.

I've heard a few comments that some of the elites will be skipping a fall marathon and I found this a little surprising. Historically, some of the best performances at the trials have come from people who ran fall marathons (Meb '12 off the top of my head). There's also some good precedent with Frank Shorter and Joan Benoit-Samuelson's quick turnaround between the trials and and the Olympics, themselves. Of course, these are people who could get top 3 at the Trials without tapering off too much, but there's still some good questions to consider for the also-rans (respectfully) if the focus is the Trials.

I think it's hard to ignore the Beach to Beacon / Falmouth double, since things could click for at least one of those and they're early enough to get back to focusing on the marathon in Sept-Jan with a little speed under your belt. The 20k championships are also a great competitive scene. I personally don't think cross-country is a great idea just because of the possibility of injury, but I can understand going that route to stay competitive and train with teammates.

Thanks for the input. Much appreciated.

If I hit the standard this spring my plan will be to run the US 10 Mile Champs/Twin Cities 10 Mile in early October, take a short break, then start my cycle for the Trials. The only race I'd do during those last 4 months would be Club XC (which would probably be a little ugly considering that I won't have done XC specific training and won't be prepared for the fast start required in a big cross country race).

What I'm hearing for prep races for qualifiers are a spring marathon or something early like Grandma's and then a fast half in the fall or winter- Philly, Houston. Some folks do well off of a short build-up and can run Chicago or NYC and then bounce back for the trials.

What races do people like best to try to hit the standard late in the game? I know Houston half/full is the last day for qualifying. What else is out there to go for an OTQ in the fall/winter?

In general, the over/under principle applies to most goal race preperation, aka a miler prepping for the Olympic 1500 trials should be running a 3k or two as well as a few 800's/1000's.

The rule of thumb is this -

1. Do roughly twice as many "unders" as "overs".

2. Do your "overs" earlier in the season, your "unders" later in the season.

(Disclaimer: I'm not a marathoner, so take the following advice with a grain of salt).....

For marathoners, this concept is harder to apply since most marathoners don't believe in doing ultrathons as prep for a marathon - it's physical damage (aka the amount of time it would take to recover from an ultrarun) exceeds it's endurance benefits. But doing a 30 mile run early in the season might be applicable, and it's probably better to do 10k's on the track rather than half marathons on the road for the "under" prep races. Just my two cents.