Let's imagine that there's a runner, Joe, who just graduated high school. He likes running but isn't fast enough to run for a college. His only goal for his running career is to get as close to his maximum potential as possible sometime in his career, most likely when he is in his 30s. He doesn't care about racing during his 20s because he knows that his lifetime PRs will most likely not come from this time period. In this case, would there be a reason for Joe to peak 2-3 times every year as most runners do, or would it be better for him to forego traditional "training cycles" or seasons and just take 10-15 years to first build an enormous aerobic base with tons of mileage, tempos, etc. and a small amount of fast stuff to maintain basic speed? Then when he's older he can focus on peaking for a small number of races and set massive PRs. Obviously this type of training would not be as fun for most people because of the absence of races for over a decade, but in the long term, would it lead to better results?