Predict my steeplechase time?!

Can't really predict your times (very difficult in the chase), but I can give you a comparison from my times this season.

I've run 4:16.1 for the mile (going through 1500 in ~3:58-3:59) and am in 14:30-14:45 shape for the 5k (ran a 15:13 2 hours after a hot steeplechase). My best chase so far this season is a (slow for me) 9:19.

I reckon your 10:00 target is good, but will be very tough to hit. Perhaps concentrating on 10:30 pace at first is better.

I would agree, start comfortably for the first 1000m so you can get into a rhythm, then try and make some moves over the last 5 laps.

Forgot to add a time: Given your current fitness, I would say to aim for right around 10:00-10:15

Thanks for the replies.

I wouldn't describe 9:19 as slow! A mate has managed 9:11 this year (probably my 3000 flat time!), he's probably closer to 4 minutes for the mile, though not the ideal build for hurdling.

Only one T&F league meet left for me this season, so I'll aim for ~10:15 and see what happens.

Just as a bit of advice for the two foot landing -- try to imagine that you are running through the water pit. Don't think of it as a jump. We had a guy on my team who did the very same thing, he would hop up on the barrier and think about jumping down and it was natural to land on two feet. If you think about running through the barrier and waterpit, where one of your steps just happens to be three feet higher than the rest, but you keep the same running motion, it is easier to land with one foot. I think landing with two probably costs you more than one second per lap, so it's a pretty important thing to improve.

And I have no idea what time you will run. Work on your flat speed to help out, but just think about efficiency over the barriers. I'm a 4:19 mile, 15 min 5k guy and I did the steeple in 9:08 this year, so you don't have to be amazingly fast to do well.

Most say that a good steepler can run the race in the same amount of time it takes to run a 2 mile open race.

If you can run 10:00 for 2 miles and can hurdle well and work on your water you should run 10:00 in the chase.

I was barely sub 9:20 indoors in the 3000, and could run low 9:30's in the chase. Hurdling was my strength though. I could beat alot of much faster runners when we put some barriers on the track.

I've heard about the comparison to your 2M time elsewhere. I'm probably just outside 10 mins at the moment - I'll run a 1M track race in a few weeks, but all I have to go on was 4:47 from March, off the back of high volume, low intensity marathon training.

Thanks for the advice re the water hurdle - I'll give it a try. At the moment I seem to have some kind of mental block which stops me running 'fluidly' (sorry) out of the water. Possibly due to falling in face first on my SC debut ;)

adroit181 wrote:

Just as a bit of advice for the two foot landing -- try to imagine that you are running through the water pit. Don't think of it as a jump. We had a guy on my team who did the very same thing, he would hop up on the barrier and think about jumping down and it was natural to land on two feet. If you think about running through the barrier and waterpit, where one of your steps just happens to be three feet higher than the rest, but you keep the same running motion, it is easier to land with one foot. I think landing with two probably costs you more than one second per lap, so it's a pretty important thing to improve.

This is accurate. Just to add to this, however, that the water jump becomes much easier if you're able to maintain good speed/accelerate coming into the barrier as you'll get more horizontal carry thus decreasing the force on that first foot hitting the ground. It also helps to really drive the trail knee coming off the barrier and getting some distance between your legs. This will make landing with one foot more natural and your acceleration out of the pit faster. I'd be surprised if you're only losing a second a lap on this. In effort expendended, its likely more like 3-5.

As for your time prediction, as the others have said 10 minutes should be well within your capability if you clean up your technique.