My goal is to make it to the 2020 Olympic Trials in the Steeple and I will do everything I can to achieve this goal

Before you get advice we need to know your speed times. 100/200/400?

Not enough info to actually know but it's worth a try. If you've never run 100mi/week you will be running them for sure. Either way, 26 is plenty young just start training like mad. You're gonna hahe to do lots of strides/short hill stuff no doubt.

Get yourself some EPO.

Just curious. Why steeple? Was that your event in college, or do you think it's the weakest event for qualifying? The trials standard for the steeple for 2016 was 8:32. You were 55 seconds off that at your best 2 years ago.

http://www.usatf.org/Events---Calendar/2016/U-S--Olympic-Team-Trials---Track---Field/Athlete-Information/Qualifying-Standards.aspx

Even though you are probably wanting to hold off on moving to the marathon, it might be your better chance to qualify for the 2016 trials. Something to consider.

If you take the drugs, you can do it. That is the only way. Every other US runner is doped to the sky on drugs. You can't compete without them.

Daniels is not an effective training plan. In fact your training plan is vastly unimportant. It comes down to how much you want it. Will you sleep 10 hours a day? Train hard 3-4 times a week and get out the door 13? Will you lay on your ass and relax in order to recover another 6 hours a day? Training plans aren't that important - just keep it simple, 8 weeks base, 4 weeks transition, 4-6 weeks of workouts, then racing... Do that twice a year every year for 3 years and you'll improve if you can do all of the above.

Heisenberg wrote:

Get yourself some EPO.

Yup start micro dosing with the help of a physician

Coebra, you never know what you can until you try.

I say that there is a cliche already in US in regards to training methods.

Daniels, Pfitz, Hansons, etc....

I'm not saying that are bad, en contrary.

But if you want to get ahead of people who used those methods, then you should try something more, better, to experiment new ideas.

If you wait for others to try a method to confirm that it works, then you are already behind them and many others will follow.

Your past of "burned out and bumming around for a few years" tells me you have zero chance. Dont waste your time. Harsh? You bet. Reality? Absolutely.

I don't think you have much of a chance of improving enough to make trials in the sc.

But I also don't think you have much to lose and will probably set some PRs and be glad you gave it a shot.

Your past of "burned out and bumming around for a few years" tells me you have zero chance. Dont waste your time. Harsh? You bet. Reality? Absolutely.

That generation wrote:

Your past of "burned out and bumming around for a few years" tells me you have zero chance. Dont waste your time. Harsh? You bet. Reality? Absolutely.

"Burned out" tells me more that he is ambitious.

800 is way too slow. Get your quarter down to 52 and build from there.

Post #2

Answers:

100/200/400 times:

I could give you these, but I don’t actually know the 100, I’ve only run 200s at the end of a workout (26.4 is about as fast as I can remember) and my fastest 400 is the split from my 800 pr, at 58. So, I don’t actually know my true prs.

WHY STEEPLE? My fifth year, the steeple was my event. It’s what kept from burning out and quitting the team. I also like it because when you are in the race, every barrier and especially every water jump is an opportunity to win and to lose. With one water jump, accelerating into and out of it, you can put a gap on the field and potentially win the race. You can also mess up badly on a water jump, and lose the race. The unpredictability is what makes it interesting for me.

USING DANILES:

Two reasons: 1) Its easy, 2) It’s a starting point. My training will evolve as I keep running and improvements will be made. Daniels is fairly straight forward and a bit on the conservative side, which may help my injury-prone body. Do I expect to follow it religiously forever? No. I expect my training to evolve from this template starting point.

..

Okay; Here’s the latest training history.

Starting second week of May, took 2 weeks completely off to treat femoral stress reaction. Self-diagnosed, but the feeling was similar to the femoral stress fracture I’d had four years ago. Began cross training in June, alternating swimming and rowing. Approx.. two weeks into low impact, started transitioning from swimming to aquajogging.

Started Running again July 3, running mileage totals in parentheses.

Week 1: Run 1 day, Cross train 2 (20min, 2.55mi)

Week 2: Run 1 day, Cross train 1 day (88min, 11.66mi)

Week 3: Run 1 day, Cross train 1 day (84min, 11.07mi)

Week 4: Run 2 days, Cross train 1 day (150min, 19.29)

Week 5: Run every day (180min, 24.09mi)

Week 6: Run every day (216min, 28.65mi)

Now, we are roughly back to the present.

Weeks 5, 6, 7, and 8 are just running once a day, for 30 minutes, just to get a baseline of running back.

..

Rough Outline Year Plan:

I figure I have enough time to throw together a quick 13-week “season” in place of cross country, which would end around the last week of November with a dumb little turkey trot 5k. That would give me enough time to cycle down for two weeks before getting into the buildup for the track season.

The idea of all this is to create a platform to base future training off of. I have to start somewhere, so why not with a little buildup? In future years, I will aim to compete in a few xc races.

Season basics:

Weeks 1-4 Phase I (260min, 34-37mi, Easy runs & strides)

Weeks 5-7 Phase 2 (300min, 40-42mi, E-Runs, Strides, R-pace)

Weeks 8- 10 Phase 3 (300min, 40-42mi, More Intervals + Tempos)

Weeks 11-13 Phase 4 (300min, 245min week of race, R and T pace)

The goal here is to get back into running, get some quality in, and do a dry run of a typical season.

..

I figure on increasing season mileage totals 5-10 miles per season, so I’d be getting 40-50 in during 1st track season, 50-60 in during 2nd xc season, then 60-70 for 2nd track season, etc. Maybe I can jump more, but that’s the general idea for now.

Questions: What should I think about doing for the "peaking" phase near the end? I have the workout end covered, but I'm a little bit mystified so far on how much volume I should keep.

Please Critique! I'm not saying that any of my ideas are perfect and more correct than others. I'm open to and willing to hear other views.

What is your training background? What kind of weekly volume were you doing in 2014 when you PR'd in the steeple? What were you doing prior to your stress reaction?

If the motivation is there, this is all about how much hard work your body can handle and adapt from.

You want to be an Olympian? Run more miles. I'm by Letsrun definitions a running hobbyist and I run more miles than you're planning to. You were a collegiate runner, you should be able to pick up and run 50 miles a week with little risk of injury. 20 mile weeks will accomplish nothing. Maybe you'll lose some weight? But you'll never get in killer shape. You're not getting any younger, so doing a "dry run" of a season is just wasting time. Build a real base. Start easy sure, 30 mpw, 40 mpw, but you should be shooting for at least 60-70 mpw within a few months. If 40 mpw got you to your college prs, which you yourself call mediocre, why do you expect now they'll get you to an elite level? You need to be shooting to push 100 mpw within a year if you're hoping to get down into 8:30 steeple range. You're going to have to really commit here. Read up on as much elite training as you can find. Get a coach if possible.But run more miles.

Eating my words a bit now seeing you mentioned the stress reaction. What type of mileage were you doing before? I stand by my comments about increasing mileage, but only as fast as your femur can handle obviously.

All depends on what training you did to get your PR's. Let me save you some time and effort: If you PR's are off of 50mpw or more you are completely delusional if you think you can just drop over a minute off your SC (never mind your age) without serious PEDS. If you did them from very little training then there is an outside chance just run tons o miles. Either way - totally go for it.

....but don't expect an EddyLee type phenomenon. It's been done.