Maine Milesplit Q & A with Jason Kaake
Jason, you’ve had a great start to your season, 2nd place at the Laliberte meet & a dominating performance at Edward Little last Friday, where you ran 16:43 for 5k on a hot day. What do you attribute to your early season success? You must have put some miles in this summer, what was your training like?
Of course my coaches Mr. Rice and Mr. Dwyer help me tremendously giving me pointers and strategies for practices and meets. Pretty much the whole way up to every meet we’re talking about what to do and what not to do. During the summer the Green Mountain Valley Camp was so much fun and with the great staff it was the best camp I’ve ever been to. The training was hard but I’d always think about the tough junior class when practicing.
The KVAC is filled with some of the states top distance runners, more specifically the junior class. With all the talent around you, does it motivate you to train harder? Who is your biggest rival?
Yes the junior class is insane and of course it motivates me, every practice it’s hard not to think about what everyone else is doing for a work out. There’s not really one top guy this year that is a sure win every race so the top rivals would be Luke F, Will G, Kelton C, Liam C, Matt D, and I mean there’s just so many that could be a contender for the 1 spot and from the west there’s Nate Hathaway and Taylor Dundas who could win the state title.
With the season started, and you off to a great start. What races are you looking ahead too? What are your goals for the end of the season?
I’m really looking forward to this next race at Belfast to see how I run the state course this early and running the FOC for the first time this year will also be a race to look forward to and of course Regional’s and States and KVACS. Goal for the season probably just like everyone else is to be state champion and to break 16 for the team is to make it to states and rebuild and see how far our team will go senior year.
Being a top distance runner isn’t easy, you have to put in the miles and do all the work, you can’t fake it. What’s a regular training week look like for you? What is your favorite workout to run? How about what’s the one workout you dread?
Regular training week usually has 2 speed workouts which are like 600 repeats up to mile repeats then the rest of the week is distance (about 6 miles) not a real precise distance we try to mix up where we run. Favorite workout would probably have to be 400 repeats because after running the 400m for the first time since 7th grade and running a 53 I’ve became exited to run another. But the one work out I hate is the 800 repeats cause it seems like the pace is so fast.
What would an ideal day look like for you?
Wake up at 6:20 eat something that looks good go to school, go home get something to eat then to practice from 3-4:30 then back home to do it all over again.
Final Question … Long Run or Speed Workout…. Which do you prefer?
Speed....