June 2, 2009

There have been a lot of great high school distance runners in the state of Kansas. If Derby's Jake Wike sits about 20 meters behind any of them going into the last 150 meters of a race, he has something that would beat them all. Its called 'the kick'.

He didn't just wake up one day and have it. It took the past eighteen years to develop.

Growing up, Wike participated in a number of sports from football, basketball, baseball, soccer -- to even swimming. This may very well be his secret to success. The cardiovascular fitness in swimming works a lot with breathing control.

"Even though I wasn't on the swim team in high school, we would still do swimming workouts to get ready for a meet," Wike says.

As for 'the kick', he calls it natural leg speed. Others call it intense offseason training.

Wike's training in the offseason consists of about 15 weeks of winter workouts, in which he runs "about" 616 miles. This works on the anaerobic base of the body.

"Throughout the season it is alot of fine tuning," Wike says. "Getting my speed up, making my form better, breaking strategy better."

His strategy is simple. Get in the pack and then use that natural leg speed to carry him. This strategy along with the training take a away doubts and make him a top distance competitor in the state.

Wike won his first state championship a year ago when he ran a 9:35.42 3200 meter. This year at state, he added two more gold medals with wins in the 1600 meter and 3200 meter races. The kick was key in each win. His times were 9:33.89 in the 3200 meter race, faster than last season, and 4:24.53 in the 1600 meter race. His first mile in the 3200 meter race was timed at about 5 minutes and the next mile was about 4 1/2 minutes.

"The whole week, I really wasn't thinking about winning it again," Wike says. "I was just planning on coming out and doing my best."

He won on the track he will be running on for the next four years at Wichita State -- and in front of his college coaches. Wike said that he felt his success on the track at Cessna Stadium was a sign to him to commit to WSU.

As for his goals at the next level, Wike says he'll get better by running with better runners, with hopes of turning his state gold medals into Missouri Valley championships.