No secret to the key behind emerging distance runner Nick Jakel’s big improvement sophomore season: He logs more offseason miles than anybody on the team

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Ask rising Chesterton sophomore distance runner Nick Jakel why logging more miles improves a runner’s endurance and he won’t tell you that it increases the efficiency of the cardiovascular system, making the heart pump a larger volume per beat, or that fatigue is delayed because oxygen delivery improves.
He won’t tell you that running long distances delays the onset of psychological discomfort by making what once seemed torturous more normal with repetition.
His answer cuts to the heart of the matter and reveals all he needed to know to pile on the miles.
“Coach (Tom) Moeller says the more you run, the better you get,” Jakel said. “I just go by that.”
So, coaches sometimes actually do know what they’re talking about and should be trusted? Who knew?
A runner since middle school, Jakel opened this season with a 10:18 in the 3200 meters, the metric 2 mile. A year ago, he ran a 12:02.
“He’s not at all the same, not at all,” said sophomore Spencer Martin, the school’s top distance runner. “It’s what he’s doing that people can’t see that’s more impressive. That kid works harder than anyone on the team."
Soy says the Strava data. The distance runners log their miles onto the app via their watches and the information is accessible to all their peers. Jakel’s 600 miles in the summer miles challenge ranked first and so did his 650 miles in the winter challenge.
If you’re not fast, you can become faster, but you’ll never work your way into burner status. If you don’t have spring in your legs, you can refine technique to become a better jumper, but the sky won’t be your limit. Distance runners can close the gap on more gifted runners by logging the miles.
In cross country, Jakel’s best mark was 20:07 as a freshman. He ran a 17:12 as a sophomore. That’s an improvement of 14%, same percentage as in the 3200 meters and he has all track season to improve on the latter mark.
Jakel said his “normal long run” over the winter was about 11 miles. While on a family vacation in Destin, Florida during spring break, Jakel said he “felt good that day,” so he extended the distance to a half marathon, which is 13 miles and change.
“I just ran around the city,” said Jakel, who stands 5-foot-8 and weighs 120 pounds. “I felt like running.”
Even on days he doesn’t feel like running, he runs.
“Sometimes it gets hard, but I just have to remember how it’s going to pay off,” he said.
His times are telling him that now, but the dedication set in before he had any guarantees that the approach would work. Blind faith in his coach kept him striding forward.
“Not until this year,” Jakel said of when the many miles brought about a breakthrough. “I was hoping so. That’s what kept me going out every day for runs.”
Cross country wasn’t his first choice, as has been the case with many a successful distance runner.
“I tried out for the soccer team freshman year, didn’t make that,” Jakel said. “That’s probably why I didn’t have so many miles freshman year because I was out for soccer practice.”
Junior Ray Hundt is a similarly dedicated runner, but he must limit his miles because of a cranky hip. Hundt also came to cross country after getting cut from soccer. Hundt said of Jakel that he is “really impressed by how well he’s been doing.”
In the 1600 meters in a meet with Lake Central and Michigan City, Hundt (4:43.16), Andrew Adams (4:43.52) and Jakel (4:45.58) ran as a pack and took the top three places in the race.