By: Stephen Bain
Boys Coordinator
Many sophomores are expected to get an impressive vertical spike in their performances as they learn the sport which is ours, Cross Country. This year, sophomore Kent Garrett of Guerin Catholic High School has done more than what could possibly have been expected of him by everybody, excluding himself.
After a productive track season, he has gone on to compile some very fast times including the 4th fastest in all of 2A boys
and a possibly even more impressive 4th place finish at the lightning fast Hamilton County Meet. We take a quick moment to try and find out what makes these wheels turn
Bain: Kent, the first time I began noticing impressive times for you came in the track season. Would you say that you made a break through during this past spring?
Garrett: I’m not sure if you would exactly call it a break through, but almost more of a focus on my running. In the fall of my freshman year, I didn’t really put all of my attention on running. I was at a new school, I was making new friends, I had to put more effort into my schoolwork…things were just different the fall of my eighth grade year compared to my ninth grade year. In middle school, I had always loved the 800, and a goal of mine was to win county in the 800. I didn’t do that in middle school, so I really wanted to exceed in it in high school. (It’s still one of my goals today.) I really started to commit to distance running in the spring, so that may be the cause of the faster or more respectable times. (I honestly didn’t know anybody had recognized those times until you just told me.)
Bain: Now I know this summer you had a pretty amazing experience in helping you prepare for this season. Can you share some details about this, and how much of an impact has it made on this season?
Garrett: This summer training has been about 95% different from last years training. Although I still ran with the Guerin boys, I didn’t join the team until mid July last year. This year I was doing speed workouts at the start of June (for the Midwest Distance Gala) took a week off, and got back to building my base. In mid-June I found about this thing called ‘Boulder Running Camps’ held in Boulder, Colorado, on the Internet. Jay Johnson and the Colorado buffalos host the camp. It wasn’t a camp where they just press this entire intense running into you, but it was a great camp for XC nerds like myself. We spent about 70% of our time just talking about running; Jay really went over the sciences of running. (Being at a small school where the running community isn’t huge, it was great to be with so many kids that were this interested in running.) Jay talked about anaerobic fitness, aerobic fitness, acidic blood content, peaking, and things like the ‘VDOT’. Going into the camp, I thought it’d be a lot like the Indy All-Star camp, where we would run and then have some fun throughout the day. This was not the case. We were running, eating, sleeping, or watching Jay explain to us one of his power points. I highly recommend this camp to anyone that is trying to understand running. Although I may not be the most naturally talented in the world, I felt that this camp gave me a different and better understanding of distance running. We spent 5 days on the Colorado campus, running in some of the prettiest places imaginable. There were about 50 runners at the camp (20 girls, 30 boys) and 10 counselors (Mainly college kids, all from Division 1 respectable programs, like Penn State, North Carolina, and Colorado). On the first day we were divided into groups based on our talent, so for about 5 days I ran with kids in my talent range from places like Montana, Texas, and even a boy from Alaska (no not Trevor Dunbar, other kids run there too). Like I stated earlier, we weren’t pressed into any INSANE HIGH-ALTITUDE MAX OUT TRAINING!!! The camp consisted of 3 days of easy runs, one day where we had a 30-minute fartlek, and then a deadly 90-minute long run up-and-down Magnolia road. Meeting the kids were great, doing camp stuff was awesome, and learning the science of running was very helpful, but the coolest part about the camp was when Nike gave us a ton of free gear! (Nike sponsors Jay, so he really hooked us up big time.) I got a free pair of Nike socks, a backpack, a pair of trainers, and then a book written by one of the camp counselors. All in all it was just a fantastic experience; I highly recommend it to anyone looking to become a smarter and better runner. And the best part about this camp? I got to go for free! The camp costs about $600, which is an un-attractive price range, but they held a scholarship contest! The contest is as follows: “Write in anything you would be willing to do to go to Boulder camp. Legit, funny, anything you want, but make it clean!” I submitted my entry, and I made it to the finals. All I had to do was get the most votes and I could go to the camp for free. Thanks to the great invention of Facebook, I had a group of supporters that spent way too much time voting for me! My good friend Wyatt Wunnerberg voted at least 50 times, and my Uncle Greg really pulled it out with about 60+ votes. Although I got to Boulder camp in an odd way, I got there somehow.
How much of an impact has it made?
Definitely a significant amount. Do I think I could be at the level I am without the camp? Most likely, it wasn’t like I went to this camp, and magically started pulling out 50-60 mile weeks. Going to this camp really taught me the fundamentals of distance running. I learned a lot of techniques that made my training much more different than most of the runners in Indiana. After Boulder, I really learned how to prepare for my runs and how to get an edge. (The first meet of the season was 3 minutes faster than the first meet of my freshman year; something big must of happened.) The Boulder camp didn’t give me some cutting-edge pill that makes me invincible to pain, but it did give me a personal formula to running. Without it, I may not be in the 16:10’s, but I may be in the 16:30’s, or I may be injured. Who knows? Either way I am still very thankful for the opportunity.
Bain: What are your goals for this season?
Garrett: Going into the season, I set my bar pretty low and put it at an obvious standard: Not to get injured. I had things going on in the back of my head, things that told me I was not working hard enough or I was working too hard too early, and I just had to start listening to the feel of my body. (I pull myself on a no watch/no numbers policy.) If you get injured your freshman year, it’s excusable since you have made such a drastic jump. If you get injured your sophomore year, it’s a different case. By then you’re letting your team down, your showing that you may not always be there to live-up to your promises or your training. (And when you get injured, it really scares your teammates. It gets them saying “Well if he worked that hard and got hurt, I guess I will too.”) After the Boulder camp I think I found a way to prevent injuries, so I believe that goal may be taken care of, only time will tell. After a month of the season, my goal is to go out and advance from sectionals. Something that many people may not know, is that NO Guerin runner has advanced from any running affiliated event. Not one person has advanced whether it’s in XC, or in the 200-meter dash. No Guerin runner has ever advanced from sectional play. I’d be honored to be the first.
Bain: Are there any particular people who have inspired you to your recent performances?
Garrett: The person that has inspired me the most in my running has been a former teammate of mine, Louis Ganser. Although Lou may not have been as lucky as I have been in the athletic field, Lou’s doing just fine. (He’s a student at NOTRE DAME!) Lou was the first Guerin athlete to be a 4-year varsity runner, or a 4-year varsity…. anything! Lou’s story is just so un-believably cool…so Hoosier like…except the under-dog doesn’t come out on top. Lou ran 2 years all by himself! When Louis was a freshman, he spent his entire summer running with a guy that used to be an assistant for IU’s XC team, Chris Buhler, talk about intense. Think about your freshman year as a cross-country runner? You dogged it on your long runs and listened to funny stories from the cool upperclassmen. Lou Ganser never had that opportunity, he was always by himself. Then his junior year he was joined by 2 teammates in the summer, yet still didn’t have enough for a full team. His senior year (my freshman year) he had his first full team…all of which was 10 guys (5 freshman). He put everything he had into cross-country. 4 full years, whether with teammates or not, dedicated to Guerin Catholic cross-country. Thinking about that makes my long runs or any run much easier, because I know that I will have at least one teammate hopefully working just as hard. For two years Lou Ganser couldn’t say the same. All the hard work and dedication I inherited from him, without the example he set his senior year, I probably would never have tried this hard in distance running. All my Guerin team-mates have been inspiring though; especially Stephen Lindley, Joe Crawford, and Lou Ganser. People that may not have been inspring, but very helpful have been my athletic director Chris Buhler and coach Gordon Elston. They’ve stuck with me and really helped my training from the start. And he may not have been ‘inspiring’ but Drew Shields has been very friendly and helpful to me. Every now and then I will bug him and he will spend a minute or two of his time to give me some tips about running, it’s very thoughtful and I’m thankful.
This video was also very influential. Back in January of 2009, I was just browsing on the Internet and found this video. I was never that interested in my running talent until I saw this, and after I watched it I immediately said to myself.” THAT’S ME, THAT’S WHAT I HAD BEEN SAYING ALL ALONG. WHAT AM I DOING! I NEED TO GET TO WORK NOW!”
http://www.digitalsports.com/video/type/organization/typeid/27/id/1663359.aspx
(Except the race I wanted to win was Hamilton County, not HCC.) And I’m referring to the parts when he talks about “7th grade” until “I just didn’t get it.”
That work ethic really didn’t pan out…since I was injured by May. But I was caught up with a new found love of running. Thanks Dyl.
Bain: You are running on a small team, and putting up big numbers. Every time I get the chance to talk to talented small school athletes, I have to ask how this changes their training. I know you have some talented teammates around you, but how is the team atmosphere for you in a one-class sport?
Garrett: The team chemistry is phenomenal. One thing that you must remember is that our team only has one senior compared to our 14 freshmen. So the leadership role is assigned by voice, not by age. On the workout perspective, it is not as drastic as you may initially think. I live in the city of Noblesville, which means I would be running for Noblesville schools. Even though it’s a bigger ‘more competitive school’ I personally believe I wouldn’t be running any faster times. My coach, Gordon Elston, has done an un-believable job to help myself, and my teams other talented runners, by keeping us in an effective training method. Another thing you should remember is that at Guerin, at anytime a student can not only quit the team, but also leave the school. It’s somewhat of my responsibility to remain with my team to keep everyone together. I spent all my summer training with the Guerin gang (unless I was in Boulder) to keep that team chemistry alive. If I decided to be a hot shot or something and do my workouts by myself, the team would be affected greatly; I can’t risk that. I love how things are right now with the team, I wouldn’t change it one bit.
Bain: Personally, I hate the subject. But what are your opinions on making cross-country a class sport, being a small school standout that may have the chance to really compete with some of the best big school athletes?
Garrett: I actually wrote a paper on this subject back in May, and after writing it, I was opposed to it too. In the team aspect, for Guerin, it would be very beneficial just as a recruiting tool. With a small-school class, we may have a chance to go to the ‘small-school state’, which would be a fantastic way to pull in runners to look at the school. At an individual level, I am not a fan of it. This is simply because I think it will lower the playing field. Although it may spark an interest in small schools, it may lower the expectations of some runners and some teams. Instead of us gunning after the monster teams (North Central, Carmel, Columbus North, just huge programs) we would be able to aim for teams more in sight (Oak Hill, Wabash, Clay City, Barr Reeve). If the IHSAA classes it, great, if not, great. I have no control on what happens, so I’ll just play with the cards dealt.
Bain: Walk us through a typical week of training for you. What kind of weekly mileage are you getting in?
Garrett: The mileage isn’t really the big issue for me; it’s more of the quality of miles and the quality of my general strength workouts.
Sundays start off my week with a long run that is 20% of my weekly mileage. (Ex. If I do 50 miles a week, I do 10 on my long run.) This pace varies depending on the scenario. An example would be the Sunday before Hamilton County. A very important meet was only two days after my normal long run day, so instead of a 7+ mile run, I went on a 6 mile at 5:50 pace run.
Mondays are recovery, or prep days for a meet. Morning runs of 1-4 miles occur on Monday.
Tuesdays are tough, normally fartlek for about 30 minutes. Morning runs again, and then weight lifting.
Wednesdays are similar to Mondays, just recovery and maybe a morning run.
Thursdays are tough, sometimes a hill workout, sometimes repeats, it varies. Weight lifting after. Morning run OF COURSE!
Fridays are a little more fun, they are recovery, preparation for the meet the next day, and occasionally, going to BP with the team for some slushies.
(I only went up to about 65 miles a week this summer; I’m currently at about 40-52 miles a week, with 1 to 2 races per week.)
Bain: Lastly, is there anything else you would like to say to the Indiana Runner community? Any words of advice, shout outs…
Garrett: Ya shout-out to big ray ray and lil’ steve in da 219…The one thing I recommend most is to go out and look at all your resources. The Internet is a FANTASTIC tool for runners! You can watch some great races, you can see some cool workout videos, and you can read about training techniques. Without the Internet, half of my resources would be cut out. Take advantage of the things around you. Feed off your teammates, focus on schoolwork then running, and don’t waste time with things that don’t help your running/schoolwork/or relationships. To be a good runner you have to be disciplined and focused, if you are neither, you won’t become the best runner you could possibly be. “Distance running is a long progression. You just gotta stay focused and hopefully you’ll get your goal.”
The boulder camp; greatest experience
http://runnerspace.com/boulderrunningcamps
