Nick Wade Nearly Breaks 4:00 for the Mile

I know Nick but I am not on his team. I also know that he went balls to the wall this summer with his training out in California running several 100+ mile weeks on all hills. I'm pretty sure he is still reaping the benefits and this is only the start.

He will run 3:57 by the end of this season. It will also be interesting to see if he gets to run a few 800s outdoors.

We all know that Wyner is Rojo's baby, but Wade is coming into his own and will probably cause everyone to forget Jimmy's name ever stood in the record books.

some of you guys are really too much. Robert and Weldon have, for years now, provided all of you, free of charge, a comprehensive review of the news in our sport on a daily basis, and further, given you an opportunity to express your often juvenile views under cloak of anonymity. At the very worste, Robert used the space of his own web site to give an athlete he once coached a little pub and a pat on the back. And this sends you scurrying off to note the progression of the athlete before and after Robert's coaching. Really, give it a rest. What's next? I haven't read the entire thread. Who among you is going to be the first to raise the possibility of PED use?

You people who'd argue that someone providing a nice service should be free of any criticism are just too much for me. Where did I say I don't appreciate what Rojo and Wejo have created with LetsRun?

Are you so simplistic that you can't understand how a person would appreciate the LetsRun community and information gathering while still wishing things about it were more professional, less narcissistic, or whatever the case may be?

You want things to be black and white, huh? Sorry I can't do that for you.

Besides, the people who provided the "pub" for Nick Wade are Chris Lotsbom and David Monti, not the Brojos, who merely copy-pasted an article with a picture of Robert and some pseudo-corrections.

The Single Voice of Reason wrote:

Wade's been stagnant for 3 years under Rojo, but has always been an obvious talent. Did you not notice he's barely improved at all since his FR indoor campaign? Huge talent, almost no improvement until now.

Whatever the reason, that's nothing to really brag about for his previous coach.

More power to Wade though, who has always seemed like a very nice guy in my encounters/racing against him. He's obviously very talented and it's nice to see a noticeable improvement after so long.

Good guy.

Dear Single Voice of Reason or should I call you *** (your real name),

Operating a website has taught me a few universal truths. Like all public figures, no matter what I do 1/3rd of the people are going to disapprove.

Since you are an engineer, let me use a math analogy. If I went out on the street and asked 100 people what 6 x 6 is, at least 10% would say something other than 36.

I wasn't really trying to take credit. I specifically put that I coached him in the article as we feel it's important to disclose a conflict of interest. Others in the business often do not care about disclosing them, but we do. If a post is paid for, we disclose it.

Since we were running a story on a 4:00.00 college guy when 22 people have gone sub-4, I though i'd get ripped if I didn't disclose it. "Why is rojo hyping Nick Wade?" I also thought the pictures was awesome as it shows Nicks' personality.

I really wanted to use a photo that had Zeb Lang on there but his eyes were closed. If I used that one, I honestly thought people like you would say I was trying to make my successor look bad:

so I used the other one as the Peeping Tom made it even funnier.

Don't worry, I'm not fazed by your criticisms. I started at Cornell 100% believing in the training philosophy of John Kellogg and left 100% believing in it. After indoors, I'm going to do an "Exit Interview" and I'm sure it will outrage critics just as my "Top 10" starting interview did. I know that I (with massive help from JK) can coach with the best of them in the world and think our 10 year record proves it.

But do you want to know who deserves most of the credit for the 4:00.00? It's not Zeb, myself or JK. It's Nick Wade himself. You are right that Nick Wade is a big talent. Runners are the horses - coaches are the jockeys. Who the hell even coaches Stephen Kiprotich?

That being said, do I think that myself and JK in addition to Zeb deserve some credit as well? Absolutely. A guy goes from 1:52 in HS to an outdoor conference champion - which is the #1 goal for a runner at Cornell - as a sophomore and I am criticized for my coaching? Unreal. And he won even though he had just the 7th best time in the Ivy League that year. A perfect race on a perfect day and I'm a bad coach? I thought that's what coaching was.

Junior year certainly was a disappointing one for Nick, but Nick is a guy who seemingly gets motivated from disappointment and bounces back well. As a sophomore, he got trounced indoors and won outdoors. Last year, he got hurt and came back totally changed this fall.

He went from like 9th to last in XC to 9th. Not sure who you want to credit for that other than Nick himself as the summer was all Nick as there was no official coach until like July 20th.

(Although I guess since it clearly gets under your skin if I get credit for anything maybe I should take credit for it as more than 50% of the summer was under my watch).

The facts are Nick Wade ran a lot over the summer and showed up 12 pounds lighter. I'm not sure if he could tell you how he lost so much weight.

The night before the xc time trial in mid-August this year, I was talking to Zeb and JK about the upcoming xc season. There were 4 strong returning distance runners and the question was "Who is most likely to be the 5th man?" I was the one most behind the "Nick Wade" argument as I've always believed in his talent.

For the first few weeks of the year, I enjoyed a playful banter with JK and Zeb by saying, "Look who is doing so well." I told this to Nick and he in turn reminded me I didn't actually call him all summer. I in turn told Nick that he's so head-strong it was intentional, you have to motivate him with slights as you can't force him to do anything. It was all in good fun.

Now Nick probably surprised himself this fall and no one saw top 10 coming after last year but when Nick 1st told me sophomore year he wanted to do xc, I immediately told JK, "He's definitely a top 10-20 guy." Jk said, "Just because Jimmy Wyner excelled at the 800/xc doesn't mean it's that easy for all 800 guys."

I guess we were both right. It took some time but he's now strong endurance wise. And some of that was intentional as I learned from the past and didn't want to force him to be a distance guy like I did with Jimmy Wyner. I felt like it was better it if came from within as Wyner was under a lot of pressure all the time to carry the team and that's hard to do 3 seasons on end year after year.

Am I Wade's coach? Of course not. Zeb is and Nick loves the job Zeb has done. I talked to Nick after XC about it. Would Nick have run 4:00.00 last week under me? I doubt it as I probably wouldn't let him run the mile three weeks in a row.

But do I feel I played a big role in that? Of course.

For 10 years, the Big Red track team was my family/obsession. "We are family."

Zeb ran for me. He and his wife lived in my house for a year. Weldon coached him in a marathon after college. He assisted me for years. And he has 4-5 years of JK's/mine workouts. I know there hasn't been a change in philosphy/workouts. JK still volunteers up there and helps him out largely thanks to me as LetsRun revenue allows JK to volunteer.

Not sure why you care so much since you aren't a coach and didn't run in the Heps. To each their own. We need our detractors - it's at least 1/3rd of our traffic.

More power to you for your response, but I have to ask...how is it that you think I'm an engineer? I would've believed you knew who I was, as I suppose that might be possible for you to somehow track, but I'm definitely not an engineer. I got a C+ in high school physics and failed my geometry final. So, yeah, I think you've got the wrong guy.

But seriously I do appreciate your response. I was being harsh, certainly, but I do think criticism (with some kind of support) fosters discussion.

And you right again that Nick Wade is the real and positive center of the story. I look forward -- as I'm sure you do -- to following along and seeing more improvements from him.

The Single Voice of Reason wrote:

More power to you for your response, but I have to ask...how is it that you think I'm an engineer? I would've believed you knew who I was, as I suppose that might be possible for you to somehow track, but I'm definitely not an engineer. I got a C+ in high school physics and failed my geometry final. So, yeah, I think you've got the wrong guy.

But seriously I do appreciate your response. I was being harsh, certainly, but I do think criticism (with some kind of support) fosters discussion.

And you right again that Nick Wade is the real and positive center of the story. I look forward -- as I'm sure you do -- to following along and seeing more improvements from him.

I tried to track your posts and i thought you said you once ran a 2:41:12 (chip) marathon in 2006. I looked it up and thus think your name is J**. Am I wrong?