HEATHERTON, N.S. — HEATHERTON - Time management is a key for any elite athlete – just ask Mike Tate.
While juggling two jobs and training this fall, the runner also captured his first senior men’s national crown at the 2019 Canadian Cross Country Championships in Abbotsford, B.C.
“It was the cleanest that it could have been,” the Heatherton, Antigonish County native said of the race conditions.
There was firm footing on the dry Clearbrook Park course, with temperatures hovering between four to five degrees Celsius.
“It was unusual for late November,” Tate added, with a laugh.
With a time of 29:10, the Dr. John Hugh Gillis Regional Royals’ product bested 2016 Rio Olympian Luc Bruchet and his former Speed River Track and Field Club teammate Connor Black.
While unpacking the race, Tate said he and Black “started on the front,” while “pushing the pace.”
He noted Bruchet was a close third for the first three of the five 2K loops the field had to tackle.
“I was able to gain a little bit of a gap each time,” Tate said in explaining there was a “steep hill” in the middle of the loop.
He added he thought “I would be able to use that to my advantage later in the race.”
With Bruchet – the two-time defending champion – making his move over the final two laps, Tate said he was able “to hold that momentum” as they challenged the hill for the final time.
“I was able to pull away,” he added.
Each of the top-three runners led during the 10k race.
“It was amazing and I am so happy with how it turned out,” Tate said.
‘Really, really busy’
Getting back to the schedule – one that, for most, would be exhausting just to read about – he described his fall as “really, really busy.” Three days a week – Monday, Wednesday and Friday – he joined his teammates in Guelph, under the tutelage of Dave Scott-Thomas, for late afternoon training, which followed what Tate called a “shakeout” run each morning.
On those days, he worked from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
After practice, there would be a meal, shower and, hopefully, bedtime at a “decent hour.”
On his ‘off’ days – Tuesday and Thursday – he would work his second job – from 5 to 9 p.m., while squeezing in a “shakeout” and second run. There would be a “long-run day” at some point on the weekend, depending on his work commitments.
“It is not as set in stone,” Tate said of the Saturday and Sunday schedule.
The reason for such a hectic schedule is to “save up” for the coming months, when he will focus solely on training.
Olympic focus
The end goal for that plan is gaining a spot on Team Canada for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
“The biggest thing for me will be building up my mileage,” Tate said of his focus on the 5,000 and 10,000m disciplines.
“And, I have to focus on me – and be ready for race day – and not focus on what others are doing.
“If I put in the exhaustive effort, and I am the best athlete I can be on that day, I will be OK with that,” he added.
His winter schedule will also include a return to familiar territory – Cedar City – where he was a student-athlete with the NCAA’s Southern Utah Thunderbirds.
Tate explained the planned return to Utah and training at altitude will assist with his endurance.
“And the weather will be a lot better,” he quipped, noting the challenges posed by training in what can be a harsh Canadian winter.
