Keita Sato on Training with OAC, Breaking NR in the USA, and the Road Ahead

Komazawa University 2nd-year Keita Sato had a great indoor track season. On January 26 in Boston just after his 20th birthday he ran a 13:09.45 indoor 5000 m national record, the 2nd-fastest time ever by a Japanese man behind only Suguru Osako‘s 13:08.40 outdoor NR. On February 11 in New York he ran an Asian area best for indoor 2-miles (3219 m), 8:14.71. His official en route split of 7:42.56 was also an indoor NR and the 3rd-fastest ever by a Japanese man behind Osako’s 7:40.09 and Toshinari Takaoka‘s 7:41.87.

Sato’s skills this academic year extended to the roads and outdoor track. On January 2 Sato had run well with a 1:00:13 for the 21.4 km Hakone Ekiden Third Stage, worth a 59:22 half marathon, the 3rd-fastest time ever on the stage and 2nd-fastest ever by a Japanese athlete. Last fall he represented Japan in the Asian Games 5000 m, and in December ran the fastest-ever 10000 m by an U20 athlete born outside East Africa, setting a new Asian U20 best of 27:28.50.

In this interview, the first of a planned three-part series, I talked to him about the background behind his ability to balance track and ekiden racing.

“I’m not happy at all about just setting an indoor record”

Terada: Why did you run the indoor 5000 m in Boston?

Sato: I’d heard that Boston was a good place to run fast. It was right after Hakone, but I told myself to see what happened if I went for a fast time. I had a pretty good idea of who was going to be in the race and what they were capable of.

Terada: How do you remember it going?

Sato: I’d heard that the pacers were going to go through 3000 m in 7:50-52, and I planned to go with the guys on the OAC team who I’ve been training with. Ride the momentum through 3000 m, then race after 3000 m. Everything was according to plan at 3000 m, but I started to lose touch at around 3200 m. I thought that the fact I couldn’t go with it when the move came after 3000 m, even in just a time trial, showed that I’ve still got a lot of work to do.

Terada: I’ve heard that there’s a lot of variation in track responsiveness depending on which indoor track you’re running on. Did you have any problems with the Boston track?

Sato: It felt like it was the fastest track I’ve run on up to now. I’d thought the banked curves might be hard to run on, but it wasn’t like that at all. The track was narrow, so it was hard to get into position sometimes, but once I got into the group’s flow it was easy to run.

Terada: What do you think it means to have run 13:09.45 at this point?

Sato: I was targeting a 13:07 Japanese national record, so it wasn’t 100% perfect. It’s my own fault, but something I ate the day before was bothering my stomach, and that was a distraction while I was racing. If I can avoid making mistakes like that next time then I can run a better time.

Terada: It’s an indoor mark, but are you happy that you set your first national record as a senior?

Sato: I’m not happy at all. I was 10th in my race (the Scarlet Race), and there were American college students and U20 athletes in it too. It made me feel like I’ve got a long ways to go. Maybe 13:09 is a good time in Japan, but compared to the rest of the world I felt like I’m nowhere near there yet. It just underlined that I have to keep getting faster.

Terada: But considering that you did that without any focused training, don’t you think it’s worth something?

Sato: I only did a proper track workout the week before it. Before that I was still tired from the Hakone Ekiden and wasn’t running much. I didn’t do anything at all that was geared toward running 5000 m. No targeted workouts, no tapering.

Terada: Given that kind of lead-up to the race, do you think that the fact that you’d been working on both your speed and stamina over the medium and long-terms helped you get under 13:10?

Sato: I think so. In building up the distance I could handle to get ready for Hakone, I felt like my base level improved, my body got tougher, and I gained basic strength. With a higher base level I feel like if I just drop in a bit of speed work then I can really move well.

Terada: Would you say that the Hakone Ekiden itself isn’t something special to you, but that it serves to develop your competitive ability alongside track racing?

Sato: I think that feels about right. I really appreciate all the support I get because of Hakone. It’s a really important race where we get a lot of energy from the Komazawa fans and booster club. From a competitive perspective, Hakone definitely raises your baseline level, so I guess you could say it’s effective.

Terada: It’s like a means to an end, or a tool?

Sato: Yeah. I think that’s the right way to put it.

Terada: Do the OAC athletes who are focused on 1500 m and 5000 m run long distances too? Tempo runs over 10 km and whatnot?

Sato: They do. They run long even in track season. All the way up to 30 km, even the 1500 m people. I used to worry that running Hakone would make me lose my speed. But if you look at the different approaches the best in the world take in their training or actually go to the U.S. and see them train up close, you see that even track people are running long. Their total volume isn’t that different from what people targeting Hakone do. If you ask why I’d say that to put it simply, you can’t compete on the track unless you have fundamental strength. To elevate your baseline to that level, it’s absolutely necessary to put in the miles. I think that means what we put into Hakone also pays off on the track.

Terada: At the same time I heard that you’re doing 150 m intervals like a sprinter too.

Sato: That’s true. That’s something we do at the end of workouts, something like a light acceleration.

Terada: We’re getting into outdoor track season now. How are you feeling about the Paris Olympics qualification standard of 13:05.00?

Sato: I’m not just thinking about 13:05. I’ve started feeling like 12 minutes is in range. I’m training with OAC through mid-March, and I hope to keep doing high-level training with them and learning from what we’re doing so I can take it back home with me and turn out some solid results in outdoor season. I feel like I can run that kind of time. My senior year of high school I set the goal of breaking all the high school records from 1500 m to 5000 m, and by setting that kind of goal I improved a wide range of skills. This year I’m setting the bar high for myself too. Sub-13.