It's not the least bit unusual for elite distance runners to tinker with their training, searching for that bit of extra speed and endurance that shaves precious seconds off the clock.

Twenty-four year old Laurentian University graduate and long-time Track North Athletic Club representative Caleb Beland did exactly that - and the results could not have been better.

Competing at the Canadian 10 KM Championships earlier this fall, Beland blitzed across the finish line in a time of 31:11, exceeding his own expectations as he continues to progress, even while juggling post-graduate studies in Toronto.

Coming on the heels of a very good but challenging final year of OUA competition in 2019-2020, this first real race result since the sort of quasi pandemically altered Athletics Ontario Cross-Country Championships in the fall of 2020 was just about as encouraging as they come.

It most certainly signalled that a fresh approach adopted not all that long ago was clearly paying off.

"I ended up burning out pretty hard with school and everything," said Beland recently. "I had to change a lot of things, coming into this season. The quantity of training had to change, just ensuring that I had the energy to train."

"In one week in the spring, I ran over 100 miles, which is excessive," added the young man who represented the Bishop Alexander Carter Gators at OFSAA during his high-school career. "I ended up being completely exhausted, both physically and mentally."

It's sometimes a difficult concept to grasp - reducing your overall mileage is not necessarily a bad thing.

"Coming into this fall, I would approach it a little differently, topping out at 120 kilometres," said Beland. "Every other week since I've been back, I run 100 kilometres a week."

"I felt good coming into the race; good workouts with a lot of consistency," he added. "You see it building your confidence. I am ready, the workouts show that I am ready."

The truth is that Beland could not have asked for a better setting. With the possible exception of a strong headwind in the first half of the out and back course, leading to a negative split of 15:58 at 5 kms, the inclusion of the local runner in the elite field offered just the pace that he needed.

"Based on the fact that there were some ridiculously fast runners in the field, I knew that they were going to go out really fast," noted Beland. "I went out in a much more conservative 3:04 (first kilometre), but then I tucked in through the whole first half."

"I didn't want to eat any wind at all."

"Right as we hit the turnaround, I made my move," continued Beland. "I knew that the wind would be at our backs so it was time to go. I made the move and took four others with me. I was hauling the whole way back."

The exhiliration was palpable as the first year student at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College broke new ground in Toronto. In his mind, it very much reminded Beland of qualifying for OFSAA for the very first time, or reaching that same standard at the OUA level as a member of the Voyageurs.

"Coming into the race, I thought anything low 31's would be a big win," he said. "Anything sub 31:30 and I would have been satisfied - but this was really low."

"I didn't think I was going to split the way that I did; I didn't think I would be that slow in the first half," Beland acknowledged. "But I didn't think my second half would be as fast as it was."