Interview: Chris Lukezic

by Ricky Quintana

The last month has been a whirlwind for Chris Lukezic. After a disappointing fifth-place showing in the 1,500 at June's NCAA Championships, he rebounded two weeks later to earn a provisional spot on the World Championship team by placing second to his part-time training partner, Alan Webb, at the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. In order to represent the U.S. in Helsinki in August, he'll need to run under the World Championships "A" standard of 3:36.20 by July 25.

Lukezic decided to opt out of his final year at Georgetown and turn professional, and jetted to Lausanne and Rome, gunning for the "A" standard. With very little sleep, he ran a personal best of 3:37.69 in Lausanne. In Rome, he got caught up in a fast race (2:52 at 1,200m) and struggled home the last 100m to record a 3:39.95.

He flew home after his two races to get in some training and much-needed rest before his second trip to Europe. He'll race at the Norwich Union meet in London on Friday, July 22 and the DN Galan meet in Stockholm on Monday, July 25.

MensRacing.com caught up with Lukezic Sunday night. He's been bunking at Alan Webb's house for his two weeks off and flew to London on Tuesday. At the time of the interview, he still had no shoe contract, but thought all that would be finalized before he ran in London.

MensRacing.com: Can you tell us where you are in your season?
Chris Lukezic: I'm heading off to London on Tuesday and then I'll race on Friday. After that, I'll race at Stockholm. Hopefully, I'll get the 'A' standard (3:36.20). The goal all along was to make the World Championship team. This is kind of part II of that. The first trip over was a good learning experience.

The Lausanne meet went pretty well. We ran a 61-second third lap. I got a little impatient. It was a good result for my first time over there, running 3:37 after getting right off the plane. I was happy with it.

I got to Rome and got in a little over my head. I went out a lot faster than I ever expected to. It came back and haunted me in the last 100m. I absolutely fell apart. I tied up pretty badly. I only ran 3:39. It wasn't the result I was looking for. I think it has set me up well for this race in London and for Stockholm as well.

I know what to expect. I know now what not to do which is probably more important than what to do. I've been training for what to do all year, but you never really train for what not to do. I want to make sure that I'm not going out in 1:52-53 that first 800m in London and getting myself in a lot of debt. I think Rome has set me up for that. Hopefully after Rome and Stockholm, I'll be ready for Helsinki. From there, I'll see if I can make it to the semi-final and then make it to the final. As far as my thinking right now, I'm focused on getting that 'A' standard.

MR: A month ago you were at the NCAA Championships and now you are on the pro circuit. What is it like standing on the line in these big meets against these top runners?
CL: Lining up in Lausanne, I felt pretty comfortable. I was surrounded by Rob Myers, Alan Webb, and [David] Krummenacker, it felt pretty comfortable. I've run against these people before.

I went to Rome and was kind of by myself. Lining up in this huge Olympic stadium, it was not quite the same atmosphere as Lausanne. It was exciting, but I think any runner who is serious about making it competitively in the world knows that these are the meets that you need to be in. I was a little over my head in Rome. I'd rather be in over my head than not having the people there to race. I learned so much from it. My head is in a different place now because I know where I need to be and I know what competition is out there. I've lined up against those guys. I know where I need to be in the next three to four years. The feeling now is kind of like making the NCAAs as a freshman. You are on to a bigger league.

I still feel young and I'm running against guys who I ran against in high school. That's exciting, but at the same time, I still see those guys as my competitors and that's the level I plan to be at in the next couple of years.

The first trip over was exciting and kind of a whirlwind. Now, going back there, I feel a lot more confident lining up in those races.

MR: Was this the plan for you, going pro?
CL: I guess going pro was not planned, but making the World Championship team and being able to run well under the World 'A' standard was in the plans after finishing fourth at the Olympic Trials last year.

Last year, I had a disappointing NCAA Championships. I didn't make the final, but I knew I was in a lot better shape than that. The goal that whole year was to focus on the Olympic Trials. They were a month and half after the NCAA meet. I kind of made that choice. It does not excuse my performance at last year's NCAA championship, but I did get to the trials and finished fourth. To a lot of people it was a surprise, but it was something that I knew that I was very capable of. The day after, from that point forward, the only thing on my mind was making the World Championship team. For the past year, that is what we have been training for. I finished well at the USA national meet and I am in a position to make the World team. I had a disappointing NCAA meet. It didn't go as I had planned. It was something that I never expected.

This opportunity presented itself. If my goal is really becoming the best runner in America and becoming one of the best in the world, then I think that was probably the next logical step. People can criticize me for not winning an NCAA title or this and that, but I would gladly take the experiences of those two races in Europe over winning an NCAA title any day. In the scheme of things, those two races taught me more and opened my eyes to what world class running is than any race in the USA. The fact that that opportunity did present itself was something that offered me the chance to fulfill my goal of getting to the next level sooner rather than later. For the rest of the summer, I'll be able to race in Europe and then next year essentially train. Having run three collegiate seasons will set me up for running better and be able to run fast and be competitive in some of those meets.

MR: Training wise, will you continue to work with [Georgetown coach] Juli Henner?
CL: At this point yes. I've worked with Juli since my freshman year at Georgetown. I will be with her indefinitely. I don't foresee a change in coaches. I'm still very close with Pat Henner, too. I still speak with and see him on a regular basis. He'll definitely be a part of that. He'll be my day-to-day coach. He's more there as a mentor and is someone I can talk to about stuff. I think both of them have been invaluable assets to me in the last couple of years.

MR: Will you stay in DC?
CL: Oh yeah, definitely. I plan on finishing college. I only have a year to go. Seeing as there is no championship season next summer, I plan on finishing classes in the fall and the spring and graduating. I'm majoring in operations and information management with an emphasis in informational technology. I'm not really sure what I will do with that degree once I'm doing running. One thing I've wanted to do my whole life is own a coffee shop and bakery. That's where I hope I'll end up when I'm done running without actually going in to the informational technology field.

As of right now, I haven't made any plans to move. I'm staying in DC. I think that the situation that I have here with my teammates and Alan [Webb] is great. It probably will remain that way. I don't see any reason why I would leave.

MR: Have you been training with [Webb]?
CL: I've been training with him on and off now for the last couple of years. It's just kind of a thing where we do some really fast workouts. It is really good to have someone there working out with you. Even sometimes last summer, when we were getting ready for the Trials, even though we were doing different stuff, we'd usually meet at the track at the same time.

We've gone out for long runs every other weekend or so for a while. It's been good for both of us. He definitely helps me kind of see that next level and at the same time he's become kind of like a teammate. I think we work well together and it has helped both of us progress.

MR: Has he offered advice to you on turning pro or getting to the next level?
CL: As far as that goes, we weren't talking too much about it when that was all going on. He definitely opened my eyes to the benefits of not going through the collegiate season. The NCAA is invaluable in a lot of aspects, but in terms of being able to move on to the next level at my age, [turning pro is] going to be more beneficial to me in the next couple of years than it would have been for me to stay in the NCAA system for another year. I sort of looked at Alan's career.

It gives me some freedom to really train for one season. I can train for next summer without having to worry about races and stuff. I think those races are valuable, but now my sights are set for next year. He's helped me see how that's possible outside the collegiate season. He's done a great job of spreading out races and stuff.

More than anything, we're just friends. He was really excited when he found out that I was going pro, but we've never had any real discussions about it.

MR: Are you still on schedule with your training? Have you peaked?
CL: I'm probably at my peak right now. I was injured during indoor season for a little bit. I ended up redshirting the indoor season. I ran one 3K indoors and that was essentially it. It allowed us to train from February through the middle of May, when we started to cut things back. In all the weeks, even with those races like Penn Relays, we never cut back. We kind of treated the early part of outdoor season like an indoor season. That set me up for regionals, NCAAs and the USATF meet. I think at the same time, we knew that making the World Championship team was a very good possibility. Juli and I always had that in our minds.

The way training has been going lately, I'm ready to run faster now than I was three or four weeks ago at the NCAA meet.

MR: At the NCAA meet, a lot of the guys credit you for setting the fast pace. Can you explain your strategy going in and what happened during the race?
CL: [Leading] wasn't the strategy going in. That was a mistake on my part. I never planned on taking the lead from that far out, but I did plan on pushing the pace when I got the lead. I still kick myself for [taking the lead so early]. From 700m out, I thought I could win it. Being out there by myself came back to haunt me that last 100m. It definitely wasn't the strategy. I got caught up in the moment. I was real excited. I knew I was in very good shape. I thought of myself as the best runner in the field. I kind of got caught up in the race and I didn't run with very much poise. I don't think it was a lack of confidence. I think I was overconfident.

When I moved up into second, it was a spur of the moment thing. I took the lead and then when I was up there, I was very reluctant to keep running that pace. I knew being in the lead wasn't a good move, but I was going to be stuck if I didn't keep it up. I put in a big surge and ran 57 on the third lap and blew the race open. I thought that I had it. Even with 300m to go, I felt great.

My hat goes off to [Leonel] Manzano. He came by me that last 100m just flying. At that point, when he came by me, I wanted to win so badly, it was a big let down. I knew I couldn't really respond and I let off the gas a little and ended up getting sixth. If anything, I should have been right behind him in second. He ran a smart race. He ran the race I should have run. It was not a race that I was too happy with. Everyone ran fast. I'm glad I could make the NCAA meet a fast race, but that wasn't my goal. My goal was to win. I was definitely bummed after that race, more so than after any race in my life.

I learned a lot, though. In championship races, that is not the way I run best. I was able to come back at the USATF meet and run a smart race. It was a slow pace which made it even easier.

MR: Being at your lowest point after NCAAs, how did you regroup? You looked very confident running the 1,500m final [at the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships].
CL: I knew that I was in really good shape. I knew there was probably only one other runner in better shape than I was, and that was Alan [Webb]. From the way workouts have gone all season and they way that I felt in races, I viewed myself as being the second best miler in the nation.

I went into the race knowing that, but I also realized I need to run with poise and run relaxed, and not get too caught up in the race. I let the race come to me and [didn't] force anything, which is usually the way I run best. At USAs, I was able to hang out and run the slow pace. I didn't know if the race was going to break open or not. I knew if it [had], I would be able to respond. It ended up not breaking up. We ended up running evenly throughout the race and it allowed me to close the last 300m of the race. I knew my speed was there and I knew I was in good shape, so that last 300m I was feeling excellent.

I think it was more a fact of reassessing everything after NCAAs and looking at the big picture. I knew I had made a mistake at NCAAs. That mistake cost me the NCAA title, not that I wasn't fit enough to do it. The whole season I hadn't done anything wrong at all.

MR: Have you signed with a shoe company?
CL: I haven't signed with anyone yet. It should be finalized in the next couple of days. By the time I get to London, everything will be done. The contract should be fairly long term. I don't want to really disclose any specifics at this time. I will be able to train full time without having to work.

MR: How have you adjusted to being so far away from home [Lukezic's hometown is Auburn, Washington]?
CL: It's taken two years, actually, to grow on me. Living in DC is a lot different [from] where I [am from]. It's a different culture than Seattle. Now DC is my home. I haven't been home very much in the past two years because of training and racing. I've kind of grown to love the DC area.

I still love home. I miss the weather. It's extremely hot here in DC. I still see my family. They still make it to national meets and stuff on a regular basis.

MR: How was the transition from the tight-knit record-setting group you ran with in high school to the Georgetown team? [Auburn set the record in the 4 x 800m at the adidas Outdoor Championships in 2003.]
CL: First, training wise, I didn't train that much in high school. I didn't have a lot of direction. I didn't do much intense or long distance training. I kind of kick myself now, wishing that I had been a little more structured in high school, because it definitely would have helped me in college.

The whole plan my freshman year was that [after] four or five years, I would be ready to tackle a World Team. It's come a year early.

My freshman year was spent trying to get through the season, getting in some races, and trying to stay injury free. Mileage-wise and intensity-wise, it wasn't that much. It wasn't anything that I would consider a high level. It's gone really well.

I think I still have a lot of progression and a lot of things that we're looking to do next year and the year after. When you are young, your body can only handle a certain amount of stress each year. We're building toward increased fitness and strength, training-wise.

In high school, we didn't have much of a team. The national record was one of my greatest memories, but we didn't have anyone outside of those four guys on our team. In college, you have 15 guys to train, eat, and live with. It was a great experience, [which] I've cherished. I believe that having people around helping you out is just an amazing feeling. That's one of the things about college that wasn't even near what I expected. They are almost family to me now. That's something that I had to a certain extent, but not at the level that I had in college.

MR: Didn't you have asthma at some point?
CL: Yes. I found out about it my junior year of high school, during a workout. I had trouble breathing and ended up passing out. I went to the doctor. It's been pretty much under control since then. At Adidas Outdoor Nationals my junior year, I ruptured one of the air sacs in my lung in the two-mile. I ended up dropping out of the [race]. Other than that, I haven't had any problems with it. I've kept it under control.

It flares up here and there and gets in the way of workouts sometimes. In short workouts and during allergy season, my breathing gets bad. But for the last two years, it's been under control.

MR: How many miles are you doing and how many miles will you eventually be running?
CL: This year, during the fall, I was able to run between 60-75 miles per week with a high week of 80 miles.

In the 10 weeks during the spring and the early summer, I averaged 70-75 miles per week. It's been my most consistent and the highest mileage ever. That's set me up great for the summer. I've never been able to reach that level of intensity and volume before, for that amount of time.

MR: What are your bread and butter workouts that you do at this point of the season?
CL: We do a lot of 5K pace stuff. At this time of year we don't, but in the winter and the spring, we do a lot of 5K base workouts. Repeat 1Ks, 1,200m at what would be 5K goal pace. Somewhere between 65-67 per lap. Usually we start off slow and get progressively faster as the workout goes on. We don't do a whole lot of long tempos in the spring. In the fall, we do a lot of mile repeats, hills, and other basic types of fall workouts.

In the spring, we do speed stuff on Mondays, and two other workouts depending on if we are racing or not. At this point of the year, a lot of it is race pace effort. We've done 400s. It's not a very complicated training program as far as the running aspect. I don't think that the sport is terribly complicated to figure out. The key is putting it together in the right way and I think we've managed to do that.

MR: How many miles did you average in high school?
CL: [Laughing] Between 25 and 45 miles per week. I laugh at it now. I wasn't doing a whole lot. I didn't have any concept of a long run. We did a lot of mile repeats and stuff like that. I'd go on six-mile runs and stuff like that. I rarely ran over an hour or [any] longer stuff, which is hugely beneficial in training in order to handle the increased intensity as you get older.

I'm not a real advocate of high mileage, but the earlier you can get the mileage up, the better you can handle the intensity as you can get older. As soon as your body adapts to running 60 miles at 6:00 pace, the sooner your body will adapt to running that pace. For middle distance runners, it's pretty much known that quality miles are the way to train. You just don't go out and slog around at 6:45 pace.

When I was younger, I wish I would have been able to build my mileage. Running a few more miles here and there, and being able to get through hour-long runs would have helped. That was just a matter of not knowing what I was doing and racing a whole bunch.

MR: What kind of mileage do you think you could have handled in high school had you known then what you know now?
CL: I don't know. I was never injured in high school. I don't think I would have gone over 50-60 miles a week. I could have handled averaging 50 miles per week for a good 25-week block. If I could go back, that might be something I would do. But at the same time, you are young in the sport, you don't have a lot of production and you don't know if that will help you 10 years down the road.

MR: You have 1:46 800m and 3:37 1,500m speed. Are these the two events you will stick with? Or do you have any [desire to] run the 5K?
CL: I probably will run a 5K next year. I ran one this year [14:01.68 win at Raleigh Relays], but we weren't trying to run a blazing time, [we were] just trying to win. Maybe I'll run it in the future, but right now, the plan is to run possibly a few more 800s than I have. I feel my PR is not where it should be. The way I feel in workouts, the foot speed combined with my strength, I feel I'll be running the 800m/1,500m for a quite a long time.

MR: If you do hit the standard on Friday night in London, would that affect your racing schedule at all? Would you run an 800m?
CL: I don't know. Possibly. It's something I've discussed vaguely with Juli. It would be nice to run an 800. At the same time, I feel running another 1,500, is probably more valuable than getting in an 800. Running an 800 would be beneficial, but not knowing the outcome of the London race, I couldn't say. Hopefully, I'll get the 'A' standard and then get a chance to run in Stockholm and PR, which would be really nice. Maybe I'll run an 800m after Helsinki, but at this point, it's probably not going to happen.

MR: What struck you the most about your first two races in Europe?
CL: Pretty much the pure speed of the races. It's no joke. It kind of makes races in the US look like a joke. I'm curious to see what happens next year coming into the USATF championships. How will I feel running a 3:39-3:40 race after going out in Rome in 2:52 with a 55-second second lap.

You kind of feel like you are running on all cylinders the whole time. It's an eye-opening experience. You see the level of competition that is out there. That's probably been the best thing about getting into those races instead of reading about them in Track & Field News. I have firsthand experience, [which] is invaluable.

Now, next year when I'm training and I'm by myself on a run or a workout, I'll know what I'm training for and the pace I'll need to be ready for in the future. To be able to run 3:30-32, you have to know what that feels like. It's a completely different ball game.

MR: I know it's hard to make predictions for yourself, but what would your 'perfect' race bring you in at?
CL: I've discussed it with Juli and it will probably be around 3:35.5. If I get in the right race and things really click, I could run 3:34 low. I definitely feel I am in shape to get the standard and, under the right conditions, I can run faster than that.

(Interview conducted July 17, 2005 and posted July 22, 2005)