Blogs : NCAA Division III Blog

Interview: Chris Erichsen of St. John's University in Minnesota

(Courtesy of Alison Wade, eliterunning.com)

How do your PRs in high school compare to what you've done so far in college?  More importantly, how has your understanding of training, racing, and running in general evolved?
I think my PRs from high school are pretty solid.  There are actually a couple PRs that I haven’t been able to improve since I’ve been in college.  I ran a 51 low 400 early on in my senior year and my 800 PR of 1:53 is also from my senior year.  My 1600 and 3200 PRs in high school were 4:15 and 9:28.  In college I’ve transitioned from the mid-distance races to the longer events.
I took some lumps during the cross country season my freshman year when I still wasn’t sure whether or not I wanted to play basketball in college, but I realized pretty early on that if I wanted to be successful in cross country and track and field I needed to focus solely on that.  My PRs now are 9:01 (steeplechase), 14:28 (5000), and 24:59 (8k CC).
As far as training goes, the most important thing has been staying healthy.  I’ve increased my mileage every season so far, but not so much that I make myself susceptible to injuries.  My coach, Tim Miles likes to stress that “you can’t have it all, all the time.”  I really believe in this one and it’s the main reason I don’t do a whole lot of hard training or races during the off-season.

Your only experience at National Championships before Indoors and Outdoors last year came during your sophomore and junior cross country seasons, where you placed 84^th and 50 ^th, respectively.  Fast forward one season in your junior year and you place 4^th in the 5000 at Indoor Nationals, and follow that up with an identical placing at Outdoors in the 5000, along with placing 2 ^nd in the steeplechase.  What was behind that leap forward for you?
I’ve always felt that track has been my stronger sport, but through my first two years of college I really struggled to find the right race.  On the one hand, I really wanted to be a successful middle-distance runner like I was in high school.  At the same time, Tim and I had talked about higher training volume and I realized that’s what I needed if I wanted to do well in Cross Country, too.  I don’t think I was ready to move up to the 5000 until my junior year, but if there would have been an open 3000, I think I would have been more successful earlier in my career.  So, I ended up increasing my training volume so that I became more comfortable with the longer distances.  In regards to my fitness level, there wasn’t really a concrete “leap forward”, it was more of a gradual process that came from consistency in my training and being fortunate not to suffer any major setbacks along the way.
The first time I ever ran a qualifying time in a track event was last year during the indoor season.  Kelly Fermoyle, Mitch VanBruggen, and I were running the 5000.  I was in the lead for the first 400, and they ended up reading off an 81 for the first split (instead of 71).  I felt pretty bad about leading the other guys off to such a slow start, so I picked it up.  Anyways, I ended up finishing the race really well (14:31) and automatically qualified for indoor nationals.  Another funny thing about that race is it was the only one my parents missed all season. I wasn’t feeling that well all week, so I called them the night before and told them not to come.  That race was really the “leap forward” for me, parents or no parents.

Progression is another thing that Saint John's as a team must be looking for.  After having a great race at Nationals last year and placing 5^th as a team--and with losing only one of last year's top seven to graduation--is there a sense on the team that St. John's can land on the podium this year?
We’re really not focused on that right now.  We have a lot of things to worry about before that even becomes an issue.  Right now, we’re focused on trying to defend our ‘06 MIAC title.  There are some very solid teams in our conference right now and to look past these teams would be a huge mistake.  Our team also understands that to even make it to nationals, we’re going to have to race well at the region meet.  So, making it to the podium at nationals is not something we are even thinking about at this point in the season.

What was your training like this past summer?  What was your peak mileage, what kind of pace did you run on the typical day, and what did you do in the way of harder efforts?
I ended up with a lot of early morning runs this summer.  I had an internship in Minneapolis, so I would be up and running by 5:30 every morning.  I wasn’t always the happiest or most social person because of this, but at least I was able to avoid running in the heat for the majority of the off-season.

My total for the summer was right around 1200 miles, with a peak week of 121.  The pace of my runs usually varies, but I typically don’t like to go much slower than 6:30’s.  As far as harder efforts, I remember doing one 5:00 mile at the end of a longer run in August, but that was about it for the summer.

Much has been made of your victory at the Willamette Invitational, which you ran in 24:10.  Could you give us some insight as to what the course was like and how the race went? 
Yeah, the Willamette course is definitely conducive for fast times.  Unlike most cross country courses I’ve run, there is quite a bit of blacktop throughout the course, and the race actually finishes on a track.  It only has a few hills, so that helps, too.  The weather this year was unbelievable, with perfect temperatures and hardly any wind.  I would trust that the course is pretty accurate considering they run the same route every year.

The race didn’t go out as fast as I thought it would.  Kelly and I had planned on working our way up through the pack for the first 2-3 miles, but we found ourselves in the top group right around the mile mark.  We stayed with that group until about the third mile and the race picked up from there.  I think we were both pretty surprised that we ended up going 1-2 in the race.

What are your goals for yourself and your team this season and year?
Like I said before, we’re really only focusing on the next meet on our schedule.  Tim is really good at keeping our heads on straight and not looking too far ahead in any given season.  As long as we stay healthy for the rest of the year, the training we’ve done will eventually pay off.  As far as personal goals, I really don’t know what to expect.  My best finish in our conference meet is 6^th, and my best finish at nationals is 50^th.  If I can improve on both of those finishes, it would be hard to be too upset with the results.

What is your favorite workout during the cross country season and what do you like about it?
My freshman and sophomore years, we did a ladder-type workout on Lover’s Lane (a dirt road in a wooded area) a couple miles off campus.  It’s normally scheduled for this week, but we haven’t done it the past two years.  This workout really sticks out because it was the first one that I really felt good during my freshman year, and we were really rolling my sophomore year, too.  The weather is usually pretty nice this time of year, so it makes the workout even better.  Unfortunately, Tim hasn’t had us do this workout for the last two years for various reasons, so I don’t think I’ll get the chance to do it again.

Who has been the biggest influence in your life and/or running?
My biggest influence in terms of running would be my high school cross country coach, Brian Hoff.  He was an assistant track coach when I started running in seventh grade and he helped convince me that cross country was the best way to get faster on the track.  I listened to him and 8 years later I’m still running.  Brian still prints me a new training log like the ones he gives to his athletes every year, so I’m able to keep track of my mileage the same way I have been since high school.

What do you like the most about Saint John's cross country?
We always have dinner together at The Refectory (our cafeteria) every night after practice.  We have our own little room towards the back, and considering that we have roughly 40 people on our roster, it can get pretty full.  The atmosphere is always enjoyable and there can be some ridiculously lively discussions about pretty much any topic imaginable.  I think if you asked most guys on the team, this would come up as one of the best things about Saint John’s Cross Country.

(Courtesy of Coach Tim Miles)

What's the relationship between the track team and the other athletic teams?  What's the athletic culture like at Saint John's?
There tends to be a mutual respect between athletic teams at Saint John’s.  Obviously, most of the publicity goes to the football team (and is well-deserved) because of their long history of success.  At the same time, most teams like to see the other teams do well throughout the year.  Last fall was a pretty cool experience when all four of the fall sports teams ended up winning the conference title, the first time it happened at Saint John’s history. 

How do students (and professors) at your school view the track team and its members?I think the team has a very solid relationship with the professors at Saint John’s.  For the most part, we perform extremely well in the classroom, so that speaks well for the team.  We also share a locker room with some of the faculty members, so we’re able to get some daily interaction with some of the professors that way, too.

Last year, you were named the MIAC Track Athlete of the Year and the Central Region Track Athlete of the year, as well as being named to the USTFCCCA Division III All-Academic Cross Country Team and ESPN the Magazine's Academic All-American College Division Track and Field/Cross Country Second Team. Having so many options open to you, both athletically and academically, what are your thoughts looking ahead to your post-collegiate days?
Honestly, I haven’t given it much thought.  Athletically, I’m not even aware of the options that might be available to me in the future.  I do hope to continue competing in some respect after my college days are over, but to what extent, I’m not sure yet.  Academically, I’m an Economics major, so I’ve got options.  I will more than likely pursue some sort of higher education, but it won’t be immediately after I graduate.  If I had to guess as to what I’ll be doing a year from now, I’d say that I’ll be working somewhere in the real world while still trying to fit in the weekly mileage.

Do you follow running at the collegiate or professional levels at all?  Would you care to confess to what extent you lurk on Letsrun.com or other message boards?
Yeah, I follow other runners at both the collegiate and professional levels, but it’s mostly to keep myself from looking like an idiot around my teammates.  If there was an awesome race over the weekend, I like to know about it so at least I can talk about it the next day.
As far as Letsrun.com goes, the more I’m exposed to some of the message boards, the less I like that they consist primarily of anonymous posts.  I try to avoid going on Letsrun at all, but at the same time there are some really good aspects of both the message board and the website.  I try to find a happy medium with reading some of the discussions, but I don’t post on the site at all.

Do you keep an online running log that you'd be willing to share? 
Yeah - http://www.coolrunning.com/cgi-bin/log/display.cgi?u=cjerichsen;s=erichsen

Are there any other closing thoughts or pieces of wisdom you'd like to share?

I guess I can close with one of Tim Miles’ philosophies that I really believe in: “If you want a nice peak, you need a big mountain.”  I think this reflects how my training has gone throughout my college career.  I finally have a big mountain to work with, now I’m hoping for that nice peak.