4/09/08

King of the Mountain: An interview with Luke Puskedra

By: Scott Bush

Luke Puskedra (Sr., Judge Memorial, UT) loves to run through the thin mountain air of Utah.  It makes him tough he says, more so mentally than physically.  Puskedra uses that toughness and makes sure he sets a torrid early pace regardless of what type of race he is running.  Over the past year the 6' 5" senior has towered over his competition in numerous ways.  He was the only person to challenge German Fernandez last fall at the Foot Locker West Regional, then taking his front running talents to Foot Locker Nationals where he led the field through the mile and stayed in contention nearly the entire way to finish fifth in one of the great fields ever.  Since the fall Puskedra has dominated on the track, running 4:08.77 in the Reebok Boston Mile, then winning the NIN two-mile in 8:49.58 , good enough for U.S. #3 all-time.  In this interview Luke talks about his expectations for his final track season, his training, his college decision and much more. 

King of the Mountain: An Interview with Luke Puskedra (UT) 

MileSplit (MS): First off, congrats on your big Nike Indoor National performance a few weeks back.  Your 8:49.58 effort ranks you third of all-time indoors for two-miles!  Take us through the race if you could.

Luke Puskedra (LP): It is a great honor to be on that list with those big names.  During the race I went out at a pretty good pace and had Colby Lowe right there (Puskedra pictured left, leading the NIN two mile with Colby Lowe following closely behind.  Photo by John Herzog).  During the race we switched leads almost as if it was planned.  I knew that Colby was a beast, so I tried to put together a good time in order to get him.  I split the race into three segments: two twelve hundreds and the last eight hundred; going through the first twelve hundred in 3:21 (I was right on), the second twelve in 6:39 (I was 6:42), then try and kick in the last eight around 2:04 (I hit 2:08).  The time goal was 8:44, which I thought would be a reasonable goal because I hit 8:57 at 4600 ft. altitude three weeks earlier in a solo time trial.  I knew that I had to run a fast time to try and run away from this very deep and talented field, and knew to save some in the tank because Colby Lowe would definitely be right there.

MS: You tend to take out the pace very quick seemingly every time you race.  At Foot Locker Nationals you dictated the pace early.  Is an early fast pace part of your racing strategy?

LP: I like to toe the line every time I race so that I put together an honest race.  I figure that if you run a good time, this time will be remembered and instead of thinking, "I could have done this or that."  If you put it all on the line these thoughts will not be as big.  It was definitely a humbling experience at Foot Locker Nationals.  I was very naive to think that I would be able to run away from the group of legit guys that were in the race.  But I believe you learn more from loses than wins and in this case I learned a lot about my racing.

MS: The Arcadia Invitational is coming up.  What event are you running and what would you like to accomplish there?

LP: I'm very excited for Arcadia and I will be competing in the two mile as I did last year.  It should be a very good race with many top athletes rolling out to it.  I am excited to get in a race with German Fernandez as well, who is coming off of a stellar cross country season after Worlds.  I don't like to really sit down and think about time goals for a race longer than a week out because then this is all I will think about during workouts instead of what needs to be done in that certain workout.

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