- January 23, 2002

INTERVIEW WITH BRIAN BERRYHILL

LetsRun.com spoke with Brian Berryhill as he prepares to make his 2002 debut at the adidas Boston Indoor Games this Sunday in the mile.  2002 will be Berryhill's first full-year as a professional. Berryhill capped a standout collegiate career last year for Colorado State, where he was a 10-time All-American, as he captured both the 2001 NCAA indoor mile and outdoor 1500 meter title - leading wire to wire in both races. After NCAAs, Berryhill ended up a disappointing 7th at USATF in the 1500 meters and missed out of qualifying for his first world championship team.

Berryhill, originally hails from Oregon where he was an accomplished multi-sport star in high school. In track, Berryhill was a 400/800 meter runner who was a 3-time state champion in the 400 meters and 2-time state champion in the 800 meters, despite running a grand total of 8 miles per week (with his longest run every being 3 miles).  He also played basketball and football throughout high school. As a football wide-receiver, he was recruited by several Division I schools including Oregon State.  

Berryhill competes for adidas and still resides in CO, Colorado where he is coached by his Colorado State coach, Del Hessel.

Click here if you want to read Berryhill's thoughts about how he got into running and his high school running career where he ran a grand total of 8 miles per week.

The Brian Berryhill File
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 154 lbs.
Resides: Ft. Collins, CO
Current PRs. 400m: 47.7 for 400, 800m: 1:46.01, 1500m: 3:35.4, Mile: 3:54.7

Interview conducted on January 23, 2002 by Robert Johnson.

LRC: Before we talk about 2002, let's first look back at 2001. You went two for two at NCAAs winning both the indoor mile and outdoor 1500 meters but then came up short at USATF.  What were your thoughts about the season overall?

BB: I was really happy with the two NCAA races. I thought they went really well. I wasn't happy with the USATF race at all. It didn't just quite work . But overall my main focus was to win the 2 NCAA championships so I had to be pleased. Plus I went to Europe after USATF and I was happy with the way it went over there. I ran 3:35 twice and thought that was pretty good.

LRC: How satisfying was it to finally get the monkey off your back and win those NCAA titles after being so close for so long? I mean way back as a sophomore when you first showed up in the mile,  you were just edged out by Kevin Sullivan (4:03.54 to 4:03.55 when Berryhill let up at the tape).  

BB: It was real satisfying. The first one I won in Arkansas was more of a relief as I'd been so close for so long - 2nd twice indoors and 3rd three times outdoors. I enjoyed the second one a lot more. The first one was just like, "Wow, Finally!" Winning NCAAs was by far the most amazing thing that has happened to me in my athletic career.

LRC: Let's talk a little about the USATF race. What exactly do you think happened there? Obviously you would have liked to get in the top 3 and make your first world championship team.

BB: I don't know -it was one of those things. Two weeks earlier, I ran the NCAA championships and led from start to finish and ran 3:37.05 and that was like a breeze. Then the training went o.k. in between and I get to the USATF race, and come the last 6-700 meters, I knew something just wasn't right. I just didn't have that kick over the last 400 meters and that really cost me. (Ed. Note: At USATF, Berryhill led the field through the first two laps in 58.3 for 400 meters and 1:57.8 for 800, but ended up 7th in 3:38.66.)

LRC: Let me ask you about the front-running style you often employ, does that come naturally to you or is that something that maybe your coach (Del Hessel) has ingrained on you?

BB: It's almost natural in a way because I've never had a training partner so in the workouts I'm always leading myself. And all through high school, I led most of those races too. I would say it's fairly natural. My first few years in college I didn't do it as much as I just wasn't ready for it.

LRC: So when you are out front, you don't ever feel like the sacrificial lamb? Most guys are often scared to be out there in the lead.

BB: It depends on the race. There are certain times to do it now and certain times not to do it. For the NCAAs, I felt like it was a good plan. I felt like I was the in the best condition of everyone and felt like I could do that and win.   At the USATF race, I went in there sort of second guessing what I should do and you can never do that. There are times though when you are in the lead when you don't know what's going on behind you and that's a little scary. It just depends on the race and who all is in it.

LRC: Can you tell me a little bit about your experience with the collegiate recruiting process. In high school, you were a 400/800 meter runner. What type of schools were recruiting you?

BB: You know I was a 400/800 runner. I talked to a lot of different schools but the first recruiting trip I went on was to Arkansas and after that I was pretty much set on going there. You know John McDonnell the coach there is just awesome as is the program. A couple of weeks before the signing period, I got a call from the head coach here at Colorado State and he wanted me to come out. I came out here and just fell in love with everything out here.  I'm a big outdoors guy and just thought for five years of my life, I could live much easier in Colorado than in Arkansas.  Arkansas is a nice place, but I'm from the West and Colorado just fit me better.

LRC: You've remained at Colorado State with your coach Del Hessel after graduation. It's not exactly the distance capital of the world.  Do you have any training partners to work out with? What made you stay there?

BB: I still train pretty much by myself. When I do intervals, they are pretty much by myself although I do regular runs with some other guys sometimes. There's going to be a time probably when I need to do some intervals with some other guys - whether that's this year, next year or a couple years down the road, I don't know.  I'm thinking about maybe going somewhere for a month to get some real quality training in. Being my first year out of school, I just sort of want to play it around and see what works best.

LRC: What's your relationship with your coach (Del Hessel). Do you really like him a lot?

BB: Yeah I do. We get along really well. It's worked before and I'm going to stick with this for now. If I find it's not working or go somewhere else for a month to train and realize that it was a huge help, then maybe I'll change my mind as far as going somewhere else.

LRC: Can you tell me a little bit about your training in general. Also now that you've been a miler for several years, what type of changes do you make, if any, from year to year in your training?

BB: When I first started out,  my mileage was really low. In high school I did maybe 8 miles as week so I had a lot to improve on in that sense. The strength aspect in the mile is what I really needed to work on and still do. The speed stuff comes pretty naturally for me so mainly we try to work on the strength based workouts and then touch up on the speed at the end.

LRC:Do you have a favorite workout or perhaps a staple workout that really tells you how things are going?  

BB: A little later in the year, coach always throws 20 x 400s at me. I've always done that since my sophomore year although I do them faster now.  By doing that workout, it kind of tells me where I am. If I'm doing them when I'm doing them well, I'll do am anywhere from 58-59 with about 1:30-2 minute rest (at altitude). Right now we're doing more 1000 or 800 meter repeats.
       One workout that really tells me whether I'm ready for a mile or not is a 1200 in say 2:54. Then he'll give me about 45 seconds rest and make me do a 300 as fast as I can. That's will pretty much tell me where I am in terms of a pace for a 1500 at that point time.

LRC: O.k., let's look ahead to 2002 and specifically your first race of the season this weekend in the mile at the adidas Boston Indoor Games.  Do you have any expectations heading into the meet? It seems like from your training you might know better than most what to expect in the first race.

BB: I don't know where I am right now because last year I really tried to peak for NCAAs. But by the time I got to Europe, I was just holding on for dear life so this year coach and I want to push everything back a little bit as most professional runners do. As a professional, indoors isn't as big of a deal as it is say in college. So I'm not sure what to expect. I've done some real hard training but it's not what I'd do in the past. It's almost what I used to do in November/December - late cross-country type of training.

LRC: What about the race itself? Are you excited. It seems like they've got a pretty good field assembled?

BB: I'm excited to go... (chuckles).  But can you tell me who all is in the field. I haven't seen it.

LRC: Sullivan, Lagat, Zedeye - an Olympic finalist from Ethiopia, Pyrah. Ibrahim Aden. Graffin from the U.K who I think has run 3:35ish.

BB: That should be pretty good. I didn't really know who was running.

LRC: Looking at the rest of 2002, what is your main focus for the year since there aren't any major championships?

BB: My main focus is to see if the training philosophy we are using for this year works. I'd like to run around 3:32 for 1500 meters and I'd to run 1:44 for 800. I'll going more for some time goals since there aren't  any major championships. If I can hit those times, I'll be real pleased with that.

LRC: Last year, you got your first real dose of racing on the European circuit. How big of a difference is there between racing over there and here in the States or at NCAAs?

BB: It's a major difference. The main thing is that you're never worrying about leading a race over there. Your just worrying about holding on for your dear life. If you do that, you'll end up running a pretty good time. The weird thing is you feel like you're getting your ass kicked and yet you'll run a p.r. by one second. It's a lot different. There's not pressure whatsoever. For if you're in one of the big meets, you're not really worried about winning or anything - at least not yet. Someday, I'd obviously like to have to worry about it but now I just get over there, relax and let my legs go as fast as they can go.

LRC:Do you have a long time career plan laid out or do you take it more to year?

BB: I take it  year to year. Obviously every runners dream is to make it to the Olympics, but other than that I sort of go year to year with time goals. The main long-term goal of course is the Olympics.

LRC: Now that you're no longer in college and are pretty much a full-time professional runner (sponsored by adidas), I was wondering how you fill your days. Do you enjoy not having to worry about school?

BB: I pretty much just run. It depends on the day as to whether I do my hard workout in the morning or in the afternoon. Pretty much, I get up and run then do some stuff around the house and run again in the afternoon. Then I find try to find some various other things to do to take up some time. It's kind of nice not to have to worry about going to school.

LRC: What type of mileage do you do in your training? Do you plan on getting any higher.
BB: I probably won't get much higher. I got up to around 90 some weeks there last month. I'm probably doing around 80 now with a little more tempo. Whenever I start doing any intervals  -1000s or whatever - I normally drop to around 80.

LRC: When you look at the 1500 US picture, what do you see? It's seems a little muddled to us with a bunch of young guys all looking to break-out but there's no clear-cut standout in the past when there was someone like Steve Holman who ruled at least on the European scene.

BB: There definitely are a lot of other younger guys with a lot of potential. You know Lassiter, Webb, myself and of course Jennings, although I'm not sure what he's going to do, but he definitely has the potential. The older one is of course Paul McMullen - not that he's really old - I think he's going to have another good year.  He's hanging in there. But there's definitely a younger group that a lot can happen with.

LRC:Speaking of Webb, I've got to ask you about the Prefontaine meet last year. What were your feelings about the race? You ran what at the time was a p.r. in the mile - 3:55 - and yet got beat by a high schooler. What were your feelings after that race?

BB: It was weird since I was beaten by a high schooler - even an extraordinary one.  At the same time, I just had run a 1.5 second p.r. Right after the race I was like "Damn, I can't believe that." After, a while though, I put it in perspective.  I knew I did train pretty hard up through Prefontaine as NCAAs were the next week and my main goal but still it was a  little unnerving to see a high schooler go flying by you with 150 meters going.  After I put it in perspective, I realized it wasn't a bad race but I'm not going to lie and say when you get beat by a high schooler you're not a little down.

LRC: A goal of ours is to ask every runner we interview at least one question about as we're tired of seeing the sport ruined by the dark evil cloud of illegal drug use. What's your take on the drug scene?  

BB: It's definitely out there. The tough part is you never really know who is on it. The easiest part is not to worry about. I do think they are doing a better job of at getting out and testing people when they're not ready for it - at least I hope they are. I know I just got  randomly tested just last week.

LRC: That's funny. So was my brother.  I guess it must have been "Out of competition drug test week." How many times were you tested last year out of competition?

BB: I wasn't tested any out of competition last year.  I saw that thing about your brother on the web-site and was tested right around then as well.

LRC: We're thinking about setting up a web-site where all athletes send the results of their drug tests so that the secrecy of the whole process can be removed and so any cover-ups/lack of testing will be exposed. Also maybe if track and field started doing things right, then the media would turn it's attention to what a joke testing is in leagues like the NFL.  What do you think of this idea?

BB: I think that would be a good idea. It would let people know. It would be obvious who they are and aren't testing or why certain people aren't being randomly tested.  It would show you how random everything truly is.

Click here if you want to read Berryhill's thoughts about how he got into running and his high school running career where he ran a grand total of 8 miles per week.