Altitude-training junkie Stephen Pifer, a senior Colorado Buffalo, is going into his last collegiate outdoor track season and hopes to make it a memorable one. With two cross country team titles in his pocket, he looks for top honor at the NCAA meet and a strong at the Olympic Trials in the 1,500m or the 5,000m. Or maybe both.

What are your goals right for this season?

My number one goal is to have a good showing at the Big 12 Meet, because it's going to be in Boulder. Then in the NCAA meet, hopefully I can place really high in the 5K. Also, I'd like to take out Alan Culpepper's record in the 1,500, I've been chasing that for a while. 3:39.7. That's a big one right there.

Do you have any time goals for the 5K?

Not really. I'd like to run around 13:25. But I don't know another opportunity where I'll get to run a 5K. It's hard with it being early and everyone not training super-hard yet.

In that 5K, you sort of came from behind, is that like the tactic that you and Brent Vaughn seemed to used during cross country? Going out and working your way up?

Well, kind of, in a way. I guess what I was trying to do was...well, during 1,500 meter races, I've been sort of a leader. I guess I go to the front and push the pace. I really don't want to get that reputation in the 5K. I made it a point to myself to show that I don't have to lead to run well.

Can you explain why you talk about that like it's a bad thing?

Well, like I said. I get in a championship race, like a couple weeks ago in Arkansas, in the mile. I think we ran the slowest winning NCAA time. It was like 4:13 or 4:12 or something. It's because people expected me to take it out and bring them through some really fast time. I can't tell you how many people told me after the race "my coach told me you would take it out and then we get out and we go through the quarter in 68"...everyone was looking around wondering where I am. It's nice to know I have that up my sleeve, to run from the front, like I showed last year. But I want people to respect the fact that I have a kick.

You're making it so you're not so "predictable"?

Yeah. In kind of a sense, yeah.

So, you want to get at that 3:39, but you run at altitude a lot. What's the fastest time you think you could run up in altitude?

I think I can run around 3:43 up here. And I guess the conversion we get is about 5.5 seconds. I think the conversion is more like seven to nine seconds for what it's actually worth. With the day and the circumstances and all that. Definitely 3:43 is within reach. I think I could have run 3:44, 3:45 on that day I ran 3:47. I went out in 59 and probably had four or five seconds on the pack.

You won by about 10 seconds?

Yeah. It was a good race but I thought I was going to run a little bit faster. I just fought my way through it.

Do you have an itching to be the first guy to run sub-4 at Colorado altitude?

I was doing a workout a few weeks ago, before I went out to Palo Alto and I told Mark, 'it would be pretty cool to run sub-four minutes up here'. I kind of let up on the last lap and I know I could have run another 62-63 for a 3:59. It's not a priority, that's for sure.

What's it like to train at altitude then come back down and race at sea level?

I really enjoy it. It gives you a psychological advantage to racing at sea level. When I go down to sea level, I talk to guys about the workouts they're doing and what I'm doing I think is pretty tough...and I hear they're doing twice as much as me. It puts into perspective how hard you can actually train up here. It doesn't feel like it's a lot harder than what they're doing at sea level...but it definitely gets the work in that you need.

A lot of people don't like revealing their "playbook" but can you go into your training a little bit?

Yeah, I can do that. We do like a three-week cycle. It's all progression too. Like right now...I do a 600m time trial, which you guys saw...whenever, I forget what his name is, came out here and video taped. And every third or fourth week, we'll throw in a threshold run and then a 1K time trial. Then we keep cycling like three-week phases. Sometimes we'll do different workouts, like Ks or something, a nice little cycle of stuff like that. They are a lot of controlled time trials, nothing all-out.

What percentage of the miles you run in training are with your teammate, Brent Vaughn?

Right now...not that many. Occasionally we get together on Sunday runs and sometimes on threshold runs, which is only like once every three to four weeks. I'm on a completely different plan than Brent is on. I think it's because we're different kinds of runners. Mark's training me with strength in mind and I have goals in the 1,500 that Brent doesn't really have, like trying to get under 3:40 and stuff like that. So, my workouts are geared more towards trying to be able to do that stuff. Whereas his stuff is geared toward the 5K and maybe even the 10K.

You redshirted your freshman year. What eligibility do you have left after this outdoor season?

This is it. I got a medical redshirt my freshman year.

Is there anything in the works yet, or are you waiting to see how the season plays out to start looking to run post-collegiately?

I'm looking to get through this season and not focus on that too much. I have some really big goals as far as the NCAA meet is concerned and the Olympic Trials. If I take care of business then that should take care of its self.

Will you be running the 15 at the Olympic Trials?

I really don't know yet. It would be kind of fun to double the 15 and the 5K with the way its set up. I would need another 5K to get a mark to get me to the Trials. I was hoping to run mid 30s at the first Stanford Meet and that time would set me up for the Trials. But I don't know if 13:40 will do it. I'm right on the bubble. I might have to run another one.

What's your schedule look like right now?

Right now I'm looking at running the 1.500 in Oregon in like three weeks, hopefully that one will be rocking. It will be my first 1,500 at sea level. I'm sure if it gets rocking, I'm sure we'll have some of the Oregon Track Club guys out there. I think we can get in a sub-3:40 race. If it's not rocking like that, I'll go to the Stanford Meet the next weekend, and run another 15. I probably won't run another 5K until the conference meet. I'll be doubling there. Then regionals, then NCAAs...I'll be focusing on the 5K.

Now we'll reminisce a little bit, do you have a race that stands out to you as the most fun race you've ever competed in?

The first NCAA title that we won was a really memorable race. I've got to say, because I remember we had Jorge Torres as a volunteer assistant. Him and Ed were out there at NCAAs and I remember they were there with like 2K to go. I could hear those guys on the sideline and me and James Strang were working together. We were the fourth and fifth runners that year. I could hear those guys going crazy and they were so fired up. I didn't want to let down those guys or anyone else who had ever been on the team. That last straight away, we were just pouring it on. We were running along with two Wisconsin guys, so those were crucial, crucial points for us. We made sure we got ahead of those guys. I'll always remember that race for sure.

The Torres brothers, not a bad pair of guys to be cheering you on, especially after World Cross this year.

When I wear this Colorado jersey, I definitely take a lot of pride in that. I just want represent the school and all the past runners to the best of my ability. I'm sure everybody else on the team would say the same thing.

Does any workout stand out to you as the hardest workout you've ever done?

The Ks, those hurt.

Last question: can you give me a crazy story from your running history?

We get ourselves into some pretty good adventures. One thing that happened this year, is when we were driving back from Lubbock, Texas at the conference meet. Coach Wetmore and the other coaches were already home and we were at the hotel and had to do a Sunday run by ourselves. We go out on this road and we're kind of in the country, we really don't know where we are. We go over this cow guard thing as we're looking for a trail. We decide to push on and go ahead. We couldn't find the trail. The guys get split up into different groups and all of a sudden we come up on this house and there's an old guy standing out there with a bunch of old western...attire. I guess he was telling all the guys on the team 'this ain't no running ranch' and all this crazy stuff. It kind of freaked out some of the people. It was funny to see this guy talking to us and more and more of us just kept showing up and finally the girls show up there and this guy's looking at us like, "what in the world? Who are these people? I live out in the middle of nowhere, how'd they find my house?" We infiltrated his property or whatever. It was pretty uncomfortable, but I'm pretty sure he's got a big sign out front now: 'NO RUNNERS ALLOWED. THIS IS NOT A RUNNING RANCH!' I've never heard of a 'running ranch' anyway.

Another crazy story from Pifer via e-mail:

So when Billy Nelson, Brent Vaughn, Jason Zicterman, George Pincock and I had a house sophomore year, we had one run that topped 'em all. I won't name any of the people involved...I'll leave that to the readers imagination. All right, so the best place to start is the night before the run. One of the guys on the run took it a little too far with the queso and chips and it came back to haunt him. So were on our way home from an easy Saturday morning run and we're on Main St. in Broomfield. This road runs along a park and the fire station, but doesn't have many trees, so there's not really any area for reprieve. One of the guys on the run starts talking about how his stomach's been bothering him and he doesn't know if he's going to make it back to the house to go number 2. We're all laughing and joking about him having an accident and then out of nowhere he starts sprinting towards a port-o-john at a nearby work site. He's pinching off his butt with his hand and we think it's just a joke, when all of a sudden he drops both hands and starts into a full out sprint. At this point one of the other guys is yelling "Dude, it's for real...he's gotta go!" The guy who's running looks down at his calf and notices some brown substance running down his leg. Next thing we know he's squatted down in the middle of a wide open field three feet from the nearest tree, letting out his frustrations, so to speak, or at least what's left of them. Then comes a girl walking by that plainly says, "bad day, huh?", to which he responds, "uh yeah". All of the guys on the run are laughing their asses off by this point. He then finishes up, we finish the run, and he's not allowed in the house until we hose him off outside. This, by far, has to be one of the funniest/craziest things to happen on a run.