You two met at West Point, what were your athletic endeavors then?
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D3's September Athletes of the Month, Pat and Monica O'Connor
You two met at West Point, what were your athletic endeavors then?
Pat – I played Division I lacrosse all four years.
Monica – I participated in intramural sports all four years. General MacArthur mandated that every cadet should be an athlete. So every cadet who does not play a varsity sport has to participate in an intramural sport each semester in addition to participating in drill and parades. So, I ran triathlon – not as we know it now, it was swimming, shooting, and running – for a semester; swam for four semesters; coached our company intramural swim team for one year; and sailed with the sailing club one year as well. Who got who into triathlon?
Monica – When we moved to Santa Cruz from Cleveland I decided that I really needed to get back in shape for the outdoor lifestyle of California. So I got hooked up with Team In Training and started training in March 2002 for the Pacific Grove Olympic distance triathlon in September 2002.
Pat – I got the bug after seeing Monica do her first triathlon and also from a couple of guys, who have since become my best friends, who were training for Ironman Utah 2003. My first triathlon was the Treasure Island Sprint in Nov 2002. Who is(are) your coach(es) and how long have you been working with him/her?
Mike Ricci from D3 Multisport coaches both of us.
Pat - I started working with Mike and one of his other coaches in Jan 2005 to train for Ironman Canada later that year, as well as a couple of other shorter distance tris. D3 has also coached me through IMCDA in 2006, IMCAN again in 2007, and IMAZ in April this year. I am currently working with Mike training for the Sacramento International Marathon.
Monica - I started working with Mike in October 2006. I remembered overhearing him say that he really got a lot of satisfaction coaching beginner athletes. I still considered myself a beginner triathlete at the time because my triathlon resume was pretty much hit-or-miss since I started in 2002. So, I contacted him and asked if he would coach me for IMAZ in April 2007. He coached me through it again this year (although I didn’t finish because I injured my knee on the 3 rd lap of the bike segment of the race). He just finished coaching me for the Harvest Moon Aquabike on Sep 14th. How has triathlon strengthened your relationship and your family?
Because we are doing something in common, we understand the demands of the sport and the training involved. We encourage each other, play devil’s advocate, and just plain support each other – for better or worse, through the highs and the lows. We’ve experienced both, from the giddiness of completing our first races to the death of one of our best friends in a cycling accident. You have three children, do they race triathlon?
All three of them have done at least one triathlon. Ryan, our oldest who is 15, started doing triathlons in 2002, when he was nine years old. Sharon Osgood, who coached the Tri-Cal Junior Triathlon Team, was also one of the coaches for Team In Training. She met Ryan and suggested that he go to one of her youth triathlon camps that June. He went from there to joining her Junior Team. He eventually raced in over 40 races between 2002 and 2007. He did everything from kids’ races to sprints. He raced at Pacific Grove, Wildflower, Tinley’s Dirty Adventures, and Treasure Island, to name just a few.
Daniel couldn’t wait to join his older brother in triathlon! He chomped at the bit before we finally signed him up for Sharon’s camp in June 2003. He was 6 ½ at the time. One of his first races was the Silicon Valley Kids’ Triathon in 2003. And it was a huge milestone when he finally got to race the MTB Sprint at Wildflower in 2006. He was eight years old at the time and one of the youngest kids to ever race that course.
Casey never attended one of Sharon’s camps. But her first triathlon was the Silicon Valley Kids’ Triathlon in 2004. She rode her bike with the training wheels still on!
All three of the kids continued to do triathlons for a couple of years after we moved here, to Arvada, CO, in Dec 2004. They all joined Riptide MultiSport and were coached by Sean Wendt. They participated in a local series of youth triathlons. They all raced in one or more of the Sara Lee Ironkids Triathlons. The boys have also run in several 5K and 10K races with their Dad. Ryan has since moved away from the sport and has been playing lacrosse and hockey. Daniel is now playing lacrosse and football. Casey is our little gymnast and she started swimming again this summer. She has also expressed a desire to swim with the Riptide again this winter. We’ll see if we can fit that into her busy schedule.
 How do you balance your training with everything else; family, relationship, business?Pat – I have to schedule my training around my work responsibilities. I just have to be flexible. I’ll get workouts in during my lunch hour or right after work. I also have to occasionally travel for work. So I’ll have to juggle my schedule around the fact that I don’t have a bike at my disposal. When one of the kids has a game on the weekend, I’ll schedule a bike ride to end up at the field where they are playing. Or I’ll ride from a game. Flexibility is the key.
Monica - I’m a stay-at-home mom so, generally, I get my workouts in while the kids are at school. But I still have to fit in field trips, team practices, doctor’s appointments, etc., as well as all the normal tasks that keep the household running smoothly. It is definitely a juggling act! We have to be very creative and flexible. So, if the kids’ schedules dictate, sometimes we’ll have to push a workout to the next day. Or ride inside on the CompuTrainer. Or squeeze a swim in between a drop-off and pick-up from a practice. Getting our workouts in the wee hours of the morning just doesn’t seem to work out for us!
Do you ever train together? Tell us about it. Monica - Actually, not very often. If we do, it will most likely be on a weekend. Every once in a while Pat might have a recovery ride on the same day that I have a long ride, so we’ll ride together. We have been able to coordinate our schedules occasionally so that we can meet at the pool and swim at the same time. When we do get to workout together, I really enjoy it!
Pat – When Monica and I were both training for IMAZ this year, we were able to do a couple of our long runs “together”. We’d map out an out-and-back course, calculate how far we each could go, and then start and end together. At least we got to see each other in passing. And it was just nice knowing we were out there together. And I just rode the Harvest Moon course with her two weeks ago, in preparation for her race this past weekend. West Point or Ironman … which one is tougher?
Pat - That’s a tough question! They are both tough in their own way. West Point is four years of exacting academics and military discipline and the sheer length of the experiences made it tough! Our experience there, though, allows us to be tough and disciplined in our training for Ironman as well as the super tough experience that Ironman race day is.
Have you ever done a race together? Tell us about it.
Pat – We’ve done a few together. We did the 5430 Sprint and Boulder Peak last year. And we did IMAZ together this past April. The sprint and Olympic distance races weren’t bad. We never seemed to have any schedule conflicts or maybe our training requirements weren’t so great that we didn’t have any problems working around one another.
Monica – But IMAZ this year was another story. We agreed afterward that we wouldn’t train for the same Ironman distance race again. The volume of training that we each had to do, and at the same time, really pushed our organizing capabilities to their limits. Share some of the rewards you’ve gained from racing?
Just to name a few, being fit and healthy, setting a healthy lifestyle example for our kids, having events that we can go to as a family, making great friends, and finding out how much we can actually push ourselves and how much we can actually accomplish. Pat – Knowing that if I don’t do it, it will be that much more painful on race day.
Monica – knowing that I CAN actually do what I might have thought I COULDN’T do.
What is one of your favorite workouts that everyone should know about?
Monica – I like sprint workouts, whether it’s a swim, bike, or run.
Pat – I like long rides up in the mountains. For example, I’ll leave the house, go south into Golden, up Golden Gate Canyon to Peak to Peak Highway, from there north to Estes Park – that’s 105 miles, one way!Tell us anything about the O’Connors and triathlon!
We have had some great experiences in triathlon. We have met our best, dearest friends through triathlon.
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More Than NumbersWritten by Coach Amanda McCracken
Upon returning home from my disappointing Boulder Peak Olympic distance triathlon last summer, I was greeted by my housemate with, “Hail to the conqueror!” In tears I responded, “Thanks, but, I sucked! I croaked on the run and was nine minutes off my best time on that course.” “But you finished!” she continued, sincerely impressed with my effort of which I thought very little. In my head I didn’t think it was enough to have finished. Having competed in many triathlons of varying distances, my perspective had changed and I was at a loss to know how to measure my success. I struggled to feel good about my two hour and 39 minute effort after five months of training geared to succeed at that particular race by bettering my time. I had left myself no other way to measure success and had downplayed my effort despite the 100 degree heat. I cynically concluded that competing and training was a gamble, like playing the stock market: you never know if what you are investing will make a profit, break even or go belly up. My oversimplified analogy was not a fair comparison. In order to properly gauge my success, I had to reflect on what makes me “me”. At the time, I believed in the statement “what I do is who I am” rather than “who I am is what I do”. In other words, I should have realized that how I value myself determines my performance and not, how I perform determines my self worth. Are we too focused on what we are achieving (numbers) rather than who we are becoming? We have to slow down long enough to see whether our activities and goals support our purpose in life. Have you identified your life purpose and your related purpose in doing triathlons? We should identify a variety of targets and goals for triathlon that are both consistent with our life philosophy and fluid enough to be measurable based on our potential at a given moment. To compartmentalize or to thread Defining the “who” in the success equation is what seems most significant. It seems perfectly natural to me as a triathlete to compartmentalize my definition; after all, I do this for each of the three disciplines. I’m assuming that very few readers of this magazine identify themselves as solely athletes. Many are professionals, parents, spouses, volunteers, students, etc. Does one’s definition of success have to be tailored differently for each role? To succeed as an athlete means achieving X; to be a successful mother is to be Y; and to succeed in a profession is to perform Z. Or, is there a thematic thread that weaves the roles together to support an overarching purpose in life? Abraham Maslow’s theory says that once we have secured the basics of our hierarchy of needs (air, safety, food, means, security, love and belonging) we are left to reach for the ultimate goal of human existence: to be self-actualized. This is the thread. This means to be involvedin identifying and fulfilling our life’s purpose by utilizing our potential. Isn’t this process what we, as triathletes, need to employ to define our personal success? Potential and the moment Becoming self-actualized is a progressive act that often requires one to stop and consider potential in the moment.A former athlete of mine, suffering from severe depression, says “not giving up” is the definition of success for him at the moment. According to two-time Olympian Alan Culpepper, success is doing his best with the potential he has on any given day and having the ability to shift perspectives as his potential changes. There is a necessity to consider “the moment” in each of these definitions. Purpose set: now what are you going to do? Measuring success in the sport of triathlon is difficult because there are so many factors, many uncontrollable like the weather and our equipment. Balancing three disciplines and the time, intensity, and duration of workouts are other variables to be thrown into the success equation. However, a prepared athlete ought to have a variety of targets and goals that are controllable. Targets are statements of what we physically want. Consider the metaphor Bobby McGee uses in his book, Magical Running: Targets are like magnets that pull us along in a particular direction. Consider the possible following targets: -win your age group at a particular race -qualify for Kona -finish in the top 10% of a race -improve your power output on the bike -improve your lactate threshold on the run -improve your mechanics in a discipline -increase your heart rate at which you enter your lactate threshold -finish a season injury free -complete a new distance -improve your time on a familiar course -register for a race! -feel comfortable in own body half-naked body in public -set a variety of goals unrelated to time or place! -incorporate more family time in your training Goals, McGee says, are characteristics that you require to achieve targets. For example, in order to achieve target X, I need to practice and exhibit the A, B, and C characteristics in competition, training, and daily life. These characteristics might sound like, “I need to be assertive, love my body, and remember I have options as situations change.” Goals should create awareness, serve a purpose (not hold you back), and be realistic but high. Remind yourself of these goals during the day, not just prior to and during competition. Try writing down key words to create a steady script in your head to remind yourself of the characteristics you are seeking to embody. For example, you might repeat, “body love, assert, options” in your head during training and racing. Better yet, write them on your body during a race! Writing it down Go ahead, the registrations are opening and there is a buzz in the air of a rapidly approaching new triathlon season. Before you rush online to sign up for a fistful of races, overestimating your body’s potential, your available training hours and your family’s patience, take time to identify how you will define success this season. There is an endless list of possibilities, but how many of us clearly state these before the start of a season? 1. Identify your purpose in life and then specifically in the sport of triathlon. Answer the question, “Why do I do triathlons?” Write it down! 2. Write down three targets that address your purpose in doing triathlons (for this season) and take ownership of those targets. Don’t create a target based on someone else’s expectation. 3. Write down three goals for each target. Consider the question, “How do I want to feel and act before, during and after a race?” 4. When determining success for the season or a race, focus on who you are now and are becoming rather than what you are achieving (place and time) which is a very narrow perspective on success. Why limit your chances of feeling good about yourself? Perspective It’s easy to lose perspective on why we train and why we started doing our sport in the first place. It takes a step outside the athletic world of age group rankings, lactate threshold data and race times to better understand one’s athletic identity (the who) and appreciate the exploratory beauties of the sport (the why) that often get buried beneath the gear, race schedules and statistics. When finding success in consistency seems impossible (due to uncontrollable factors) and finishing a race doesn’t seem significant anymore, remember overall success equates to a combination of achievements at particular moments and actualizing one’s purpose. When you feel like the permanent marked race number on your arm makes you just that, a number, remember who you are and where you’ve been. These, not your race statistics, make you a success.
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Using The Off-Season To ImproveWritten by Coach Curt Chesney
In the sport of triathlon the off season refers to the period of year with no races on the schedule. It certainly is not a time for eating, watching TV and becoming a couch potato. For many athletes this represents a time for reduced training and pursuing other interests, but for others its time to get that advantage on their competition for the upcoming season. This time of year is the most effective time of year for improving triathlon performance. During the racing season a busy schedule of working and training for three sports leaves little time for focusing on your weakest sport. Whenever an athlete focuses on one sport the other two sports will suffer. That’s no problem in the off season since there are no races and as the racing season approaches training for all three sports can resume. Every triathlete has at least one weak sport. 
An improvement in each of these sports basically comes from more time spent training for that sport. In the off season I strongly recommend reducing the hours of training for two sports so that your weakest sport can be focused on without increasing the total weekly volume. For example, if cycling is your focus and your total off season weekly volume is 15 hours (3hr swim, 5hr run and 7hr bike) reduce the swim to 2 hr, the run to 3hr, and increase the bike to 10 hours. The reduction in swim and run training will still be enough to keep from losing too much run and swim fitness and will come back quickly once normal hours of training start. An athlete with even less time to train may even have to cut back the swim to once a week and the run to 2 hours a week. For a period of a few weeks to a month an athlete can even cut back to little or no training on two sports to really boost that single sport focus. A high frequency schedule can also help with an athletes one sport focus. For example if an athlete were to focus on their run and during the season they ran for 1 hr 3 x / week they need to increase their frequency to 5 x per week. To avoid increasing mileage too quickly and getting injured they could run 1 hr 2x/week and the other 3 runs of 30 – 45 minutes would keep the mileage from increasing too quickly and their frequency would still increase. Runs can also be broken up into two workouts (or two a day). A 30 min run / 1 hour bike and 30 min run will put less running stress on the legs than an hour straight, yet the frequency has increased and the benefits of running an hour are still there. Some very high mileage run weeks can be accomplished injury free this way. Some other ways of improving for one sport other than or in addition to increasing the volume may include the following: for swimming - a swim clinic, joining a masters swim program or having your swim videoed by a coach. For cycling it may be starting a strength and weight training program, using power cranks, starting to train with a power meter or joining up on the local group ride. For running it can be training with a run group on the track once per week, strength training, adding some hills to your runs or plyometrics. So now you can look at this years “off season” as a chance to get an advantage on your buddies by improving your weakest link. Whether you increase your weak sports volume this winter or do some sport specific work the next racing season will be your best yet. |
Amanda McCracken