A US Naval Officer, our next guest has an inherent instinct for discipline. He is dedicated to his country and his training; you can see this by the personal gains he has made in a relatively short amount of time in the sport of triathlon.  Ladies and Gentleman: Patrick Drain

KK: Pat, please tell us a little about yourself?  Where did you grow up?

PD: I grew up on the East side of Cleveland, in a town called Orange Village.  It's a great place to grow up, really.  I had a big back yard with large woods next to our property, so I was outside a lot when I was young.

KK: What was your athletic background as a youth and in college?

PD: I went to Orange schools from kindergarten to high school, and played football and baseball through sophomore year, but I chose to switch to cross country running junior year because my best friend, Sam, had been running for a while, and I thought I could get a better challenge with the sport.  I chose to run track senior year rather than play baseball, as I was signed up for an expedition with Outward Bound for my senior project, and I would be leaving halfway through the baseball season.  The track team needed all the runners they could get, and it also helped me get ready for the backpacking trip.  This background in running in high school was the critical factor that connected me to endurance sports.  I realized it was something I wanted to do for life.

KK: Tell us about your academic background.

PD: I attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts for undergrad, and I studied Political Science.  I was never very good in math and science, and I really enjoyed discussing politics and history.

KK: What do you do for a living?

PD: I'm a Surface Warfare Officer, or SWO, in the Navy.  I'm slated to be the next Weapons Officer on USS CHANCELLORSVILLE (CG 62).  CHANCELLORSVILLE is a cruiser home ported in San Diego, California, which is where I've been living for the most part since 2002.  I'm currently living in Newport, Rhode Island, where I'm completing a course that will prepare me for my department head tour.

KK: What was your first triathlon? How did it go? What kind of gear and bike did you have?

PD: My first triathlon was Mission Bay Triathlon in 2006, and it was a blast.  I was very nervous for that race, but the training I had started in June with the Triathlon Club of San Diego (TCSD) prepared me well for it.  For the first time since high school cross country, I was having fun training and racing in an endurance sport.

KK: Why did you get involved triathlon?

PD: I just wanted to find a way to get into shape.  I had just left my second ship, USS HALSEY, and I was probably 15 lbs. heavier than I am right now.  My blood pressure wasn't at a healthy level, and I wanted to be more active.  Up until June 2006, I had been running a couple times a week, but there wasn't a purpose behind it.  I missed the days of high school cross country where I had a coach and a bunch of friends training and racing with me, and I was looking for something like that again.  Then one day, I was out with my cousin and a couple of her friends in Encinitas for brunch, and we saw that the Encinitas Sprint Triathlon expo going on.  We walked over to check it out, and I started talking to a woman at the TCSD booth, and the rest is history.

KK: What distances do you enjoy racing?

PD: I love them all.  Sprints are fun because they are over in an hour and you can race at your max the whole time.  I can see what I've got when I push myself to my limits.  I like the Olympic distance, as well, because the distances are still short enough where you have to truly race each leg of the triathlon.  I've only completed two Half-Iron distance races, both of which were on the Wildflower Long Course, and both proved to be a true test of willpower.  I like this course because of the satisfying feeling I have when I have completed it.

KK: What event has been your biggest challenge when you first started doing triathlon?

PD: I would have to say the bike.  It takes a ton of time in the saddle to get better, and this is something I need to spend a lot more time doing.  I was very happy to see I improved by about 9 minutes on the bike portion of Wildflower this year, I think because I was pretty disciplined in getting two bike trainer workouts per week during the work week, and one longer ride in on the weekend, but I still have a long way to go.  Wildflower's Nasty Grade killed me this year.  I had cramps in my quads and hamstrings throughout the whole run, and I think it was due to the fact I was not prepared for the hills of Wildflower.

KK: What are some of your favorite places to train?

PD: There are so many amazing places in San Diego to train, but I would have to say my favorite spot is Pensquitos Canyon.  I love trails, I like hill running, and I enjoy the feeling you get at Penasquitos where it seems like you're out in the middle of no where.  It can be really quiet out there.  It gives me a chance to decompress, listen to my thoughts, and enjoy nature.

KK: Do you pee on the bike when racing?

PD: Hell yes.  I peed twice during Wildflower this year, a first for me, and it felt great.  Besides, it saved me at least a couple minutes.

KK: What is your favorite race so far? Why?

PD: Wildflower is probably my favorite race of them all.  It is a beautiful course and a very well run race (Tri Cal does a great job!), and the weekend away camping with friends is an experience that cannot be beat.  It is a race and a tradition that I will try to continue doing for as long as I can.

KK: What is about triathlon that you enjoy?

PD: More than anything, I have found the people I have met in the triathlon community to be some really amazing people.  This has been the biggest gift for me since I started the sport, and they make it easy to continue coming back to it.

KK: Because of you career in the US Navy, you had to relocate from California to the East Coast; what challenges in training have to had to adapt to?

PD: Well, for one, it has been pretty darn cold here for most of my time here, so I spent a lot of time this past winter indoors doing trainer workouts and runs on the treadmill.  After living in San Diego's climate for seven years or so, I was a real wimp at first when I arrived here, but I found that it wasn't too bad once I had the right gear to take on the cold.  Also, since there are no big groups like we see in San Diego, I've had to do a lot of training on my own.  This is one thing about TCSD I took for granted until I came to the East Coast.  Out there, any day of the week one only has to show up to a group workout, and friends and training partners' help you get through the rest.  Here, I've had to become much more disciplined on my own, because there has not been anyone else ensuring I get the workouts in.  Lastly, it's very flat out here.  There are not many hills, so it takes some creativity (and bike trainer workouts with high resistance) to simulate that.

KK: Is there a big triathlon community where you are living now?

PD: No!  In fact, a few friends of mine and I are trying to start a Newport Rhode Island Triathlon Club (NRITC) here, so that we can create a similar community to what we have in San Diego.  Our time is limited here, so we're trying to get people who live here locally to take over when we get it going.  We'll see how it goes!

KK: How do you train during the cold winter months?

PD: Like I mentioned, it took the combination of a lot of indoor training hours when the weather was too cold or snowy to go outside, and the right cold weather gear to brave the cold winds.  Something that worked like a charm this winter when the roads were icy was Yaktrax.  These are essentially snow chains for your running shoes, and when I wore these I could run across an ice skating rink if I wanted to without falling.  They enabled me to do some cold weather runs I would not have been able to do without them.

KK: What advice would you give to someone wanting to get started in the sport of triathlon?

PD: First, I would say believe you can do it.  A lot of people I talk to say they do not see themselves doing triathlon because they are nervous about the swim.  I know I definitely felt this way before I started the sport.  Like me, many people have not been on a swim team in their past.  To overcome this fear, I started swimming at TCSD's Monday-Wednesday evening swims, and I started swimming on Friday nights at the La Jolla Cove.  By the time I made it to Mission Bay Triathlon in '06 (about four months of swimming), I performed pretty well.  The master's type swim classes help build the swim endurance and form, and the Cove swims helped me overcome my fears of open water swimming, especially since there are so many people there doing it.

PD: Secondly, I think it's important to sign up for a race.  If a person has never done a triathlon before, Mission Bay is a great first race.  It's at the end of the season, and it is a sprint, so it's a manageable race to train for.  Signing up for the race gives you a goal that helps you stay on track with your training plans.

PD: Lastly, it really helps if you can find a group of people to train with.  I probably would not have continued to do this sport if I didn't have the support, as well as healthy competition, of the friends I have made in the triathlon community.  Training in groups makes everything easier.

KK: What are some of your 2009 goals?

PD: Race in Wildflower Long Course and go faster than last year (check).  Race in Escape from Alcatraz and go faster than last year (June 14).  Race in Rhode Island 70.3 and try to get a better time than I got at Wildflower.  Continue training when I report to the ship, and try to get a few shipmates to get into the sport.  Last, but not least, I want to have fun through it all!

Thank you Patrick Drain.

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