Up close with Patrick Wheeler

Patrick Wheeler finished Ironman Arizona in 8:55:34 and that is certainly a fine result for an age grouper. But the goal post for this hard working athlete is set much higher than finishing high among age groupers, and we had a few words with him.

Slowtwitch: Thanks for your time.

Pat: Thank you, Herbert. Its pretty funny about 5 minutes after finishing Arizona I told my wife that I was bummed I didn’t win the age-group race because I really wanted the interview. Funny how things work out.

ST: Do you get to hang out and relax for a while now?

Pat: I am currently coming to the end of my off-season. 14 days one hundred-percent off from sports or exercise. I spent a lot of time ticking off the "honey do list" and playing ball with my two dogs.

ST: You were not even running up the steps?

Pat: I don’t think I could’ve run up the steps! The only running I did was chasing the dogs around the backyard.

ST: Big plans for the holidays?

Pat: Just the usual family stuff, but with a lot of cousins it usually turns into a pretty good time. I am really looking forward to the QT2 annual holiday party in Boston. We will have over 120 people attending, so it will be good to catching up with some team members who I haven’t seen in a while.

ST: Will there be any feats of strength or endurance at this gathering?

Pat: I think there is talk of a "dance off" at the QT2 party, but I’ll try to stay away from that as best as I can. As for my family, we are full Irish, so I’m sure you can figure out what goes on.

ST: Looking back at Ironman Arizona, you must be quite happy with your effort there.

Pat: Very happy with the effort. I had a rough few weeks in June and July ending with me getting sick for the first time in about 19 years forcing a full week off from training. Being able to bounce back from that and finally ride the wattage that my training showed I could, made me happy. Not being a strong cyclist, in the past 8 Ironman events I’ve always finished the ride 5-7 watts low. I was determined to ride to the max of my fitness on the day.

ST: Did you think sub nine was possible going in?

Pat: I knew, based of the training indicators, it was going to be close. As my good friend Tim Snow once told me, "You need the right course on the right day," and we had the right day in Arizona.

ST: No one in your age group was even close.

Pat: I have Jesse Kropelnicki to thank for that. He has given me the opportunity to be able to focus one hundred percent on training, recovery and nutrition. Working full time for QT2 I can, ninety nine percent of the time, train around my work schedule.

ST: Do you know the age grouper who finished ahead of you?

Pat: Ha! Good ol’ Tony. I’ve known him for years. He lived in the Boston area for a while. He has beaten me up on group rides and in triathlons for years. I was actually glad to see him on the start list, which I didn’t see until Saturday night. I know exactly who I got beat by. I know his training, his strengths and his weaknesses. I know he didn’t sit in and ride a 4:42. Tony actually has one of the top-10 fastest bike splits at Ironman Lake Placid ever. He won Lake Placid a few years back when Ironman was doing the pro woman and pro male only races.

ST: Well, did you sit in?

Pat: No. Where I was in the race it was pretty clear. The biggest group I passed was near the far turn around and I think there were only three people in it. Other then that I was only passing one person at a time.

ST: I had to ask after you pointed out that Tony did not.

Pat: No worries, valid question on that course. The guys who swam about an hour and rode about five hours seemed to have it much worse in terms of drafting and large groups.

ST: You actually started with Ironman racing in 2008. What got you rolling?

Pat: I was actually in the gym trying to get bigger so I could keep playing hockey. A few of the guys I was lifting with were doing a sprint so I figured since lifting wasn’t working out (143 lbs socking wet) I’d give the race a shot. That was in the summer of 2003. It was a Sunday race. I bought a bike from Brian Hughes, who is still a good friend, on Wednesday, ran four miles on the treadmill on Friday, as I wasn’t sure I could actually run four miles and raced on Sunday. Unlike a lot of others who turn pro, I didn’t win; in fact I was pretty close to last and walked a good portion of the four-mile run, thinking the whole time, "how do people do Ironman?" I slowly built up training volume and race distances until we felt I was ready to start training for IM. That was the winter of 2007.

ST: I guess the bug really bit you.

Pat: It sure did. I knew training and racing was something I wanted to do everyday for the rest of my life before I even got off the 12-mile bike course of my first triathlon.

ST: Will you have a Pro license for 2013?

Pat: That’s the plan.

ST: Was that performance in AZ the deciding factor?

Pat: It was forty percent performance and sixty percent the way I conduct myself with regards to training, nutrition, and recovery. We, Jesse and I, feel as though I conduct myself daily as a professional in those areas, so it was the next step in the process.

ST: While your performance was certainly very fine, the top two men overall were over 50 minutes ahead of you. Does that seem daunting?

Pat: It sure does! It will take thousands of hours and training miles to get there but I have full faith in Jesse to get me on a start line with 8:01 fitness. When we first met I was a 1:58 open half marathoner. And maybe I’ll never get there, but when I finally hang up the training shoes, I’ll at least be able to say I gave it my best shot.

ST: So what is next?

Pat: Well, I need to finish painting the hallway before my wife gets home from school! But from training and racing side, I’ll spend the next 10 days getting back into training and then I’ll be laser focused for Ironman Texas.

ST: Why Texas?

Pat: We picked Texas because it’s a great race for me to continue to work on one of my weaknesses: Racing in the heat and humidity. It forces me to do a big heat acclimation period at home before I spend the last 14 days actually in Texas training before race day. I have a high sweat rate and I am also massively effected by the humidity. Two things that I must keep working on if I want to race well in Kona, if I were to make it back there as a professional.

ST: You went 9:19 in Kona in 2011 and that does not sound like you struggled that much there.

Pat: I was in Kona for two weeks before the race last year and followed the same heat acclimation protocol that I used for Kona 2010. I can race well in the heat but it takes a solid 6 weeks of controlled preparation to make it happen.

ST: And we almost forgot - what kind of bike are you riding?

Pat: I am currently riding a Specialized Shiv Pro. I bought it about 6 weeks before Arizona and fell in love on the first ride.

ST: Anything else we should know?

Pat: I just want to say thanks to everyone who has helped me along the way -- to my dad who taught me at a very young age that it takes patience and a ton of hard work to be good at anything worth doing. Thank you to my wife, Courtney. She has sacrificed a lot so we can try and make my dream happen.

ST: Well keep up the dream and finish painting that hallway.

Pat: Thank you Herbert for the interview.


If you want to follow Pat on Twitter he is @patwheeler and his website is pat-wheeler.com