Patrick John McCrann | Athlete. Author. Coach.

Coach Patrick McCrann is…

• A 16-Time Ironman Finisher

• A 4-Time Ironman Hawaii Finisher (9:52 PR)
  

• A 3-Time Boston Marathon Finisher (2:59 PR)

• A proud husband and father of two girls

The Intro

Patrick McCrann is one of a handful of elite triathlon and endurance sport coaches based in the US.  Patrick has spent the last seven+ years building an unparalleled network of internet-based resources and real-world training opportunities, including Endurance Nation, Marathon Nation and Triathlon Execution. Patrick’s articles on triathlon, training and the endurance lifestyle have appeared on Xtri.com, TransitionTimes, Active.com and in Inside Triathlon magazine.

Patrick currently coaches and consults from a corner of his dining room table in Boston where:

• He has coached over 150 athletes to the Ironman finishline, including the World Champs in Hawaii.
• He has completed thirteen Ironman races, from Klagenfurt to Kona, from a low of 11:44 to his personal best of 10:01.
• He spends as much time as possible with his wonderful wife and two amazing daughters.

You are not limited by fitness, lifestyle or equipment. Your biggest limiter is the belief in your own potential.

The Mission

To give every aspiring athlete access to the proven endurance training protocols that have helped hundreds of athletes get fitter (and faster) without sucking up every available hour of free time. As an age-group athlete who works full-time as a coach and stay-at-home dad (with a wonderful wife), Patrick is acutely aware of the time demands on his fellow age-groupers. An advocate for planning and training smart, Patrick is most proud of his ability to develop effective, time-saving training protocols for athletes that help them achieve their triathlon goals.

Coach P’s Transformation

It all began on a local track with my mom counting laps as I panted in pathetic circles. “Isn’t that five laps,” I’d ask? “Nope,” she’d reply, checking the pile of rocks she’d been using to count as proof. “Four down, four to go.” Certainly not your average Wednesday night bonding moment between a 12 year-old and his mom, but a very telling scene; one that would follow me for many years: I had the drive, the desire to be good, but I wasn’t quite there.

While the situation above had me trying to get in shape for the junior high soccer team, my challenges continued through high school (soccer) and even into college (crew team). I had little skill, but my ability to do a lot of work was what carried me through at the end of the day. But then I graduated from college, picked up running, and got my first real injury. Bam – sidelined. No amount of work could help me, I had to get better. I’d take time off, recover, heal, train, overdo it, etc.

This cycle repeated itself for years (I am persistent!), right through late 2005, when I was in the midst of a big push to qualify for the Ironman World Championships. I had come off a cycle of 20 weeks where I trained 20 hours a week (that’s 400 hours!) and barely missed a spot by 8 seconds. Faced with more work to reach my goals, I sat down to look at my daily schedule to see where I could squeeze out a few more hours to train — maybe 24 hours a week would do it.

That’s when it hit me: “more” wasn’t the answer..after all, I had years of endurance training on my legs. “More” wasn’t my problem, it’s what I was doing with my time that was holding me back.

This revelation led me to do a great deal of research and soul-searching to find information on how to build intensity into an endurance program (no easy task). After months of planning and tweaking, I had my plan. I trained for 5 months with the new protocols — and earned my first trip to Hawaii.

Since then I have not only returned to Kona four times, I have helped well over 150 other athletes through this same quality, well-organized training approach.

“The quest to go from average Joe/Jane Finisher to being a competitive triathlete is a rewarding – yet challenging – path. I have seen and helped countless athletes on this journey, and I have heard all of the excuses. From my experience, the most successful athletes are those who make the most out of what they have and where they are. As an athlete who has lowered my weight to 185 (from 205), has dropped my IM time from 11:44 (to 10:01), has cut my Ironman marathon time to 3:21 (from 4:02), I have developed extensive knowledge on what does–and doesn’t work- for the age group athlete. I have spent the last five years helping athletes take their game to the next level!”
If you are looking to contact Patrick, please click here.

Watch and listen to clips of Patrick speaking about his training and coaching experiences.

Welcome to the retail side of PatrickJohnMcCrann.com, a very small business with the goal of helping people do more of what they are most excited about. If you haven’t already, please download the FREE Fit Life Handbook in the right sidebar of the blog. — >

Competitive Triathlon in 10Hours A Week

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Discover the smarter, faster, easier way to triathlon greatness. Burnt out from hours of aerobic training and minimal results? Fed up with shuffling your life to fit your training? Tired of cookie-cutter training plans? Look no further than the 10Hours approach to triathlon, the best practices gleaned from Coach Patrick’s personal & professional journey as a full-time triathlon coach since 2004. Inside you’ll get practical guidance on how to do more with your available time, including planning templates and more!

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Your Best Marathon: A Racing Primer

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Marathon Race Day is about Execution, Not Fitness A great marathon happens when your fitness, your race strategy and your ability to execute your race plan all intersect.Use Marathon Nation’s proven long run guidance, pre-race checklists, pace calculator and post-race analysis tools to make the next big race your best ever! More than 45 pages of resources and advice can be yours instantly. Don’t wait until it’s too late start getting marathon ready today.

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Train to Live, Live to Train: An Insider’s Guide to Building the Ultimate Fitness Lifestyle

Let’s Get to the Point…

Creating your ideal lifestyle is a full spectrum experience. From fitness to finance, from organizational strategies to dreamlining, from outsourcing to out-thinking the competition…it’s all here. I give you everything I have, as there’s no telling what might be the one thing that will connect with you and help you start your journey.

The following is a list of some of the foundational articles and posts I have written. If you are new to the site, this is a great place to learn a bit more without having to sift through all of my writing.

Please republish my writing…I only ask you give me credit for the work! If you plan on posting it to your blog, let me know as I might drop by and post a comment!

Best of Lifestyle

1. Living the Fit Life

2. Goals: To Set or Not to Set, That is the Question

3. Make More Finish Lines

4. Daily Efficiency: Getting Started

Best of Planning

1. Master Planning for the Multi-Tasker: On Being Creative, Outsourcing, and the Big Picture

2. A Five Year (Plus) Journey to Triathlon Success

3. Annual Planning Exercise

Best of Self Care

1. Redefining Your Endurance Diet: Lose Weight, Get Lean & Get Faster This Winter
2. Sitting vs Standing At Work: Why You Need to Raise Your Working Game
3. Baby Steps to Standing At Work

Best of Time Management

1. Conquering Time and Building Dual Purpose Space
2. Three Steps to Building The Perfect Day

Best of Training

1. How to Ride Your Bike Like a Veteran, Part 2
2. Plan A Mini-Camp To Get Faster
3. Triathlon: Forcing Your Fitness

Best of Bigger Picture

1. On Living Differently, Not Just Dangerously
2. On Challenges, Open Doors & Opportunity: Where Are You Living?
3. Planning The Comeback: Who Do You Want To Be?
4. Alberto Contador, Andy Schleck, and the Power of Conscience

Client Testimonials

“Patrick delivered exactly what we were looking for in a speaker! He exceeded expectations as a keynote speaker in his Building Your Best Triathlon Season at our 2012 Endurance Expo. He kept everyone engaged with his dynamic and easy going style. Suffice to say, every attendee took away so much from his topics. Patrick’s message about building the ultimate fitness lifestyle was the perfect start to our event and to this day I refer to his message daily! We are already thinking of future opportunities to bring him back.”

– Stanley Skolfield, ATC, CSCS,
OA Performance Center/Parisi Speed School Manager
OA Centers for Orthopaedics

“Patrick is a remarkably energetic, insightful, and visionary person.  He worked with several internal and external leaders to help us develop a vision for a web-based community.  He brought rich personal experience and understanding of what works and doesn’t work on the web, and his unique experience quickly made him a leader in the group.  Patrick is a pleasure to work with and his passion and skill for community building would add value to any company exploring this space.“

– Bill M.  Minneapolis, MN

“As a wife, mother of four young adult sons, business owner, and triathlete, I was confident I had mastered personal and professional stress management. Or so I thought. A huge–and unexpected–benefit of working with Patrick for the past three years as an Endurance Nation athlete has been finding new ways to explore and redefine what it means to live a truly balanced lifestyle.

Following his blogs, reading his new book, and watching how he puts his words into action in his own life, has opened new ways of thinking in my own mind. Patrick has helped me uncover how my personal and professional passions, discipline, and accomplishments can feed and fuel a symbiotic whole–the place where true empowerment lies. I encourage you to read and listen to his words to help you refine and reignite your personal vision.”

– Linda P.  Boston, MA

“My consultation with Patrick McCrann was invaluable. As someone who has “walked the talk” with his own successful online businesses, he saved me years of frustration with his practical steps for taking my dream and turning it into a reality.”

– Erik Hajer  Boston, MA (Online Here)

Athlete Testimonials

“I am in my 5th year in the sport. For the first four years I self-coached/scrambled around with my training. Got the free stuff on line, cut out the magazine workouts and training plans. I also have an education background in Nutrition and Exercise Physiology so I figured I could figure it all out.

This year I hired Patrick. I had also been to a few clinics that he had held last year. Here are some things so far that I’ve learned about working with him:

1. Life is stressful enough and Patrick takes the stress out of figuring out where you are and what you need to do next with your training.

2. Sounding board. Even with experience sometimes having Patrick tell you what you are already thinking has a calming effect and again lets you focus on “just what you need to do.”

3. Someone on the outside looking in. You think you know what your body is doing — but someone with an experienced eye can really tell you. This is really priceless since success and enjoyment in this sport is affected by your technique and how you execute.

4. All the “stuff” on training and training plans out there is set up to hit most of the people most of the time. Working with Patrick can help eliminate the“stuff” that you DON’T need to work on and let you use your training time for those things that YOU will benefit the most from. This has been the big AH-HA for me this year.

Patrick is able to work with you no matter what your level is. First timer to someone who wants to qualify for Hawaii. He can walk the walk on any level. THIS is rare I think. For someone like myself who is in the middle — you benefit from the high end performer who can still relate to your level. It’s great!

There are so many things to spend money on in this sport. Working with Patrick is some of the best money I’ve spent.”

– Kris G., Boston, MA

“I have been working with patrick  for the past 2 years and am **extremely** happy.

He and the rest of the coaches in the PTS group are great at working with people like most of us: age groupers with a busy schedule and obligations such as work, family, etc etc.

Patrick successfully coaches his athletes to perform to the best of their ability, all while highlighting the importance of us doing this sport as a fun hobby and that it’s important to keep in mind the fun aspect of it – I think this perspective he has is key to the success his athletes have had.

Most of us don’t have all day/year to train like the pros do – work, family etc might sometimes/often take priority over our training, he understands all of this (he is a dad and runs PTS full-time…yet has managed to qualify and go to kona at the same time – and previous to this he worked full time and in total has completed 14 ironmans).

Yet somehow he manages to schedule our training in a way that lets us enjoy what’s important in our lives outside of triathlon, but keeps us focused on our training by scheduling quality training sessions in the time available to us to train.

I PR’ed on all my races in 2006…and my 1st ironman back in july went very smoothly – and yes, while i’m the one who “did the work”, his guidance/coaching helped to make that happen.”

– Pam R., Los Angeles, CA

“The 10Hours system totally ROCKS! I bought Coach P’s book and used tools to plan the rest of my year. I had a great end to my season on focused training. Can’t wait to it again in 2008!”

– Joe S.