As she laughs at memories of her childhood Running Nike experiences on the family farm near Croswell, Michigan, it’s clear Leah O’Connor’s strengths as an athlete are grounded in a deep and long-standing love for her sport. That passion, she explains, has continued growing right up to the present day. A two-time individual NCAA champion and a strong contender for a spot on the 2016 U.S. World Championships team, O’Connor will bring her career at Michigan State University to a close this June. But she has plenty of Running Nike to do as a Spartan.
O’Connor graduated from Croswell-Lexington High School, enrollment 800, in 2010 with personal bests of 2:15.08 for 800m and 5:01.99 for the mile and won Division 2 state championships in both events her junior and senior seasons. At Michigan State, under the guidance of veteran coach Walt Drenth, O’Connor found her calling in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. As a redshirt freshman she won the Big Ten title in the event. She took fifth place at the NCAA Championships in 2013 before winning the event in 2014 in a school record of 9:36.43, good enough to rank her sixth in the U.S. that year.
Now in her final year as a Spartan, O’Connor claimed individual cross country victories at both the Big Ten championships and Great Lakes regional last fall and finished 17th at nationals, helping Michigan State claim the program’s first-ever team title. On March 14 she rolled to a win at the NCAA indoor championships in the mile in a meet-record time of 4:27.18, currently the fourth-fastest mile in the world this year. Running Nike Times Sandals ŃSKI 0826 Różowy Kwiaty.
Running Nike Times: You come from a large family with one sister and four brothers and both of your parents have backgrounds in running. How did that affect your introduction to running?
Leah O’Connor: Both of my parents love running. My dad was a two-miler in high school but he was also a dairy farmer so he never went to college or saw how good he could become. But he never lost his passion for it. My mom was more of a 400-meter runner and hurdler and competed in high school and at a community college. She loves running, too. When I was growing up my dad would go out on eight- or 10-mile runs on a regular basis just because he loved the sport and the way it made him feel. My older sister was on the track team and we would go to her meets and watch her compete. I remember the atmosphere there and just loving it. I would run around the outside of the track wanting to be like the bigger kids who were racing. Prior to being on the middle school track team I would go with my brothers and do the mile fun runs when my dad was Running Nike road races. I used to live for those fun runs. We didn’t train at all, but maybe three days prior to a race my parents would say, “If you don’t get outside and get moving it’s going to feel really bad in the race.” So we’d go out and run to the tree line and back from our house, it was like a half mile there and a half mile back, and that was our training (laughs). My family had a huge influence on me and I thank my parents for the way they introduced me to the sport.
RT: Five years ago, when you were about to move on to Michigan State, what were your hopes for your collegiate career? Did you have any specific performance goals, or was it more the excitement of reaching the next level and seeing how you could do?
LO: I loved Running Nike in high school even though my times weren’t all that fantastic. And I wanted to come to a college where I would be kept healthy and happy and could see how good I could be. I didn’t know what that looked like, but Coach Drenth came to our house and had dinner with my parents and me and we talked. He obviously saw potential in me but when you’re Running Nike 15 to 25 miles a week tops and not really training it’s hard to really know where you’re at. I’m very competitive and always want to put myself in a position to win whatever I’m competing in. Coming into college I wanted to find a way to be the best. I would say things like winning an NCAA title kind of quietly when I was writing down my long-term goals, but coming into college I just honestly wanted to break 5:00 in the mile—that was my goal as a freshman (laughs). That and being a little more comfortable on the cross country course because that was never my strong suit. I had small goals at first. Then as I got older and trained harder and started learning more about myself as an athlete—and as Coach started learning more about me as an athlete—the goals got bigger and everything just took off.
RT: Last fall, Coach Drenth said he focuses on the process more than outcomes. How has that approach resonated with you and contributed to your improvement?
LO: At this point, when things are really good, there’s the temptation to look at outcome-based goals; you’ve run 4:27 in the mile and it’s easy to get a little bit distracted by the future. But through every step of this process Coach Drenth has found a way to help me slow everything down and just look at everything I’m doing on a step-by-step basis. He makes sure I don’t allow myself to get distracted by the future and things I can’t control. There’s a lot of simplicity in the way he does things and, honestly, a lot of strength building. That allows you to be courageous and make bold choices and do things without fear, because you’re not looking at what you’re doing from the perspective of “I have to win this race,” “I have to run this time,” or “I have to reach this goal.” It’s more “What is the next thing I can do to make myself better? What is the next bold decision?” And honestly, it’s a daily grind, but it teaches you to not be complacent and to continually question yourself. I think that’s what has helped not just my own career but our entire program, which has grown tremendously. What we were able to do as a team in the fall, honestly that was just really good coaching. Coach Drenth has taught us all to embody the process. He’s taught us to set big goals, but then he’s also taught us to do every single little thing that we can to get there. In doing that, bigger things have happened than I could have probably ever dreamt of. He’s done a really good job of making it about the journey and keeping it fun and exciting. I think that’s why, just as I’m about to graduate after five years of college, I feel like I’m just now falling in love with running. That’s cool, and I don’t think it’s common.
RT: In 2013 in Eugene, when you finished fifth Coach Drenth immediately told you to start thinking about winning in 2014. Perhaps that put a little pressure on you, but would you say it was more a matter of opening your eyes to the possibility?
LO: Yeah, he does a good job of opening our eyes to possibilities without ever making it a burden. In cross country last fall we were one of the top-ranked teams the entire season but he made that fun and something that was OK to accept and strive for, but it was not our focus. And for me individually, winning and times and records are never my focus going into championship meets. If I’m thinking of those things going into a race, I’m already losing at that point. I’m putting a cap on what I can do in that event if I don’t have a plan to be tough, to make the next really tough decision. It’s just a different mindset and it’s a really powerful one, and I’m lucky to have had a coach who has instilled that in me.
RT: Was it Coach Drenth who first got you interested in the steeplechase? How did you take to it initially?
LO: He mentioned the steeple when he recruited me, I guess because I’m pretty tall–I’m like 5-foot-8 or 5-foot-9. I had done other sports in high school so I’m decently athletic and I wasn’t afraid of it. I was excited about the event and the fact that it’s different and a challenge. But the first time I ever raced it, oh my gosh, it was hilarious (laughs). I don’t think I had practiced an actual jump before the race and I didn’t realize how bad the steeple was going to burn. I think I was in shock a little bit, because it messes with your breathing so much and it’s really hard to gauge how much you have in the tank. It was when I was a redshirt freshman. I don’t know where the results are but I feel I ran close to 12:00, I really do. It was so windy and so cold. [Note: O’Connor’s time was 11:06.80. She finished second in the race to teammate Tiffany Evans, who won in 10:57.73.] The steeple was kind of this adventure at first, and as I’ve matured as an athlete and person and practiced it more I’ve figured it out and made a lot of progress. But I had to figure out what the heck I was doing, and I feel like I’m still figuring it out, but that’s the fun part.
RT: You’ve not only developed into the top collegiate steeplechaser, you ran a 4:27 mile to win the NCAA indoor championships in March. Can you discuss the progression of your training and how your training varies over the course of the year?
LO: Every year the amount I’m Running Nike has increased, but it’s been in small chunks. When I redshirted my freshman year, I ran 35 miles a week the whole year and my longest run was 56 minutes. I did not have a base. So that year was just building a base and learning how to train. I usually use my summers as my time to build back into mileage and then increase mileage a little bit. Cross country pushes me out of a lot of comfort zones but having Rachele Schulist to train with has been huge. She’s pretty young and really good at tempo, and that has absolutely made me a better athlete, just being able to train with someone who is strong at something I would usually struggle with. My mileage has increased about ten miles per week each year, so I’m now at 70 to 75. I’ve built it up but have always kept in mind where I was at with my intensity and have had a lot of communication with Coach Drenth to make sure I was doing everything in a healthy way. I never wanted to feel I was forcing the mileage or putting myself at risk for injury. We think less about the numbers and more about how our bodies are responding to what we’re doing and being honest with where we’re at. I’ve done a lot with my mental game, which has been huge. Coming in to college as sort of a no-name—somebody who was really just learning the ropes—I had to make a lot of adjustments. My progress was gradual but I made some huge leaps at championship meets pretty fast and I had to learn how to own that. I had to learn to be confident and not be scared racing against really good competition. It took work. I read different sports psychology books and talked with a lot of people. Learning how to be a better athlete mentally was just as important to me as training physically, and I think sometimes that’s overlooked. You think if you run your miles and do your work everything’s going to come together, but I had to be pretty intentional about learning how to be stronger mentally. It wasn’t always there. I’ve had some pretty crappy experiences at championship meets where I just didn’t have confidence and didn’t perform to my ability, and I’m sure there are going to be times in the future where that happens again. But I’ve learned from those experiences and this year I kind of made the decision, even on breaks when I wasn’t with the team, that I was going to do every little thing possible. I really feel I’ve owned my training more, as opposed to needing to be around the team and needing the support of other people, and a lot of it is coming from myself. It’s an internal drive that I’ve never had to this extent before and it’s real right now. My training is mine and I love it, and I love my running.
RT: Now that you're an NCAA champion in the steeplechase and the mile, do Knee High Boots HISPANITAS Ashley HI211874 Vainilla?
LO: Even after I won the steeple [at nationals] I never considered myself just a steeplechaser, but I think that was kind of placed on me (laughs). So I think I’m just a runner. When I’m actively Running Nike cross country, I’m a cross country runner. When I’m doing indoor and focused on the mile, I’m a miler. And then when I come into outdoor track and I’m focused on the steeplechase, I’m a steeplechaser. I am whatever I choose to be. I love the mile, obviously. It’s so much fun. But we don’t race often and I don’t get the opportunity to explore other events like the 5K or the 800m but I just love Running Nike and competing, and when I have the opportunity to compete in an event I want to find a way to be the best at it I can be. So I’m a miler and a steeplechaser and whatever else I can try to be really good at.
RT: You’ve already run a 9:41 steeple this season, but what’s the plan for between now and nationals?
LO: Because my season is going to go longer than it ever has we’re not pushing it too much early on. We don’t typically travel all around to meets. But even more so this year it’s more about training and prepping for NCAAs, USAs and then hopefully Worlds, or if not Worlds then going and doing a summer circuit. I’m going to the Jesse Owens meet in Ohio this week and will just run the 1500m and get my legs moving again and feel that burn. And then we’ll come back and do some hard work on the track before the Big Ten Championship (May 15-17). I’m going to do the 1500m and steeple there for sure, and if my team needs me in the 5K I will run the 5K. Our team is stronger than we’ve ever been on the women’s side and it’s a home meet, so we’re just going to try our darndest to do the best we can. And then I’ll run regionals (May 29-31) and nationals (June 10-13).
RT: You're planning on a long summer. Is it a distraction to have big opportunities out there soon after NCAAs? Do you try to block that out, or do you use that as another kind of motivation?
LO: I think those opportunities could be distracting if I didn’t have a really solid group of people giving me really good advice and helping me along. When a runner goes from high school to college there’s a shift in training and different things to focus on and think about. There’s going to be a shift from college to professional running, and I’m not going to shy away from that. But I can’t stress enough how much support I have and how many people have been so helpful. And different professional runners, women I really have a lot of respect for, have made it a point to reach out and be helpful and give advice. I’ve appreciated that so much, to have people in the Running Nike community pour out support and advice. It’s been really cool.
Those opportunities are just exciting and an encouragement for me. It’s a different carrot—that’s what my high school coach always said, that I had to keep carrots in front of me, something to look forward to. I’m making decisions with that in mind but I’m also staying in the moment and enjoying where I’m at. And gosh, I’m going to graduate from college on May 8. All my friends will be going to different places and things are going to change. I’m slowing everything down and enjoying the people I’m around, and getting lost in the work that I’m doing right now. But also in the back of my mind I’m excited. I’m excited at the prospect of being able to go out and race this summer and go new places. It’s just, well, I still have a lot to do here.
