My Book is done!

2008 I signed a contract with Rodale to write my first book. The due date for my final manuscript is January 1st, 2009. I sent it in yesterday and am very excited to have completed it! As of right now the title will be- Fit Chick Challenge and it is due to be released October 2009. It will be a Women's Health Branded Book and the target market is 20-40 year old women looking to get into phenomenol shape and become a fit chick. My goal in the book is to convince women to start lifting weights, stop starving themselves and start feeling confident about their bodies. I had so much fun writing it! I trained a group of women every morning who inspired me and I hung out in the gym talking to women who were changing their bodies with the very principles I describe in the book. It is real world information that has been tested in our gym for the last 9 years. Everything in the book is used daily with clients in our gym. So, you can look forward to the release of my first book in 2009!

Our Juice bar is almost done! Here is a pick of the latest! We are getting there! It is so exciting to see a vision you had come to life and become a reality. Having a juice bar in our gym has always been on my "someday" list and now I can cross it off!



Yesterday, when I finished training the group of women I train at 5:30am every morning(they are my fit chicks who are inspiring me while I write my book)we had a little sample of our post workout Strawberry Surge Shake- Yum! They are 12 weeks in to their fit chick challenge and are looking hot! Good job girls!

Results Fitness Women's Powerlifting Team kicked butt!

Our gym had our first powerlifting team compete yesterday! It was awesome! We had five women who all kicked butt! They lifted up to 259 pounds! They are all clients of our gym who have all been working out with us for awhile, have great little bodies, are strong and all decided to challenge themselves to this goal. They had a blast and it was so much fun to watch! Congratulations ladies! I am so proud of you guys! It was so much fun and inspiring to watch!

My neighbours think I am crazy...

I just got done doing my workout today in my backyard. Don't know if any neighbours saw me cause I was in my own little world swinging a kettlebell around, listening to my Ipod and dancing and singing between rounds. Had a great workout even if my neighbours do think I am crazy :). The lightest kettlebell we have at our house is 24kg(50 pds) kettlebell because we took all of the other ones to the gym for our kettlebell classes we just started. So, I made do with it...

BTW, If you are looking for some great kettlebell workouts you have to check out Art of Strength. www.artofstrength.com. The DVDs are awesome to follow along with.

This is the workout I did-

I did Round 1-3 around 3 times all with the 24kg bell. It was a tough workout!

Between rounds I took 1-2 minutes and grooved out to my Ipod as my active rest.

Round 1-
Repeat the following 3x each round
Dead swings 5x
Sumo Deadlifts 5x
Swings 10x

Round 2
Repeat the following 3x each round
Clean Ladders 1x2x3x L,R
5 one arm swings L,R

Round 3
Repeat the following 3x each round
Front Squat 10x
Single Leg Deadlift 5x R,L

Now I am drinking my postworkout shake, gonna hit the shower and head to work! Have a great day!

Coming Soon new DVD!!!!!

Coming Soon!!!This past weekend I shot my first DVD on my own! Alwyn and I have shot a couple of different ones together such as our body weight training DVD but this is the first one I have done on my own. This DVD is a workout with me while I explain the concepts I use when training females and how I think women need to approach exercise. I thought taking you along on a workout with me would be the best way to show you what I mean when I say women need to push themselves beyond their comfort zone to get their body to change. A few still shots from the DVD shoot-




Stay tuned for the release!!!

Have a fabulous day!

Train hard and stay focused!

Congratulations Hillary!

One of my clients, Hillary Skahan, completed her first Figure competition this past weekend and took home 2nd place! She was so great to work with, worked hard and it all paid off. She looked amazing on stage! Congratulations! I think she is hooked so we'll probably be seeing more of her on the Figure stage soon. Congratulations Hillary!

Getting my "Figure" back...

So, after I went to the Triathlon World Championships and represented Team USA in Vancouver, Canada I knew when I got back I wanted to get back to lifting weights. My body had started to look more and more like an endurance athlete. I had no definition, had lost my abs and no matter how clean I ate my body looked soft.

















I first noticed this when I did my Ironman. The first clue was when I was absolutley not going to wear a sports bra top at my Ironman because I did not like the way my midsection was looking. Here I was in what you would think would be the best shape of my life, ready to become an Ironman yet I wanted my abs covered up. After my Ironman and looking at the pics of me in the race



I knew my body needed a break from all of this endurance and I missed my abs and my defined arms but when I qualified for the World Championships I decided I needed to stick with the endurance a little longer to have the experience of going to the World Championships so I kept running, biking and swimming and looking more and more like an endurance athlete.

Now that World Championships are over and I had an amazing experience I am ready to get my "figure" back. When I say "figure" what I mean is looking like a figure competitor. I don't necessarily want to compete but I do want to look like I could compete.

So, since the World Championships(5 weeks ago)I have done ZERO cardio, aerobics, or anything endurance related. I have instead been doing 5 days a week of strength training and interval style cardio using burpees, jumping jacks, etc. My body quickly dropped a couple pounds and above all looks more defined and I am getting my "figure" back!

I love manipulating my training to make my body look different. It is so amazing!

Anyway, today I decided I wanted to go out for a run. It has been 5 weeks. I would do the short 2.5 mile loop that I was doing leading up to the World Championships. I was doing it once a week and timing myself and each week getting faster until I had a personal best the week before I left for Vancouver. I headed out today and felt pretty good. Amazingly after not running for 5 weeks I was able to match the time I did the loop in 2 weeks before Worlds. So, I didn't set a personal best but I haven't lost too much over the 5 weeks.

And I am getting my abs back! Go "figure"!

Goal setting is for couch potatoes

Just finished a CD by Dr. John Eliot called The Maverick Mindset. Interesting stuff.

His big idea is that goal setting is for couch potatoes but once you are off the couch and accomplishing something you need to think about more getting into the mindset of working on the process and not what the actual goal is. Decide who you want to be, what you want to become and then get into the mindset every single day to become that person. But don't focus on a specific date when you will accomplish a specific goal. You might limit yourself.

In other words, goal setting is great for getting you focused on something like losing 10 pounds or saving $25,000 in the bank. These are very specific goals that you can focus on but once you have got that down and you are doing the things that successful people do should you continue to try to set goals or should you work everyday to be the best you can be at what you do and who you are? And not limit yourself to a specific goal on a specific day? What can you contribute today?

It was a great CD and made sense to me. I think it goes along with my whole "What's next?" blog post that right now I am just continuing the process at becoming the best I can be without a specific goal to focus on. It is a different feeling for me being so goal oriented and always looking for What's next....Instead I am focusing on what do I have to do today to be better tomorrow in every aspect of my life and who knows where it will take me...

The Station

In 9th grade I was given this poem and to this day I have kept it. It's one of my favorites-

The Station
By Robert J. Hastings

Tucked away in our subconscious is an idyliic vision. We see ourselves on a long trip spanning the continent. We are traveling by train. Out the windows we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at a crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, of smoke pouring from a power plant, of flatlands and valleys, of mountains and rolling hillsides.

But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain day at a certain hour we will pull into the station. Bands will be playing and flags waving. Once we get there so many wonderful dreams will come true and the places of our lives will fit together like a completed jigsaw puzzle. How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering-waiting, waiting, waiting for the station.

"When we reach the station, that will be it!" we cry. "When I'm 18." "When I have my dream job!" "When I save a million dollars!" "When I get married!"

Sooner or later we must realize there is no station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream. It constantly outdistances us.

"Relish the moment" is a good motto especially when coupled with Psalm 118:24: "This is the day the lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." It isn't the burdens of today that drive men mad. It is the regrets over yesterday and the fear of tomorrow.

So, stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead, climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot more often, have more late nights, watch more sunsets, laugh more, cry less. Life must be lived as we go along. The station will come soon enough.

Congratulations to Kim LePage- You are an IRONMAN!

My client who I have been working with the last 6 months completed her first Ironman this past weekend! I am so proud of her! Congratulations Kim!

She took this goal head on. She followed everything I told her and worked hard spending hours and hours running, biking, swimming and in the gym to reach her goal of becoming an IRONMAN! Her training was not without obstacles which she overcame like a true athlete and stayed focused on her goal.

She competed at Ironman Cour de'laine where the water was a chilly 57 degrees Farenheit. She had a great swim and a pretty good bike. Her only obstacle during the race was some stomach pain on her run where she found herself having to walk more than she would have liked to but she didn't let it get her down mentally but stayed focused on finishing the day and crossing the finish line to be an IRONMAN!

Great job Kim! You are on an IRONMAN!


Pictured: Kim doing Wildflower Long Course as one of her training races leading up to her Ironman.

What's Next?

"What's Next?" I have been asked this question hundreds of times. I am an extremely goal oriented person and am always putting goals out for myself and my clients to reach so I guess people get used to me working toward - "what's next?" So they are always asking me this. The funny thing is I am way more focused on the process and experience of reaching that goal than I am on the actual outcome of the goal. Putting that goal out there give's me something to work toward to continue the process of pushing myself physically and mentally.

I completed my Ironman last year, a huge goal for me that took 6 months of focused training to close in on and successfully accomplish and then the question came- "What's next?"

My next goal was my first Powerlifting competition where I set a National Record and won 1st place which was way more than I ever expected to do. Wow! The Youtube video of me was passed around and I showed off my medal and then the question came again-"What's next?"

In the mean time I had received an email that I qualified for the triathlon world championships in Vancouver, Canada and had earned a spot on Team USA. I couldn't pass up this opportunity so I had an answer to "what's next?" I went and represented Team USA at the World Championships, had a great experience and had a personal best and now once again am getting the question- "What's next?"

At this point, I have not come up with a "What's next?" but instead am focusing on doing something everyday to better myself physically along with working towards goals for my business. I am continuing the process without having a "what's next?" Is it possible to push yourself as hard without a "what's next?"

Who knows- maybe I'll decide to do powerlifting again, or another triathlon or maybe I'll get back into the Figure competition world. But in the mean time I will wake up and train everyday to continue the process of pushing myself physically whether I have a "What's next" or not.

I challenge all of you to also focus on the process and not the outcome. Everyday wake up and do what you need to do to continue the process of working toward your goal. The process of becoming who you have to become to accomplish the goal is the rewarding part. The outcome, accomplishing the goal, is the cherry on the top!

I'll keep you posted when I figure out "what's next..." :)

Perform Better 2008- Take action!

I was so honored and excited to be a part of the Perform Better Seminar this year. I spoke at 2 events- in Rhode Island and in Long Beach. Perform Better puts on the best fitness conference I have ever been to with practical, useful information and excellent speakers. The best part was that I spoke on Friday at both events so I was able to relax and enjoy the rest of the conference as an attendee and learn from the other speakers. My talks seemed well received with a lot of good feedback. I really enjoyed speaking and being able to share what I have learned over the ten plus years I have been training people.

My entire staff attended the Long Beach conference and came back with a ton of useful information. We are going to be meeting this week to discuss all of the changes we will be making. The key after a weekend like that is taking action implementing your new ideas. It doesn't do you any good to learn new stuff if you don't take action and use it. I have asked my staff to each write down ten things they learned, want to implement or took away from the conference. I do this at every conference or seminar I attend- I leave with 10 "to do's" that I am going to put into action immediatley.

We also had Martin Rooney and Bill Parisi do a staff training before the conference at our gym and John Berardi do one after the conference. Our staff got a huge education this weekend and took a giant step ahead of most trainers in the industry to being the best and now we need to take action!

World Championships 2008

Wow! What an amazing experience! That is the closest I'll probably ever be to being in the olympics and it was amazing!

I accomplished my goals with the race- to hold my own in that group of amazing athletes from around the world, not to be last and to have a personal best. I actually did 2:40 which is about 15 minutes off my personal best at Olympic distance. It is amazing when you are competing among the best there is, how much you step your game up. I can't believe I did 2:40. I actually ran under an 8 minute mile which is the fastest 10K I have ever done but again when you have the fastest people in the world running by you you tend to step it up.

They did change the swim to an 1100m swim but it was freezing cold with tough currents and waves and they actually canceled it shortly after my wave went for the rest of the competitors. I couldn't believe they canceled the swim at the world championships but I guess the conditions were that bad so I was that much prouder that I finished the swim. It was the hardest swim I have ever done. None of the men got to swim. Crazy! So, I decided that I get credit for doing full olympic since it was such a tough swim. I think I ended up swimming 1500m anyway.


It was so amazing to be in the race wearing Team USA and have people from all over the world. There were a lot of Great Britain people and Australians, Brazilians, South Africans, Ireland, and I am sure more. Go USA! At the finish line they handed me an American flag to carry across the finish line which was such a great feeling.

What an amazing experience! I am so glad I went!

Opportunity of a lifetime!

Tomorrow I leave for Vancouver, Canada for the Triathlon World Championships. I am so excited and honored to have been chosen for Team USA to represent our country in the sport of triathlon at the world championships.

I am sure this will be an exciting weekend. I am going into it for the experience and ofcourse all of the Team USA gear :) and to be a part of Team USA. This is especially exciting on an Olympic year. I don't have any expectations for the actual race. I had a really good race at Wildflower


so I am feeling good about it but the level of competition is a little beyond my comfort zone so I am just going into it to enjoy the experience and hold my own against everyone else.

I will give you a recap when I get back!

Perform Better in Rhode Island

I just got back from doing my first presentation with Perform Better. If you haven't heard of Perform Better they have become the #1 conference in the industry for trainers to learn and get continuing education from so I was extremely honored to be on the agenda this year among other names in the industry such as Mike Boyle, Gray Cook, Juan Carlos Santana, Martin Rooney, Diane Vives, Anthony Diluligio and ofcourse my husband Alwyn Cosgrove.

My topic was strength training for women and it seemed to be well received. I have to say I was nervous being in that line up of well known speakers in this industry. I think women in this industry and men working with women are looking for guidance and I was able to offer some advice after coaching women for so many years and from a woman's perspective. So I had a good turnout in my room and lots of great feedback.

The last Perform Better conference takes place in Long Beach on June 13th,14th and 15th. If you are on the west coast, don't miss it! The information packed in to these three days is something you can't miss if you are a trainer or someone who wants to get into the fitness industry. Check out their website for more info at www.performbetter.com.

Our entire Results Fitness team of fitness coaches will be in attendance!

Kona Bound! Congrats Erika!

Erika Lilley(above at Ironman Wisconsin) who has been my training partner, a fitness coach at my gym and a friend of mine qualified for Kona this past weekend! She is also co author with me on our book, So You Want To Train For Your First Triathlon. She raced at the California Half Ironman and came in second place and got a Kona slot! When I met Erika about a year and a half ago she first contacted me to help her with her training and told me her eventual goal was to go to Kona. I started training with her as a training partner and helping her plan out her training and have watched her grow as an athlete and push herself day in and day out to achieve this goal. I am so excited for her, what an amazing accomplishment! She set this goal and has accomplished it!

SHe is a talented athlete but more than that she works extremely hard to bring out the best in herself. Going in to this race she was not without obstacles. For one she has been busier than ever at work as a fitness coach training more clients than she has ever trained before so her time was limited and her energy was being used up...but this was not an excuse for her...also about 2 weeks before the event she crashed on her bike and it completely cracked and she had bumps and bruises and could have easily bowed out at that point...but that didn't stop her, luckily a local bike shop hooked her up with a new frame and put it together for her so she had a bike to ride.

She stayed focused no matter what and had a great race and now is going to Kona!!!!

Congratulations Erika! I am so proud of you!

First Powerlifting Competition

I am always looking to challenge myself and get the best out of myself and joining one my employees at a powerlifting meet seemed like just the thing to push myself beyond my normal limits. Last weekend I participated in my first powerlifting competition. I competed in deadlift only since it transferred over to triathlon the most of any of the lifts. I still have a Half Ironman I am training for on March 29th. Check out the video of me below lifting 297.6 pounds and setting an American record winning a gold medal at the competition!(The video is squashed a bit so I appear shorter and wider than I really am but the lifting is what your watching anyway :))

What a great experienceI had! Never would have thought. If you never try, you never know...

12 Week Challenge

The 12 Week Challenge is off and running at our gym and clients are buzzing around motivated with goals in mind to accomplish over the 12 weeks. The motivation is contagious and you can't help but join in!

Our staff also join in and have our own challenge where each of us set goals and push ourselves to new levels over the 12 weeks with our clients. We each put money in and the winner gets the whole pot at the end.

So, what's in store for me over the 12 weeks?

Ever since my Ironman I would say I have been slacking(that is compared to doing 20 hours a week of exercise). Since my Ironman I have been to Scotland twice for 2 weeks at a time(not the best for preventing post Ironman weight gain) and ofcourse the holidays and whatever other excuse I can come up with...I gained some bodyfat and haven't been as consistant as I usually like to be with my nutrition and training....YES, Rachel Cosgrove loses focus sometimes too... :) I am only human.

I think some of my clients think I don't have to work at it BUT for me if I am not consistant I have the genetic potential to gain body fat quite easily so a few months without keeping myself focused and consistant and I have gained a few pounds.

Our bodies are always fluctuating. It is hard to ever truly "maintain," you are usually either gaining bodyfat or losing bodyfat. I always tell my clients to have an upper limit that they will let themselves get to before they will take action and and get back down closer to their target weight and bodyfat. There are times of the year when everyone will edge up on that upper limit and then times to step up your training and peak at an all new fitness level.

Now is a time to step it up and peak. I have twelve weeks and over that twelve weeks I will-
1. Lose 8 pounds of body fat(to be at a lower bodyfat than when I did my Ironman).
2. Compete in the California Half Ironman at the half way point(in 6 weeks).
3. Compete at Wildflower Olympic distance at the end of the 12 weeks with a personal best at an Olympic Distance race leading to the World Championships that I will be attending in June in Vancouver, Canada.

Join me on my challenge. Check my blog regularly for updates over the next 12 weeks! Gotta go pack my lunch and train :)

Just do it!

So, I have been struggling with the fact that I have not been able to put 100% in to my training and will be repeating a race I did last year in 7 weeks time. Last year I was training for my Ironman and nothing got in the way of my training. This year is a different story. I have my business and career coming first(after my husband and family which are always #1) and then my obligation to Team in Training who I coach for while the 50 participants on my team raise money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. So, my own training has taken a back seat being third on my priority list. So, I know going in to Ironman California 70.3 that it will be hard to improve on the performance I gave last year and this bothers me.

So, I had to decide by Feb. 15th if I was going to pull out to get a refund and I was struggling with this decision....So, I emailed my good friend Alison who is also a coach with me for Team in Training for advice and she said,

"It sounds like you really do want to do the race but you know you won't be 100% ready for it. I say if you can do the race without injuring yourself because of being unprepared then go for it. If nothing else it would be a really good training day. You have to be ok with however you perform that day and just enjoy it for what it is. I think you will feel better if you just do it. :)"

So, decision made- I will just do it and enjoy myself no matter how I end up doing. I will put what I can in to my training these next 7 weeks and give the race everything I can that day.

I will Just do it! Thanks for the help Alison!

Pendulum of goal setting

I read a book recently, Confessions of a Self Made Millionaire, that discussed the difference between having too many goals and going after one single goal. The book talked about, among a ton of other stuff, how if you pick one single goal and go after it day and night you will undoubtedly reach that goal. But when you start adding in other goals to try to "balance" out your life you are actually decreasing your chances of reaching the first goal because now your energy is divided up.

Last year my focus was on completing an Ironman, I made my training my priority and I never missed a training session. I gave everything I had to every training session whether I would have anything left at the end to go to work or not. I completed my goal of finishing my first Ironman and crossed the finish line in a decent time. I gave it everything I had. That was my one goal last year and I undoubtedly completed it.

I had someone else running my gym for me last year while I trained for my Ironman and it's true what they say- nobody cares about your business as much as you do. As it turned out that somebody was not focused on my business at all and unfortunatley the business suffered while I was focusing on training for my Ironman.

I told myself going into 2008 that my priority is my career and business this year. So, one month into the year and we have had a record month at the gym, signing up more new members than we ever have before. We are also expanding and taking over next door. I have been hired to be on the Perform Better Tour with the best speakers in the fitness industry. I am making a ton of progress on my career and business goals and I want to keep going full force ahead reaching our potential at our gym this year and in my career. I want to undoubtedly reach my potential as a business owner and fitness professional in 2008.

The question is can I still compete in triathlons with the same performances I gave last year? Or am I Ok with my performances dropping from what they were last year? I am still signed up for a few races this year, one of which is in 8 weeks, the Ca Half Ironman, and my training has been lacking. I get in like 4 workouts a week which seems like nothing compared to what I was doing last year leading up to this same race. I am debating on if I should even be doing the race. I don't like to do anything if I am not doing it the best I possibly can and I know I will not be going into this race the best I can because my training time is limited.

Will I enjoy myself and get something out of completing the race a third time even if my time is not as good as last year? Or will it take away from my focus this year of running my business? We should be getting the keys to expand in 4 weeks so I will absolutley not be focused on this race at all because my focus will be on the expansion. But will having this race keep me in "balance"? Or will it take away from the one goal I undoubtedly want to hit this year, of growing and expanding our business to reach it's potential?

If you undoubtedly want to hit a goal- go after that one single goal with everything you have and do not get distracted with anything else. To reach a goal it almost has to become an obsession day and night. Focus on what you want!

World Championships

I qualified for the short course world championships to be on Team USA! This takes place in Vancouver, Canada in June and the level of competitor will be like nothing I have ever experienced. The winners will be going to the olympics this year filling any spots left on our olympic team.

I am just excited to have qualified and to get to go and experience being on Team USA and ofcourse get all of the cool Team USA gear :) I really have to train my butt off for it though so that I am not the very last one to finish. I looked up the results and with my last olympic distance race time I would be 78th out 81 in my age group so I need to work on getting faster than that! This will be a really good goal for me to do well at this race(well for me).

In the mean time I have my annual half Ironman in 9 weeks, the California Half in Oceanside that I have done the last 2 years. I have to beat my time last year which will be tough since I was training for an Ironman last year.

I'll start keeping you updated on my training on this blog. Train hard and stay focused!

Thinking about doing your first triathlon?

Very Exciting! My new book is done and available for purchase as an Ebook!

Click here to purchase NOW

Last year my training partner and I, Erika Lilley, started writing a book about training for a triathlon. We wanted to include EVERYTHING we knew as triathletes ourselves and coaches. Through our own experience as triathletes, coaching other triathletes and attending courses and certifications on training for triathlon we have figured out the most effective training programs to have your best performance and stay injury free throughout your training. We included it all in this book!

Click Here to Purchase Now!

If 2008 is the year you will do your first triathlon, you cannot start training without getting this book. Included in this book is-

• Planning your season and setting your goals


• A complete 24 week Triathlon Training Program- exactly what to do every day to complete your tri


• 24 weeks of endurance specific strength training workouts complete with pictures and descriptions


• Flexibility for triathletes, what to include and what not to include


• Getting the right gear- what not to forget


• Nutrition and hydration- both the basics and what to do to ensure optimal performance


• Preventing and treating injuries


• How to have optimal recovery and get the most out of your training


• What to expect on race day

Currently available as an Ebook, Click here to start reading immediatley and start training for your first triathlon!