Monday, March 31, 2008

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!

Monday, March 10, 2008

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...