One of our rockstar members recently competed in an IRONMAN World Championships competiton, after starting her journey with the IRONMAN Foundation last year. To train for championships, she began weight training at uPtown, hiring one of our certified personal trainers, Ryan Cook, to take her routine one step further.
She says of Ryan, “Training with Ryan is undoubtedly maximizing my potential as an athlete. His knowledge on muscular and power transmission to running provides me with unparalleled strength training that is not offered anywhere else in Indiana.”
Caroline’s amazing fitness journey is not yet over, although she has since returned from championships. She continues to workout under Ryan’s guidance and was kind enough to share her insight and training with us. Here is what she had to say:
“Although I never participated in running, swimming, and biking during the same period in my life, they were always activities that I either competed in or participated in to stay fit. It all started when I moved to southern California for an internship two years ago. It was during this time that I took spinning classes offered by an action sport shop. The shop owner assumed that I was a triathlete and began asking questions about my races. At this point, I had only spectated one triathlon! Two months later I registered for my first triathlon, IRONMAN 70.3 in Boise, Idaho. That’s right, I skipped the shorter triathlon distances and went straight to the half Ironman distance of 1.2 mile open water swim (equivalent to 88 laps), 56 mile bike, then a 13.1 mile run.
Training for such an event from an “off the couch” fitness level can take up to four months. Because I was new to triathlon and the immediate transition from one activity to another was a totally new concept to me, my training plan was 17 weeks long. The weekends were spent building endurance while the weekdays consisted of workouts to maintain fitness and build speed through interval work. The volume of training would vary from 45 minutes to 4 hours a day. A 45-minute workout would probably be a swim or an interval run while the 4-hour workout would consist of a 3-hour bike ride and a 1-hour run. In addition to aerobic workouts, I also had to adopt stricter eating patterns, stretching regimens, and strength training routines.
Since Boise, I have competed in three other IRONMAN 70.3 events, one of which was World Championships in Zell am See, Austria this past August; my performance ranked me 14th in the world in IRONMAN 70.3 for the Female 18 – 24 age group. I am currently focusing my energies on the greater endurance challenge of IRONMAN 140.6. This distance consists of a 2.4-mile swim (roughly 180 lengths of a 25 yard pool), 112-mile bike, and a 26.2-mile run. My race date is November 15, 2015 in Phoenix, Arizona and prospectively October 2016 for IRONMAN 140.6 World Championships in Kona-Kailua Hawaii.
I registered for IRONMAN Arizona under the stipulation that I would raise money for the IRONMAN Foundation. Please view the following link to read more about the foundation, what IMF does with the contributions, and to make a contribution.
https://www.crowdrise.com/2015ironmanarizona/fundraiser/carolinebillon
Now that I have recovered from IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships my journey to IRONMAN Arizona is beginning; six hour rides and 5-hour runs are in my near future. Because my membership to IUP HUB Fitness Center expired upon my graduation in May of 2015, I will be strength training at Uptown Fitness under the guidance of personal trainer Ryan Cook twice a week. On the days that the weather is extra-mean to us in Indiana, I will be getting my aerobic workouts done on the treadmills and rowing machine at Uptown Fitness.”
No matter where you are in your own level of fitness, Caroline is proof that you can accomplish anything you put your mind to.
What goals will you create for yourself in the coming year?
