Outstanding Effort and Achievement Award!

For the first time this year we have dual recipients for the Outstanding Effort and Achievement Award.  For the month of October, Alicia Beaver and Caryn Coomer have earned their claim to fame.  These are two of my favorite girls to train, without a doubt, but coming up with challenges that suit them is no easy task.  The three of us have been training together, in home, since the beginning of this year and I can honestly say that few people are more consistent with their training than these two.  Week in and week out these girls come ready for the challenge and if you think that's awesome wait until I tell you that they rarely even complain!  I know, I know, there's obviously something wrong with them….it's almost like they enjoy working out!?

I met Alicia in the summer of 2010, but did not start training her until this past January.  Since January, Alicia has been on the road to success.  Aside from losing inches and weight, she reached her goal of getting below 30% body fat in our first 6 weeks of training together.  Alicia also set a goal of increasing her total body strength.  I can't even describe the progress we've made as far as strength goes.  Just recently, Alicia participated in the Napoletan Fitness "3 Minute Challenge" and became one of the top competitors in the leg lift competition.  She was able to complete 73 leg lifts in three minutes which earned her third place out of all of my female competitors and fourth place overall.  

Alicia, it has been a pleasure getting to know you.  You are so much fun to train and you have really come a long way in the last ten months.  Your fitness level has gone through the roof, and for you to be competing and hanging in there with some of the people I have trained for three or more years is a pretty big deal!  Your focus and ability to commit will be the keys to your success.  Keep working hard and I know we can achieve the unthinkable.  Your work ethic during our training sessions is unparalleled and I love that about you.  Keep working hard and there will be more great things to come!

Caryn and I started training together almost three years ago in the gym.  We began in home training in February and have been continuing our steady progress ever since.  In Caryn's first eight weeks of training in home she lost 2% of her body fat.  After 12 weeks of in home training she had lost nearly ten pounds.  She has been dedicated and committed to training since day one and her progress shows it.

Caryn ran her first half marathon during our second year of training.  This was also my first half marathon, so I decided to make a friendly wager over who could finish first.  This was the beginning of Caryn taking me for everything I am worth.  This year, she completed her second half marathon in 2 hours and 14 minutes, 13 minutes faster than her first race.  Aside from being an all-star runner, she is easily one of the strongest women I train.  Not only did she put up some great numbers in the "3 minute challenge", but she EMBARRASSED me in a head to head pushup competition during which she completed 110 pushups in three minutes.  (I still think she was counting by twos.)  At any rate, you can imagine how challenging it is for me to come up with workouts difficult enough for this girl.  She keeps me on my toes as a trainer and is easily my number one recipient of prizes and free things as I continue to be stupid enough to challenge her through competition.

Caryn, you are one of the hardest working people I have ever trained.  I have looked forward to training you and trying new things out on you every week for the past three years.  You're a blast to be around but you always make working hard your first priority.  I have a ton of respect for that and I can't wait to see what the future holds.  Keep working hard and using competition to drive you.  You will achieve great things as long as you stay committed and have something to work for.  As far as the pushup competition goes…we shall meet again.  You can have the half marathon victory…you couldn't pay me enough to show up for that rematch!