Hi, just wanted to introduce myself. I’m female, 53 years old, and an extremely hardcore veteran athlete–been lifting heavy for 34 years, had a successful powerlifting/bodybuilding/Olympic lifting career back in the day.
Best lifetime lifts, circa 1984-1990 were:
–Tied a world record on the bench at 240 lbs in the women’s 148-lb class
–Squatted 375 at a bodyweight of 132
–Deadlifted 392 at a bodyweight of 132 and damned near got 402 twice but couldn’t lock it out
–Rack deadlifted 600 lbs at a bodyweight of 150 (moving it about 1 inch)
–Benched 214 lbs at a bodyweight of 129, after being completely clean for 3 years.
–Routinely won Best Lifter with 1,000+ lb totals in the 132 and 148 lb classes.
–Competed in the 1990 U.S. Olympic festival for the USA South team
Prior to powerlifting etc, my sport was marathon running and college track, where I ran the 5,000/10,000 meters at a bodyweight of about 108 lbs. After my lifting career, I returned to running and completed the Pike’s Peak Marathon twice and the Ascent several times.
Most recent sport was whitewater kayaking–was in the Olympic Trials in 2004, and captained our Texas Women’s Kayak Polo team to win the National Championship in 2007, at age 49 and 8 months after having a total knee replacement.
My degrees are in Kinesiology/Biomechanics (B.S. and M.Ed.) and 8 years ago I got certified as a Master Personal Fitness Trainer and Level 1 USA Triathlon Coach and ran my own Personal Training biz before I got fed up with it and became a published freelance writer. Ran my own writing/advertising/marketing biz for 8 years until divorce, and have now gotten back into my original career as a mechanical engineer (I got into engineering on the graduate level, and passed the oral doctoral exams at The University of Texas at Austin so I’m technically an all-but-dissertation Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, and I worked for 8 years designing robotics in the semiconductor equipment industry in Austin prior to starting the fitness biz.) Yeah, I’m an interesting lady!
Since I now have one artificial knee, I am medically forbidden to run or jump, so I get my cardio thru weight-vest walking, swimming, stairmaster, inclined treadmill, and elliptical machine.
Have also competed in mountain biking, adventure racing, triathlon, etc.
Cycling/mtn. biking hurts my artificial knee, so I now have a 2010 Harley Sportster Iron 883 which I enjoy tooling around on (and it saves gas!)
Anyhow, I’m also a volunteer Firefighter in between departments (due to divorce and moving) and so I’m working hard to shed some fat I put on post-divorce…I’m at an all-time bodyweight high of 187 after getting clinically depressed during divorce 2 years ago and going down to 119 due to zero appetite, and then making myself eat (too much!)
So I’m busting it out with some Rapid Weight Loss for Firefighter workouts I found on youtube, along with intervals on the stairmaster with the weight vest, plus cardio walking with the weight vest in the evenings and Sunday mornings swimming in Barton Springs (I live in Austin.)
Anyhow, just wanted to introduce my hardcore, badass self! Will post pix soon. Back in the day, when I was competing, I was usually mistaken for being a man and was asked more than once to get out of the ladies’ room…which always pissed me off, as I am straight.
CURRENT GOALS:
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Be able to pass the CPAT with ease–despite being a short, 53-year-old female with an artificial knee.
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Increase my physical capability so I can handle ANYTHING.
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Just simply enjoy that great feeling of true badass-ed-ness!