This Week at Powerhouse Racing
Multisport & Wellness
We've been having excellent Group Rides this Summer! Come out and join us!
Workout Schedule Changes
Please be advised starting this week we are combining both TRX Classes + Core Classes into one weekly group workout Wednesdays at 6pm. Join Coach Johnny for a GREAT workout incorporating core work and TRX movements.
There are no changes to current Yoga, HIIT, Step, Spin, or Swim workouts:
Powerhouse Racing Grand Opening in September
Thank you to everyone for all of your support during our recent move. We are very happy in our new home. We have decided to push our grand opening celebration at our new location back to the first weekend in September in order to allow more time for us to plan with our amazing community and the City of Webster. Stay tuned for more details on this exciting event!
Congratulations to IM 70.3 Lubbock Athletes
Powerhouse Racing Athletes had a very strong showing this past weekend at IM 70.3 Lubbock. We are so proud of everyone who went and raced this challenging course. Very Special congratulations to Rudy Ocejo for an incredible performance bringing home a slot in this years IRONMAN 70.3 Wold Championship in St George! Go Powerhouse!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
POWERHOUSE ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT
Reed Blanchard
What got you interested in training for multi-sport races like triathlon and how long have you been training and racing?
Until last November I had very little experience with any of the three triathlon sports. I think the most I had ever run was a 5k, I could only muscle through a couple laps in a pool, and I didn’t even own a bike. In general, I wasn’t a very athletic person.
During COVID, my friend and I started a club at Georgia Tech called “Seek Discomfort” based on the vision to build a community of people supporting one another to get outside their comfort zone. We found ourselves doing all kinds of things- jumping off a high dive, eating ghost peppers, handcuffing ourselves together for 24 hours, dancing with strangers, and we even convinced our school’s president to play frisbee with us. We quickly discovered that courage was a muscle that needs to be constantly trained, and while doing a bunch of one-off adventures was fun, we wanted to do something centered around sustained discomfort. Something we thought was impossible.
So with literally no experience in any endurance racing the two of us started training last November for Ironman Tulsa and were able to convince two others to join us. Luckily for me, I discovered Powerhouse Racing while I was home for winter break and they not only answered my questions but told me about stuff I didn’t even know to ask about. I completed Ironman 70.3 Galveston last April and my first full Ironman in Tulsa last May with a time of 12:26!
I had originally considered the Ironman to be a one-off bucket list event, but throughout training I fell in love with the sport, so I’m not going anywhere!
What are your current short term / long term goals in multisport training and racing?
In the short term I’m still trying to recover from the Ironman! Everyone told me it would take forever to fully recover but I didn’t really believe them until after the race. Whoops!
In the long term, I have the goal to qualify for Kona! I’ve set a stretch goal to shoot for qualification in 2022, but for now I’m happy to focus on the journey and personal improvement. I’m also hoping to get into olympic distances next semester at college. Georgia Tech has a great Tri Club that I’d love to practice with (when I’m not at Powerhouse of course!).
What are some of your favorite things about training with your coaching team?
I am so appreciative of everyone’s willingness to offer support and encouragement. Anytime I have a question someone is there with an answer or helping hand. Doing personal coaching with Coach Shawn is a blast and I appreciated how invested he is in my success.
I especially enjoy workouts that are done in groups- swim lessons, Tuesday spins, TRX classes, and more recently Yoga. I’ve found that being surrounded by others, especially the encouraging people at Powerhouse, gets me to push much harder than on my own. And the coaches, despite having a group to focus on, always have time to point out specific areas I can improve or answer my questions.
Can you share some of your best racing or training memories?
Last semester my friend and I decided to bike from Atlanta to the Alabama border and back- a 124 mile trip. Over the course of the ride we went through pouring rain, some of the most brutal hills, and met some really cool strangers. The mix between unique situations and great company made it unforgettable!
One of my favorite parts of training for endurance running was that it gave me the ability to explore the city I was in. While in the Clear Lake area I’ve been able to explore from Exploration Green to Alvin. In Atlanta, we would make an effort to run different routes around the city and explore the different parks, which made us aware of some truly epic spots!
What keeps you motivated?
I’ve found that most of my motivation comes from seeing progress from myself and others. I’m a pretty competitive person, so I can’t say that seeing a friend lay down a great bike doesn’t give me an itch to go beat it, but I get most excited when I can see myself breaking down barriers. When I originally started training, I remember feeling incredibly motivated because nearly every day was a new PR in some way as I built up distance and speed. Now that I’ve settled into a more long-term plan I have been motivated by the smaller victories that indicate I’m making progress. For instance, recently I’ve been focusing on cadence, so completing a run with a couple more steps per minute than last time gets me really excited to keep going.
If you could go back to your first month of multisport training and give yourself some advice - what would it be?
Hands down, I wish I appreciated the importance of taking care of my body through recovery and a smart approach to training. Being young, I get told a lot that my body can bounce back from anything which led me to some pretty reckless workouts.
Congratulations, Reed! You are showing the world that stepping outside your comfort zone can lead to great things.