Coach Alinda Shares a Message From her Friend and Former Heart Rate Student, Judy

Posted 22 October 2008

Judy is an instructor, athlete, and motivator. Most importantly, Judy is a Breast Cancer SURVIVOR. A few years ago, I met Judy when she attended a heart rate certification that I was teaching. Judy had lots of questions and returned to her club and started teaching with heart rate. She emailed me with constant feedback. Little did Judy know, she, personally, would become her own greatest student. As always, cancer is a shock and never at the right time in life. At the height of her teaching career and in a “hot spot” for fitness, Judy learned she had cancer. Judy persevered through cancer, applied her heart rate training, learned new applications for heart rate, and kept teaching.

Judy’s life example is summed in the Native American proverb: Every struggle whether lost or won, strengthens us for the next to come.

In honor of Judy and support of all those who battle breast cancer, I am sharing Judy’s message.

By the way, Judy and her family just completed the Komen Run. Of course, they trained and wore their heart rate monitors.

From Judy:

“Before cancer, I had a clear understanding of periodization and how to implement long aerobic training v. non-aerobic training. In California, I was teaching 5 high intensity cycling classes per week, but knew that I needed to tone them down every other day. I did this on my own while coaching the higher intensity drills.

I’ve never been successful in convincing the clubs where I work about the importance of lower intensity training classes. Heck, …….(club name omitted) wouldn’t even let me sell HR monitors because they didn’t want people to feel that they needed a “tool” to workout. Yet, I was teaching in zones and my classes were packed.

When I got cancer, I was determined to keep teaching. I needed it. I needed support from participants and I needed their energy. I needed them to see that cancer doesn’t mean you stop your life. I could feel myself losing strength during chemo, but my heart rate education told me that this was okay. The chemo justified my lower intensity workouts. We moved to Maryland 4 weeks after my final chemo. I wasn’t teaching yet and I had lost a lot of strength. But I knew that I had an opportunity to prove to myself that I could get back in shape without injury using long, lower intensity workouts.
So, I did.

I started teaching cycling classes again about 2 months after the move. My supervisor allowed me to “create” 2 new classes – the 75 minute lower intensity classes. And, they have been packed ever since. In the fall, two of my evening instructors will be changing their class format to the 75 minute lower intensity design. I feel this is probably my greatest achievement – influencing veteran hard core instructors to teach a long aerobic class.

So, how has cancer changed my philosophy? It gave me an opportunity to use dimensions of heart rate training typically reserved for competitive athletes. So, even though I wasn’t competing, I used and benefited from aerobic training and was then able to pass along my wisdom. I’ve finally convinced hundreds of recreational athletes that they need to work out smarter, not harder. They don’t need to “kill” themselves in the gym to meet their goals. And, as a result, I’ve also inspired dozens of indoor-only athletes to do things they never thought they could before – ride outside, ride events, do a triathlon, run a road race – and enjoy it.

What do I want to tell other instructors and participants? You can read books by every author in the fitness industry to learn how to train or exercise correctly. But, you’ll learn more about yourself than anyone can teach you by just putting on a heart rate monitor. I know this is over simplified. But, further explanation would only complicate the message.”
- Judy

Judy and her family

Comments

  1. I teach “BODY PUMP” with Judy. She is truly an amazing woman and inspires all of us at the Columbia Association.

    Deb Papavizas ~ Dec 8, 07:46 PM
 
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