ORR Coaches' Meeting

The OutRival Racing Coaching Staff got together last weekend for a 2012 planning session.  The coaches of ORR are fired-up and excited about what's in store for 2012!  The OutRival Racing Vision is two-fold: to help athletes reach their athletic/fitness goals as well as provide a fun, positive, and motivating environment. We believe athletes want to feel good about their training and racing as well as have some fun along the way.  We will continue to offer quality coaching, weekly group sessions, and monthly weekend sessions as well as team socials in 2012. We are planning to have monthly bike rides, clinics, training camps and much more next year! 
Thank you to all of our sponsors for their incredible support.  Thanks also to all the athletes who have made the ORR Team an incredible one!  We appreciate you!!  Below is our team of coaches. Matt Hemberger couldn't make the photo shoot, but he's still alive and kicking with us! :-)

Coaches Nathan Winkelmann, Michelle LeBlanc, Karen Maldonado,
Lisa Jaster (with an extra!), Ana Lemus and Sarah Gray

Additionally, every year, I like to publish how and why the name "OutRival Racing" was chosen. Although written a while back, the sentiment still holds true.
"It was chosen for a couple of reasons. First of all, it came up on a list of words with the letters "tri" in it, so it seemed fitting since we coach a lot of triathletes. [Unfortunately the word S"tri"ve was already taken! :-) ] Secondly, it sounded a bit edgy and competitive.

However, I know that sometimes the word "competition" gets a bad rap and has a negative connotation. I've been a competitive athlete for a long time. But (since becoming a Christian, especially), I am not all that fond of an attitude that focuses on "beating others". To me, that is a bit pointless and arrogant (not that I don't still fall into that trap at times!). But I place no value on mean-spirited competition or boasting about winning. I believe in striving for excellence not to beat others, but to improve yourself. Healthy competition brings out the best in each of us. We finish races with hundreds of people in them much faster than if we were to "race" that distance alone. 

When we compete against others--or "rival" each other--it brings out our best. Sure, there will always be someone who is faster as well as someone who is slower in the race, but rivalry in competition pushes us to our fullest potential. You can seek to "out-rival" your fellow competitors, the time-clock, or even past performances and personal records. But let's admit it: the training can be fun... but without the opportunity of (friendly, of course!) rivalry, the training can get boring! We train because we like to compete."

--written by Michelle LeBlanc