Category: Erinne

Pinch Me, I’m Dreaming!

by fullcircle, posted in Blogs, Erinne, Race Specific

Erinne Guthrie

Pinch me, I must be dreaming – It’s official! I’ve started my training for the ITU (International Triathlon Union) World Championships for Sprint Draft Legal Race in Cozumel Mexico, September 15, 2016

This level of competition is all new for me, as I’ve never competed at Worlds’ or even Nationals’ (even though I’ve qualified many times). For whatever reason, it wasn’t important to me to travel and compete at this level until now. I’m not sure why at the age of 45, but I am choosing to go for it! This race is totally different as it is a draft legal race on the bike, which makes it a completely different type of triathlon than the way I have been competing for 20 years. I’ve only done 1 draft legal race which is when I qualified by the skin of my teeth. I started in first out of the water and ended up 9th across the finish line. With almost zero training going into that race, my friends talked me into competing because all I had to do was get top 10 in my age group. I said I think I can do that even though it was only a few weeks after my retinal re-attachment surgery (read that story here).

So, this is real, I am going to Cozumel in a few weeks (EEK!) and I have been training pretty seriously. I have also never talked about my own personal racing as I am always focused on helping my athletes. So this is new for me as well. I decided I’m going to share my journey with whoever is interested in reading along. So, if that’s you, I will be sharing a personal blog every week or so about how my training is going and all the ups and downs of managing life, my daughter, the training and all the stuff in between!

In my first post about my journey, I wanted to specifically thank my sponsors without whom this journey would be much more challenging. Triathlon may seem like an individual sport but that is far from the truth on many levels.

So, thanks to Body Health and my favorite product of theirs called  Perfect Amino, which I cannot live without my daily 10- they completely allow me to recover and hang on to the muscle that I seem to burn so easily when training hard. I’ll explain more about how I use them in a nutrition post coming up soon (use our promo code for a 10% discount when purchasing if you want to try them, FULLCIRCLE).

Thanks to TEAM Footworks, where I have been shopping for running shoes and accessories for the last 20 years. If they don’t have it they will get it. I love Laurie, JP, Ralph and the team there, they are knowledgeable and very helpful (mention Full Circle for the best pricing).

Thanks to my amazing client Audrey Ross who I admire greatly as a successful business woman,  entrepreneur, athlete and friend who owns Miami Real Estate for supporting me on this journey.

Thanks to All 4 Cycling  and all the team at their 2 stores. I needed a new road bike to be able to compete at this race and I am ecstatic about the TREK I got. Simply put, it is the Rolls Royce of bikes for me; Look for a great post about the details of this bike coming up (mention Full Circle for the best pricing when shopping at All 4 Cycling).

Thanks to Riplaces my favorite elastic laces on the market today! I use them in my running shoes and Vibrams (use our promo code Fullcircle for 10% off your purchases).

I am filled with gratitude by all the people and companies supporting me on this journey; MOM, thanks for the plane ticket.  Marc Pro – I use this thing everyday (use our promo code FULLCIRCLE for 5% off).  doTerra Essential Oils a large part of my daily health and wellness routine.

Also, a big thanks to my Full Circle Team, my coaches, In Balance Physical Therapy, The Stretching Company, Partners in Health and the multitude of fellow athletes, friends, family and colleagues wishing me well and supporting me along the way.

On top of it all, I feel super excited for this to be happening during an Olympic year and with the USA women’s triathlon team having a chance to win GOLD at the Olympics; It’s both inspiring and motivating.

Thanks for reading and wishing you well,

Erinne

Coach Erinne Guthrie Bio

by fullcircle, posted in Blogs, Erinne

Erinne out of water Circle

Coaching Philosophy
I have been coaching triathletes and working in the fitness industry for nearly 20 years and with each athlete, I work with I learn how individual every person is.  There is no textbook method to coaching if you look at each person as an individual. They each have different strengths and different weaknesses.  What works for one may or may not work for another.  My goal when I work with an athlete is to improve their limiters and strengthen their skills to help them achieve their athletic goals.

Each athlete I work with adds to my knowledge base of coaching, a give and take relationship is naturally developed.  I work with the most basic beginner to the most advanced athletes taking them to their next level of fitness and triathlon goals.  I cover every detail that needs attention.  I require each athlete to give as much feedback as possible throughout their journey.  I have seen hundreds of athletes achieve their goals successfully and I look forward to working with you too.  I advocate a balanced approach to training that helps endurance athletes reach optimal performance through the perfect combination of training, recovery and nutrition. 

My Personal Story:

I’m a mom, I’m a coach, I’m an athlete and I’ve spent time on both sides of the race as well as, the business and academic side of the industry.  This gives me a pretty unique perspective on training and all the possibilities.

The feeling I got from swimming through the waves in the crystal clear blue ocean, riding my bike with the wind in my hair and running hard using my body to cross the finish line was so exhilarating.  I fell in love.  I was hooked.  In 1999, I started training and joining every race I could find, this led me to become one of Miami’s first USA Triathlon certified coaches. I quit my corporate fitness job to start my own triathlon coaching company determined to coach others to success.  Triathlon is more difficult than other sports; there are three disciplines to manage and I wanted to learn for myself and my athletes how to do it best.

Burn out:

Wake up at 4:30am to train clients and myself, hand off the baby to the sitter; work on the computer; take a nap if I was lucky; get the baby; take care of the family and in bed by 10:30pm. It was a lot but worth it; I was a triathlete!! (being facetious).  That’s when it all came crashing down-it happened, my body just quit.  I was all set to win my favorite race and instead of waking up to compete and win I woke up with a fever of 105 degrees and sicker than I had ever been.  I missed the race and battled sickness for the next 18 months.  I was depressed. I could not do what I loved or even have the energy to play with my daughter or live life normally.

The doctors said I had Adrenal Fatigue- a disease of over stressing the body where your adrenal glands, which release cortisol (the fight or flight hormone) are out of sync with your body’s needs and don’t produce enough cortisol in the morning, but produce too much near the end of the day. They wanted to put me on prescription drugs but I knew there had to be a better way; so I started educating myself on natural healing methods and hired a holistic lifestyle coach.  Everything I learned was simple, easy to implement and I regained the energy and vitality I had lost. It was simple and it worked!

I spent the next 6 years studying to become a CHEK Holistic Lifestyle Coach, Level III. These holistic guidelines are incorporated into the Full Circle Coaching method to promote performance and balance.

It is with great passion that I share my knowledge and expertise with each of my athletes.  Together we develop a balance between working in and working out, avoiding injury and burn out.

Are you ready to join Full Circle Coaching and receive the best and most complete triathlon coaching package there is? I look forward to working with you and motivating you to achieve your “TRIATH-LIFE” dreams!

 

The Scariest Thing That’s Ever Happened to Me

by fullcircle, posted in Blogs, Erinne, Mindset

By Coach Erinne Guthrie

I have had my share of life’s ups and downs Divorced parents Failed marriage Successful birth of my daughter Death of a soul mate My fathers suicide But none of those scared me the way waking up one morning seeing only black in my left eye did.

I don’t have good eye sight to begin with (-8.50!) but wearing contacts has always allowed me to see 20/20 and do everything I ever wanted to do.
But waking up seeing black was so scary for me because it really threatened the active lifestyle I live and love.

Interestingly enough the week before this happened I had been introduced to a book called Miracle Morning and had started adding helpful elements recommended in the book to my normal 20 min meditation at 4:20 am every morning. The 6 elements of the Miracle Morning are silence, affirmation, visualization exercise, reading and scribing or journaling.

Although I was already implementing 3 out of 6, it is amazing how implementing all 6 helped me get through this challenging period in my life. Even though I did allow for exactly 2, 24 hour pity parties,
that was really all I needed.

I got through retinal re-attachment surgery with a scleral buckle around my left eye with the best doc in the world Dr. Smiddy. Luckily, I have an awesome team and coaches and no sessions were canceled. My team of coaches stepped up I kept training as soon as doc gave me the green light. And although my vision is not back to 100%, I raced in my 1st ever draft legal sprint triathlon to try and qualify for world championships.

I was very tempted to skip the race for fear the warped vision in my left eye would cause issues in my performance. Would I get hit in the eye during the swim? Would I be able to draft safely? Did I Lose too much fitness in the weeks I had to take off leading up to the race?  I didn’t want to talk about it to too many people for disgrace of total failure, so with the encouragement of my FC TEAM and a few athletes and friends as well as the implementation of the 6 elements of the miracle morning book I decided to race. So even if I came in last I knew for me it was about being there and participating and how I decided to respond to my situation instead of react to it!

Guess what?
I qualified! This has always been a dream of mine and now I am headed to CanCun, Mexico with 2 other Full Circle athletes to race against the world! Wow, who would have thought this was possible given my situation. Although I did not have a great race by any definition, with 5 girls pacing me on the run, I did get 9th place and the top 10 in each age group qualified. It was a tough but really fun race and the draft legal element of the bike made it completely different. I highly recommend a draft legal race if you can enter one. Here are the race results and more info on the USAT Website.

So if you are still reading because this is a kind of long post The big things I wanted to share is that It’s not what happens to you in your life it’s how you respond. I can easily decide that after this happened I needed to quit triathlon and racing because it’s just too risky but what I realize is that is just not an option for me. I love swim bike run too much to say goodbye!

Also having a daily practice like the Miracle morning was definitely introduced to me just in time to help me keep my eye ( no pun intended) on the big picture of my life which is:

To motivate triathletes to break through the obstacles holding them back from their ultimate triathlon performance. On that note, please watch out how you can be involved in having your Ultimate Triathlon performance after attending our 6th Annual Ultimate Triathlon Camp in Clermont FLorida. Registration is opening up this week! And

Look for upcoming details in the next week!

Thanks for reading!
Namaste