M2 REVOLUTION

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Featured Athlete: Gina Kehr

October '06

Gina Kehr, a long-time M2 athlete, finished an amazing 4th place in last Saturday's Hawaii edition of Ironman.

This great performance in the sport's pinnacle event is all the more noteworthy where Gina had not raced in nearly 3 years - 2004 she suffered a horrible bike accident where her forearm and elbow were shattered and replaced with a titanium rod - 2005's absence had a more pleasant cause with the arrival of daughter Gabriella, now 14 months old.

 

Entering the race, we had a clear sense that Gina was on the verge of a breakthrough performance - bike wattage was significantly up, run paces and associated effort were best ever, physically overall Gina was not close to being saturated as her body was digesting everything, and mentally she was in a great place.

A mother and a real estate professional, Gina came off the bike in 10th place, where she then proceeded to run past a who's who of female professional triathletes:

2005 Kona and 6-time winner, superstar Natascha Badmann, 2004 Olympic Gold medalist Kate Allen of Austria, 2003-4-5-6 IM New Zealand winner Joanna Lawn, 2006 IM Coeur d'Alene winner and 2000 Olympian Joanna Zeiger, 2006 IM Canada winner Belinda Granger, 2005 IM Arizona winner Kate Major,

... and climbed to as high as 2nd place at mile 23 of the marathon before finishing in 4th place. Gina's split for the mid-day marathon - 3hr12min, and which included walking the last minute with daughter Gabriella.

Gina balances her lofty competitive goals, professional obligations, and mother duties with much of the same smart training that you all practice.

Though some of the specific workouts might vary, the training principles are the same where "base" is built with strength and quality sessions, and longer race-specific
training is reserved for the period just before the target event, or what M2 refers to as
the Upside-Down pyramid.

Winter training saw an average of 6-7hrs per week, summer 10-12hours, and September saw peak training hours of 18hours per week.

I must say that I am still getting goose-bumps with the images of Gina driving the pace in the late stages of this marathon, leaving many of the sport's upper echelon elite behind or forcing them to hold on as best they could.

Attached is a picture of Gina I snapped while riding my bike - she has just overtaken pre-race favorite Kate Major of Australia and has 12-time IM winner Lisa
Bentley of Canada in her sights. The other picture is of 2nd place finisher Desiree
Ficker, and with whom Gina battled neck and neck from miles 18-24.

Congratulations to Gina!