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Hanging with Natasha Badman at the Ironman World Championships!
Kona Hawaii 2001

 

 

Standing in front of the leader board with 1st Place Trophy 2002
Fastest Female Master Finisher with Top Masters Run Split!


 

Brian and I at the Hospice 100K Mountain Bike Race!


Ellen with Mom at Morikami Japanese Gardens Spring 2008

About Racheal

I am an ordinary person that has had the opportunity to do extraordinary things.  I started competing in triathlons and running road races as a graduate assistant and student  in the Exercise Science Department at Florida Atlantic University.  Like many athletes, after my first race I was absolutely hooked. I loved the training and it was a great way to become physically fit.  Through a lot of determination and hard work, I went from being an middle of the pack age grouper to racing in the Elite divisions.   I also took up mountain biking and off road running.

After a few years I turned my sights to longer distance racing, qualifying for Kona by winning my age group in my first Ironman.  I finished the 2000 IM Florida with a 10:09:15 finish, good enough for 9th overall including the pro women.  I went on to compete in 4 more IM's, all of which I was in the top 5 in my age group, with my best being a 2002 Age Group and overall Female Masters win at the World Championships in Hawaii.

In 2004, I decided to take a break from serious training to  spend more time with my family; daughter Ellen aged 10  and my husband of 20 years Brian.  I also had a strong desire to do more mountain biking.  My dream has always been to do the AA Hawaiian double; to compete in the IM World Championships in Kona and than a week later go to Maui and do the XTERRA World Championships.  I joined the Ford Team and focused on improving my mountain bike skills.  At the same time I wanted to give back to the Triathlon community in our area and did so by starting a new Triathlon Club;  The Gold Coast Triathletes.  I also wanted to focus more on coaching along with teaching health and physical education at a K-9 school.  

In 2005, my coaching really took off and I opted to pursue it full time.  I gave up my teaching and athletic director job.  My husband became quite the mountain bike racer and I focused more on my athletes.  I started coached training groups (open water swims, running drills and speed sessions with instruction, brick and transition workouts along with various clinics related to bike skills, transitions, open water swimming, etc.).  I also continued to do a little more  mountain bike racing. 

2006 proved to be a very busy year.  I took on being President of the Triathlon Club The Gold Coast Triathletes.  I had many of my athletes helping me out with the club.  We worked very hard and accomplished a great deal over the course of the year.  At the same time my coaching really took off and my training groups doubled in size.  I was able to compete in a couple mountain bike races, 2 Florida XTERRA races and raced for fun with a bunch of my athletes at The Escape to Miami at the end of the year.  I had hoped to race IM Florida, but could not find the time I needed to train properly for the event.  Instead I went to the race as a Coach and supported the athletes.  I was so inspired, I signed up for IM Florida in 2007!

In 2007....I returned back to training for triathlon and continued to coach full time.  It was a tough year trying to just build a base back after being out of the sport for 4 years.  Plus I had some great athletes I was coaching and training groups!    I was only able to complete in 6 races in 2007, but it was a good start in trying to get back to racing and in shape.  I had a rough start of the year having a difficult time with races at Florida Great Escape and IM 70.3, did fairly well at XTERRA in Miami, had a pretty decent race (all things considered) in the Cancun 70.3, did the Tradewinds race as a C practice race for IM.  I was able to complete IM FL and do well enough to qualify for Kona for 2008!   However it was a tough day out there....and I learned a lot about what it was like to do an Ironman without having the huge fitness I had back in 2000-2003.   I think in the end it made me able to relate so much more to the average athlete.  It was a great experience and just GREAT being back out there again!  Very motivating!

2008 has been a super big year filled with so much adventure!  It proved to be an exciting and overly busy year.  I attempted to get back into racing competing quite a few events including mountain bike racings, XTERRA races and some tri's including Ironman Hawaii and XTERRA World's in Maui.  I accomplished my goal of completing the Double....but did it more for fun then to be competitive.

The majority of my energy really was put into coaching and providing valuable learning and group opportunities for my coached athletes as well as athletes in the community.  My training groups really took off and grew quite a bit with the Coached Ocean Swim groups being a super huge hit as well as the Run Group.   It did not leave me much time to train myself...but my athletes' successes were much more important than my own. 

I also worked quite hard at providing socials and opportunities for the  Gold Coast Triathletes to continue to grow and prosper.  We ended the year with about 100 members, all decked out with new shirts and several sponsors.   We had a social every few months that included an educational portion to it and some socials training and gathers at restaurants as well as a couple socials at the big races with food for the racers and their families.  We had a huge turnout at the Miami Man...which was a great way to end the season. 

The 2008 Season was really amazing for me...all my athletes did really well with all their races.  I had many IM athletes succeed beyond their dreams, others with consistent PR's and one that made it to XTERRA Worlds as her first year mountain biking (and kicked my butt by the way...which was great).  I was overwhelmed with responsibilities and pretty exhausted by year end....BUT as a coach, I could not have asked for a nicer year.

 
  Contact Information
E-mail info@rachealwoodcoaching.com

Phone: 954 263 4588

 

 




Check out my racing history!

 
About Racheal Wood Coaching
Each athlete is unique with not only their strengths and weaknesses as an athlete, but also their time constraints due to family and work obligations.  I try to get to know each of my athletes as well as I can, taking all the various aspects of their life into consideration before helping them with their goals, and setting up their training programs.  I take a very individualized approach to my coaching by offering my athletes as much attention as they want and need.  Often as the coach/athlete relationship develops and issues related to training come about; changes must be made related to an athletes goals or circumstance.  I strive to be very flexible in making as many adjustments that are needed in order to ensure a positive experience for each athlete.  Each program is a mix of the scientific approach, schedule reality and most importantly to enjoy the training.

I believe that my success as an athlete has centered around the concept of "play".  Although the training included a lot of hard work and  sheer determination; the bottom line has to be about having fun.  When you train smart, and play hard....you will inevitably enjoy the sport and take it to the next level. This is what I  try to convey to my athletes.


Racheal Wood Coaching History
 I formally started coaching multi sport athletes in 2002, but I have over 10 years of teaching and coaching experience.  I have coached over 200 multi sport athletes, mainly with personalized coaching and over 100  middle and high school athletes in tennis, soccer and swimming.  This year I will be limiting myself to 10 to 12 personalized athletes at a time in order to provide the attention each athlete deserves.  I also have several training groups to help my personalized athletes and athletes in the community to train together, namely for ocean swims and to work on their running  efficiency and speed work.  I also have offered several clinics working on various triathlon related topics and areas.  I have also taught Fitness and Physical Education (for teachers) courses for the Exercise Science and Wellness Department at Florida Atlantic University along with high school health, mathematics and middle school health, science and K-12 physical education and swimming.  I strive to combine my teaching expertise with my athletic ability and coaching in order to present informative, hands on as well as educational clinics and training group sessions.  

Qualifications
USA Triathlon Level II Certified  Coach
USA Cycling Level II Certified Coach
Masters  of Science in Exercise Science and Wellness
Bachelor of Science in Health Education and Athletic Training
Certified "The Methods" Coach 2009
Certified Water Safety Instructor and Lifeguard

Certified Florida Teacher Science, Health and Physical Education
2002 Ironman Hawaii Female Masters World Champion
Six Time Top 5 Age group finisher Ironman  Hawaii/Florida (2000-2003, 2007)
Five Time USAT All American
Ranked #1 in USAT National Ranking 2001
South Florida Female Athlete and Triathlete of the Year 2000, 2001, 2002
XTERRA SE Regional Champion 2001, 2008
The Double -Ironman Hawaii and XTERRA Worlds back to back finisher, 2008.


 

 
 Check my Racing Schedule for 2008!
Tour of San Felasco- 50 mile mountain bike Jan. 12th- FUN Trip, loved the trails there!  NEW BIKE.....Titus Racer X with shifters on the brakes.  Took a bit of riding to get use to...but is going to be a FUN Bike!

Coconut Cup Mountain Bike Race in Markham Park-  January 27th- First race back mountain biking in a long time.  Nice to get my feet wet again and enjoyed the day.  Need to start riding faster and harder in order to race hard! 

Fort Lauderdale A1A Half Marathon- Feb. 17th- Decided to skip since I was dreading going out for my long runs and figured I would have plenty of time later in the year to do it!

Coconut Cup Mountain Bike Race in Oleta
February 24th
- Amazing Race with an Overall Female finish even after getting a flat and riding an extra trail.

Hospice 100K Mountain Bike Race- March 2nd- AMAZING EVENT!  My first long distance SOLO mountain bike race.  Felt great.  Finish the full 100K with lots in the tank....2nd female, 19th overall!  Need to learn not to save it for the run though! 

 

XTERRA in Miami- March 30th
FUN race!  Did well and felt better on the run this time!  Tired for the swim and bike though!    1st Female and 11th overall.


Didn't get much sleep for a few nights leading in (I hosted a big clinic the day before which left me super tired) and wasn't able to warm up due to setting up transition issues with the earlier race which really hurt me especially on the bike.  Too much air in my tires.  Had to stop a couple times to let air out given the dusty conditions.  Fell on the run portion and severely cut both palms on my hands on some coral rock in Rocky mile and also sliced my foot a bit on corral rock during the start of the swim (hole and rocks at the beach start).   BUT still had a GREAT time and enjoyed the race a lot!  Felt fitter than last year!

Great Clermont- April 6th- Could not race because of my hands and feet from XTERRA.  Could not hold on to a handle bar or swim.   Rescheduled for Tri America Race in a few weeks.

FAU Wellness Triathlon- April 13th-  too much going on with 2 big clinics and Gold Coast Triathletes club to be able to race and not able to train for a few weeks due to big gashes in my hands.  NEXT year I am definitely racing though!

XTERRA - Fort Yargo in Georgia- April 27th- Wanted to do but just was able to get back on my mountain bike to ride in time. Still dealing with major cuts on my hands.   Will do Fort Myers instead.

Tri America Series- Port Charlotte May 4th, 2008- May 4th- Training Race or C race, tired before the start-  Beautiful course, nice beach and swim (although most of it was into the current).  2 loops on the bike very scenic along the beach for half of it.  Beautiful out and back run along the ocean....hot run though!    Very nice course and venue.    Finished 2nd overall female and 6th overall.  Small but very nice field of athletes!  Not quite ready for the longer  distance yet, but felt surprisingly better after the turnaround on the run.  Ran the second half faster than  the first which was a bonus! 

Stopped on the way there to ride the XTERRA bike course in Fort  Myers on the day before and then again after the race.    Trained with Liz, one of my athletes!  We had a great training weekend!

XTERRA- Fort Myers May 18th- Very nice race and great for beginners!  Well organized and lots of fun.  Next year I think I will camp out right there at the course.   It would be super fun!  Did it as a training race to help prepare for XTERRA Regional's in June.   Not a great race for me....but was lots of fun.  Had trouble with my tire the day before which create problems and kind of took me out of the right frame of mind to race.  Need to get back into the rhythm and training hard in all 3 disciplines.  Too many setbacks since XTERRA Miami. 

Did not feel so great on the swim.   I have not been swimming much since I tore up my hands in Oleta and the fresh water and no wet suit made me realize just how much I have not been swimming!   Had an okay bike.  The course was super easy with a lot of turns to slow you down (which I am not so great at since am so tall).  My new bike is bigger and I am higher up (not as aero as before), which makes the turning much tougher.  Really need to work on that.   I had to worry about not going off the trail too much since I thought my air pressure was lower than desirable due to my tire problems.  It turns out the air pressure was actually much more than I thought which might have contributed to my troubles with the cornering even more.  On my pre ride with my tubeless tire and lower air pressure, I was cornering so much better.    I never felt very fast and the course was not technical to get much of an advantage (I am much more of a technical rider these days then speed demon).    The run course was nice with some grassy sections, wooden walkways and nature trails.  We did 2 loops on the 4 mile course.   Super tired for the run.....no legs today.  Finished this race 2nd overall female, 22nd overall out of about 90 athletes.   Need to get my focus back the next couple weeks for Regional's!
 
It was great to see a nice group of adventure racers competing from Miami!  Thanks to David Gomez for helping me with my tire the day before.  All the SoFLAR were super nice and did very well! 

XTERRA South Regional Championships in Alabama June 8th
Tough race, very hot....very hilly...not a great day for me!   Had an okay swim (it was hot though), biked conservatively because I knew the run would be bad, blow up on the run.....super steep up and down 6 times.  Wore my Newton's which did not fair well on the down hills and was not prepared for the uphill's.  Felt really out of shape and not with it....tired and stressed.     It's been a tough last few months with minimal training due to injuries and too much work and travel.  
Qualified for Maui and Nationals though which was the goal.....just was not very pretty:)!   Will know better next year and do a lot of stair climbing at the gym to get ready!    Had a great time going to the race with Liz (one of my athletes) and she kicked butt (including mine)!   She has been following me around the trails all spring and did phenomenal! 

Vineman 70.3 in California- July 20th- Did as a training race for Kona.  No speed training yet...too much traveling and having fun mountain biking to do very well. 
Serious contrast to Alabama.   COLD COLD COLD.....freezing.  Only 50 degrees race morning and did not warm up until half way through the run.  Had an okay swim in the Russian River.....nice cruise out and back, froze to death on the bike and could not get moving, plus rode conservative again thinking the course was much more challenging (hill wise) than it turned out to be, dropped my sustained energy fuel at the beginning of the bike so had no real nutrition for the bike other than a 100 calorie bottle of HEED and finally gave into doing a half of a power bar at mile 40. Paid for the solid food on the run though.  I felt cold still on the run but started to feel better as it went along and really picked it up at the end.   My running has been minimal so I was very happy to feel good at the end.  Hoping to break the 6 hour mark, did it in 5:36 and change....which was not far off from my Disney time last year.  I was happy with that since I felt this course was much tougher than Disney. 

Gorgeous course, beautiful volunteers, very well run event!   Loved it and would recommend it to anyone.   Wish it had been warming and I had more time on my tri bike but was a good kick off to do some serious Kona training the rest of the summer!
 
Swim, Bike, Run
 BIG Smiles after the RACE.   Glad I was able to finish strong after a not so hot (in more ways than one) bike!

Spent 3 extra days driving down the coast from Santa Rosa to Long Beach area!  Drove through Monterey, Big Sur, San Luis Obispo, Solvang, Santa Barbara, etc.   ONE word....BREATHTAKING!!!!!!  It is nice racing again and not taking it so seriously.....learning to smell the roses along the way!


The Double! - Excited to achieve my goal of doing the DOUBLE this year!  It was interesting and full of adventure!  My goal was just to finish so my performance were more than lack luster for me...but it feels good to know I played it smart cruising both races.  I felt super charged and great after doing both!  Guess I went to easy on them!   Oh well, next time i will know better!  

IM World Championships- Kona HI October 11th- 26th place finish....middle of the pack!  Tough day...no energy when i woke up.  I think I used it all up getting ready for the trip and having fun with Ellen all week.  She loved Kona and we had a great time!  I had a lousy swim, got boxed in and clobbered non stop.  Was not a good way to start the day and set me up for not such a great race.  Had a really bad day on the bike.  Just had no energy and did not feel good.  Not enough training under my belt and everything kind of hurt.    The run was hard in the beginning...I think a lot of it stemmed from having a bad bike and not being set up properly.   Wanted to quit at mile 10 when I was only a block from my hotel bed:)! Finally started to feel good about mile 20 on the run and kicked it in as best I could.  Played tug a war with my head and my heart about whether to push or not all day.....something deep inside of me knew it was best not to trash my legs totally and save it for XTERRA!   Played it smart!

I had some precious and amazing moments with my family, especially my daughter inspiring me to finish and continue on my journey when I was really wanting to stop at mile 11.   I will remember this race for a lifetime....it was filled with emotion beyond belief.   Felt great afterwards and not sore the days following....which is a FIRST!

 Cruising along Alii Drive....still smiling!

XTERRA Worlds- Maui HI October 26th-  10th place finish   Okay, first Maui is beautiful beyond belief....but this mountain bike course was not really full of all that Maui had to offer.   The course is on a cattle run and jeep roads with no trees or shade.  Tons of climbing...over 4000 feet.  It was not technical other than if you went bombing down the downhill....but it was tough....especially for us vertically challenged athletes that have no hills to train on:).  I had a GREAT swim coming out with many of the pro's and 2nd in my division by only a few seconds.   I decided not to try to hammer the bike and just cruise up in an easy gear so as not to cramp up.  The goal was to finish this year.   Good thing since the course was like one big continuous 14 mile hill upward with no sign of reprieve!   The downhill's were so treacherous.....you had to be super careful so as not to wipe out.  Went down once on a sketchy downhill, which forced me to stop a few times to make adjustments to my bike.   Also stopped for the first time in my racing career to help a fellow athlete that had a flat and was trying to ride on it.    Felt GREAT on the run once I got rehydrated (they ran out of water on the bike so I did the whole thing with no water....just Sustained Energy and a tiny bit of HEED and Gatorade (all they had left at the AID station and I can't handle the sugar in it).  I felt really good at the end of the race when I finished.  I have found that I did not train or race enough in 2008 to find that extra gear that is needed to push.   Something to really work on in 2009:)!    Overall, I had an amazing experience.  Watching my athlete Liz Hoyer do so well and push her limits made the whole trip OH SO Worth it!   It was so nice to share doing the second half of the double with her!

   

 
At the finihs.....alll smiles because I knew I DID IT!       With Liz after the race!
 
 
 
 
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