Pagosa Springs Rotary Club
Guess what? Wonderwoman is a reformed computer geek!
That’s right, Pagosa’s very own certified, personal trainer and tri-athlete extraordinaire, Theresa Snyder, earned a degree in Computer Science from the University of Vermont, and lived out of a suitcase troubleshooting for years as an information technology executive, before rejecting a partnership at Ernst & Young, and cashing it all in for a life dedicated to athletic, not intellectual perspiration!
Now, as a trainer, she overcomes her clients’ limitations resulting from sedentary lives by inducing them with encouragement and her indefatigable smile to take on pain and receive gain at the PLPOA Rec Center, and as a triathlete, flails her arms, churns her legs, and gallops her entire being and psyche through water, up hill and down dale in a relentless battle with the clock along-side of hundreds of other competitors (some of whom, based on Theresa’s description, apparently regard their peers as mere obstacles to be shoved aside, or under if they happen to be in the water at the time).
Theresa, who confessed to having become a tri-athlete “for some unknown reason,” has competed in 14 of the events since 2011. This year, she said, she competed in the Nationals in Omaha, Nebraska, with 4000 others (many of whom, most likely, also have difficulty explaining why. But that is like asking Sir Edmund Hillary, why he climbed Mount Everest? Because, it’s there, he is reported to have answered.)
But Theresa did offer a hint about some of the satisfaction she reaps from competing in triathlons: crossing the finish line, she said, “makes you so happy!”
Theresa counseled that those who want to compete in triathlons need a supportive spouse or partner, good nutrition, good shoes, a taste for travel, and a training regimen. She said she likes to take two days off from training each week, to keep mentally fresh. “Be good to yourself,” she advised.
She offered hints for general physical well-being too. Theresa advised that stretching after exercise, when the body is warmed up, not before, will benefit the casual athlete most. In exercising, she said, one should push herself – don’t pretend to exercise while talking on the phone from the gym. And the body is like a furnace, she observed, needing fuel: food and water. So don’t skip meals, and be sure to get protein.
When traveling, Theresa advised wearing compression socks. And for hiking, she suggested using two poles. Plus, use elastic bands to exercise the shoulders, she advised, to keep them mobile and limber for all=around fitness.
At the end of her talk, the cheerful Theresa was thanked by a warm round of applause, and was then joined by several of her apt pupils, beaming in good health with cell phones safely tucked away, and water bottles surely near at hand. Clad in Wonderwoman t-shirts alongside Theresa were Jo Bridges, Melanie Garrett, and Kim Moore, all flanked by Dave Richardson, in a gender-appropriate Superman t-shirt (“faster than a speeding bullet”).
