Survival of the Fittest

Kathy Redcher-Bowling has more than her share of titles.

Kindergarten teacher is one.  Former weightlifting national champion is another.  Mother and wife are two more.    

And if Redcher-Bowling is victorious this Sunday, she’ll claim yet another title: fittest woman in Elk Grove.

But this week’s Elk Grove Athlete of the Week must first out-lift, out-run and out-hustle nine other female finalists at the 2011 Fittest of Elk Grove Competition held at this weekend.  The event is a local take on the World’s Strongest Man competition, but with fitness challenges based on the CrossFit workout program and featuring both a men’s and a women’s division. Proceeds benefit the Elk Grove Youth Sports Foundation.

Redcher-Bowling aced a qualifier for the event last weekend by finishing first in four CrossFit workout challenges.  For the 2003 U.S. weightlifting champion and former Marine Corps reservist—who was also a teenage gymnast—earning a shot at the Fittest title might seem like no sweat.

But as one of the oldest competitors, Redcher-Bowling actually struggled to prepare for the event.

Besides her training, she juggles teaching kindergarten at Camellia Basic School in Sacramento with raising a young son with her husband, Paul—also a teacher, former Marine and weightlifter. 

Plus, Redcher-Bowling only started CrossFit training in May and didn’t think she was in shape for the competition.  After her first few workouts at Warriorz Health and Fitness in Elk Grove, she says, she could hardly move.

“I had a training on a Saturday with my principal,” said Redcher-Bowling, laughing at the memory.  “I had to tell her, ‘I have to leave, because I’m just so sore that I have to lay in bed.’ ”

Warriorz manager Micha Zamora said Redcher-Bowling is just modest.

“She comes in here, very humble, talking about how she’s out of shape, and then kicks everyone’s butt in all the workouts!” said Zamora.

Elk Grove Patch caught up with Redcher-Bowling a few days before the Fittest of Elk Grove competition and chatted about her military background, staying fit while raising children and preventing burnout.

You’ve won weightlifting titles and competed in gymnastics: how would “Fittest in Elk Grove” rate with those achievements?

I think it’s pretty close to the weightlifting, because it’s more challenging.  It’s stuff that I don’t like to do and stuff that I do like to do mixed together.  I don’t like to run, but I have to run.  And it’s local and I like local events.  It’s easier with family in town.

What’s tougher—achieving your fitness goals or trying to manage a kindergarten classroom after recess?

Actually, at my school, we’re a schoolwide discipline school, so it’s not too bad.  I have to say, [fitness training] is tougher.  I’ve got the kindergarten down now.  It’s my 10th or 11th year of teaching.

You served in the Marine Corps, known for their tough boot camp.  How did that help prepare you for a career in fitness?

The best part of boot camp for me was the physical training, because it was easy for me.  I wasn’t overweight and I was just out of gymnastics, so I could do seven pullups and no one else could do pullups.  There are all kinds of things that you learn, like the three “P’s”: Prior Proper Planning, or Adapt and Overcome.  Any of those things, you could apply to your job, you can apply it to your workout, you can apply it to your family. 

You have to learn how to prioritize and look at the big picture.  I think that’s probably my strong point.  I can look at these workouts and be like, okay, I have to do this, this and this.

How do you think life would be different without that experience?

It would have been totally different, because I met my husband, Paul, in the Marines.  He’s from Ohio, so I don’t think we would have ever met. 

You’re a mother of a three-year old—that must be a workout all by itself.  How do you find the energy to take care of your family and still train for this event?

When I don’t work out, I get really tired.  When I don’t program a lot of stuff into my day, I’m not very successful.  But when I have a lot of things to do and I have a goal, it helps me focus and eliminate my bad habits because I don’t have time for them.

Everytime I’m here [working out], my husband is on babysitting duty.  If I’m here and he’s watching our son, he can’t really work out, so I can’t hog the whole time.  So, we just have to keep some kind of balance going.  As much as I’d like to just be all hardcore everyday, I can’t.

What kind of advice would you give to working parents who have busy schedules but still want to hit the gym?

You’ve got to be creative and have your kid with you.  Instead of trying to get away, just bring more people together.  My son, Conall, loves to crawl on our backs anytime we get into push-up position.

He sounds like a future weightlifter!

He already does clean-and-jerk and snatch lifts with a little PVC pipe.  We don’t teach him, too.  He says that he wants to try and then he tries it, just from copying us.

The 2011 Fittest of Elk Grove Competition and Health and Wellness Fair will be held Sunday, August 28, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Elk Grove High School stadium.