Amber Monforte

Most people already know that Conrad Stoltz and Amber Monforte are my coaches. However, there is a lot of information out there about Conrad, anyone who has been involved with triathlons has heard of him or knows a thing or two about him. I just wanted to write a little something about Conrad's fiancee, Amber, who has been primarily responsible for my training schedules and strategy since December 2009.

Amber and her dog, Kona whom she rescued from the pound.

Amber Monforte grew up around the Reno, Nevada and Truckee, California area and has done many different sports but tried triathlon in 2003 and loved it. She is also an avid XTERRA racer and raced pro in XTERRA for a few seasons before she chose to focus on a full-time job as a nurse in Reno. She still does some races whenever she can take time off her job. Just recently she won the women's 30-34 age group at the Honu 70.3 in Hawaii and received her slot to the Hawaii Ironman this October! But the Ironman will just be practice for the Ultraman in Hawaii which Amber is planning on doing this November. Hawaii will be her second Ultraman. Her first Ultraman was in Canada in August, 2009 which covered 320 miles total of swimming, biking and running.

Ultraman Canada was a tough 3 day race with 6.2 miles of swimming then a 90 mile bike ride on the first day, a 170 mile bike ride on the second, then a 52.4 mile (double marathon) run on the third and last day. Amber finished 4th place overall including the men, and won the women's race. Not only did she win the women's race with a total time of 25 hours, 36 minutes, and 49 seconds, she also broke the women's Ultraman Canada record by almost 4 hours and beat the women's world best time at the Ultraman distance set in 1989 by Tina Bischoff by about 9 minutes. I have no idea how she does it, but I can tell that she enjoys it. I once asked her what motivated her to do all the training and race Ultraman. She said that she likes to challenge herself and see what her limits are.

Conrad running with Amber during Ultraman Canada. Ultramans are usually invitation only events and you bring your own crew for support to provide entertainment, food, and fluids. There are no aid stations like in "normal" triathlon races. I hope to be in Hawaii in November to cheer Amber on at the Ultraman!

Her coaching skills are very good, as she seems to know exactly how I am going to feel before and after a workout. Conrad and Amber know my goals for this year, and they're doing their best to give me the most effective training path to my goals and still make it enjoyable and fun. Since Amber is based in Reno and we're roving across the western states, we communicate by email and she writes up my workouts weekly which makes it exciting to see what I'll be doing. Sometimes scary too, as my dad calls her the "Torturer".