This is the week for Megan McIntyre, a disciplined and fun-loving Idyllwild exercise devotee, to make her transformation from fit forest woman to glamour competitor in the Saturday, Oct. 26, LA Fitness Model Spectacular.
For the weekend, she'll change from her Idy style uniform of short fingernails, brunette hair tied back in a ponytail, workout jerseys, yoga pants and, often, a little dirt around her ankles acquired by running trails through the woods.
“I'll have pretty makeup, pretty hair, pretty fake nails, pretty jewelry, a pretty fake tan, a pretty bikini,” she said, giggling at the contrast between her wilderness-oriented lifestyle and fitness glamour competitions off the hill.
It all makes sense to the lean and muscular 34-year-old personal fitness instructor. She uses the natural features of Idyllwild to train for competitions that value fitness, a lean, proportioned physique, muscle definition, athleticism, healthy skin, posing ability and beauty.
“This is my favorite place in the entire world,” she said before an afternoon session of fast interval sprints in the woods. “If I could have a fully equipped, 24 Hour Fitness with all the bells and whistles, I would rather be here.”
Megan McIntyre is a former college basketball player who grew up in Ohio. After moving west to study publishing in Denver and work as a literary intern in San Diego, the Spanish and English major was hired as a teacher at Astro Camp in Idyllwild in 2002.
She met her husband, Tucker McIntyre, while singing karaoke in Idyllwild. Her body building began before their wedding in 2008. She worked hard to be in good physical shape and didn't want to lose her toned physique afterward, she said.
McIntyre gained knowledge and support for working out through a web forum offered by Oxygen, a fitness magazine. She became a follower of the Cathy Savage Fitness regime, which complimented Jazzercise workouts in Idyllwild.
Through the forum, she learned about a Southern California fitness competition that some would call a body-building event. She entered just two months after her wedding and surprised herself by finishing second in the figure category. She was hooked.
She enters about two competitions annually and consistently recorded top-10 finishes in regional and national events.
Her breakthrough came last February in the Palm Springs Classic 2013. She was the figure medium winner and figure overall champion. She will enter diva figure model and diva figure model categories in Los Angeles on Saturday.
McIntyre became a certified fitness trainer two years ago and made the work her career. She visits clients in their homes or invites them into her backyard shed, where they work out with dumbbells, resistance bands and on a treadmill. She believes in working hard with simple exercises like running on trails, lifting lots of weights, jumping rope and doing push ups.
While she lives far from the community of fitness competitors, she finds support from friends in Idyllwild, her off-the-hill coach Nathan Harewood and posing, presentation coach and mentor Sharon Polsky, of Long Beach.
She follows healthful eating habits throughout the year and enhances her muscle definition by losing about 10 pounds before a competition. To become lean before a competition, she eats spinach, sweet potatoes, almonds and lots of eggs and chicken.
Idyllwild, she said, serves well as a substitute for a big-city gym with state-of-the art equipment. Her favorite workouts are running trails through May Valley, up South Ridge and all the way to Skunk Cabbage Meadow in the San Jacinto Wilderness. She especially likes boulder hopping up Strawberry Creek and running back down.
“I have the perfect place to train,” she said of Idyllwild and the surrounding forest. “This is my gym.”
Contact Bob Pratte at bpratte@pe.com or 3400 Wentworth Drive, Hemet 92545. Find Bob’s blog at blog.pe.com/author/bobpratte and follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PE.BobPratte and Twitter: @bpratte
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