An Enduro Racer, Personal Trainer, Chef and Sailor
Jen Zimmerman has so far, had a fun time in her life. She grew up sailing and racing with her dad on Lake Erie and Lake Simcoe. In her late 20s, after graduating from University with a degree in music performance she bought her own sailboat, she raced for 12 years on Lake Ontario. She happily spent countless hours racing in all kinds of weather, including everything from snow showers to mind numbing heat and everything in-between. She even was able to sail with her dad in Trinidad when he spent 2 years sailing around the Caribbean in the early 2000s.
Jen’s musical career took her to Toronto in the late 1990s where she was able to eke out a career teaching guitar until her early 30s. She made a career change in 2000 and worked as a law clerk until just recently in 2019 in Toronto and Barrie.
A brief break from the legal world in 2007 saw Jen attend Culinary School in Toronto and Chicago. She specialized in pastries, cakes and chocolate, and ran her own business for 5 years. She also trained and worked as a butcher in a boutique shop in Toronto for several years learning the art of butchery as well as catering for all the shop’s special events and contributing to culinary magazines. In 2013 Jen packed up everything and got a job in the pastry kitchen in the Chateau Lake Louise in Banff, Alberta. She worked there for 5 months but eventually returned to Ontario and settled in Barrie. While in Barrie she continued to race sailboats on her own boat as well as with her dad.
After meeting her partner in crime in 2014 she discovered the art of motorcycles and out of the blue purchased a purple 2002 Harley Davidson Sportster, which she still rides to this day. In the fall of 2014 Jen joined the sport of Roller Derby which she also continues to play.
Roller Derby was the kick-start to Jen’s interest in the fitness industry. The sport forced her to examine her eating habits and off-skate training. She hired a sports nutritionist and joined a gym. At that time, she was not interested in losing weight, but gaining muscle, which she did.
In 2015, a friend stored his son’s Kawasaki KLX 140 at her house, and she decided to give it a rip. Two months later she bought a Honda CRF 150 and rode that bike for countless hours until she outgrew it in 2017 when her husband bought her a KTM 250 two-stroke for her 46th birthday. What more could a girl want? That fall, Jen and her husband decided they wanted to try their hand at Enduro racing in 2018. Jen spent the winter in the gym trying to train for the upcoming racing season, with the added difficulty of training to play roller derby at the same time. She had a fairly successful racing season in 2018 but realized her fitness was below what it should be in order for her to get any better.
February of 2019 Jen obtained her personal training certificate, her sports nutritionist put her on a new eating plan and she dropped 25 pounds of fat and gained 4 pounds of muscle in 4 months. Unfortunately, in April 2019 she dislocated her shoulder at a Roller Derby game and she was unable to race. However, the group of guys she regularly rides with noticed her riding skills surpassed a lot of them due to her awesome fitness level, despite the shoulder injury.
Fast forward to October 2019 and Jen and her husband find themselves traveling around North America in a camper with two KTMs, 2 mountain bikes and a couple of stand up paddle boards. Their goals are to dirt bike as much as they can, hitting all the popular spots and of course the less traveled spots. Jen has designed her own daily workouts she can do anywhere without the use of any gym equipment. She has partnered with FitRiders, hoping to bring the message to all dirtbikers and adventure riders that the ride isn’t the workout, the ride is the fun part, the reward for all the hard work. The way to get to the ride is off seat training and yes it does make a difference! Her wealth of experience and knowledge will be a great asset to the resources of FitRiders and she is super excited to be writing regular blogs and bringing her passion for fitness, dirtbiking and all things active to people of all ages and backgrounds she meets on her travels.
Life is exciting.
lazycatzimmerman@icloud.com
Jen’s musical career took her to Toronto in the late 1990s where she was able to eke out a career teaching guitar until her early 30s. She made a career change in 2000 and worked as a law clerk until just recently in 2019 in Toronto and Barrie.
A brief break from the legal world in 2007 saw Jen attend Culinary School in Toronto and Chicago. She specialized in pastries, cakes and chocolate, and ran her own business for 5 years. She also trained and worked as a butcher in a boutique shop in Toronto for several years learning the art of butchery as well as catering for all the shop’s special events and contributing to culinary magazines. In 2013 Jen packed up everything and got a job in the pastry kitchen in the Chateau Lake Louise in Banff, Alberta. She worked there for 5 months but eventually returned to Ontario and settled in Barrie. While in Barrie she continued to race sailboats on her own boat as well as with her dad.
After meeting her partner in crime in 2014 she discovered the art of motorcycles and out of the blue purchased a purple 2002 Harley Davidson Sportster, which she still rides to this day. In the fall of 2014 Jen joined the sport of Roller Derby which she also continues to play.
Roller Derby was the kick-start to Jen’s interest in the fitness industry. The sport forced her to examine her eating habits and off-skate training. She hired a sports nutritionist and joined a gym. At that time, she was not interested in losing weight, but gaining muscle, which she did.
In 2015, a friend stored his son’s Kawasaki KLX 140 at her house, and she decided to give it a rip. Two months later she bought a Honda CRF 150 and rode that bike for countless hours until she outgrew it in 2017 when her husband bought her a KTM 250 two-stroke for her 46th birthday. What more could a girl want? That fall, Jen and her husband decided they wanted to try their hand at Enduro racing in 2018. Jen spent the winter in the gym trying to train for the upcoming racing season, with the added difficulty of training to play roller derby at the same time. She had a fairly successful racing season in 2018 but realized her fitness was below what it should be in order for her to get any better.
February of 2019 Jen obtained her personal training certificate, her sports nutritionist put her on a new eating plan and she dropped 25 pounds of fat and gained 4 pounds of muscle in 4 months. Unfortunately, in April 2019 she dislocated her shoulder at a Roller Derby game and she was unable to race. However, the group of guys she regularly rides with noticed her riding skills surpassed a lot of them due to her awesome fitness level, despite the shoulder injury.
Fast forward to October 2019 and Jen and her husband find themselves traveling around North America in a camper with two KTMs, 2 mountain bikes and a couple of stand up paddle boards. Their goals are to dirt bike as much as they can, hitting all the popular spots and of course the less traveled spots. Jen has designed her own daily workouts she can do anywhere without the use of any gym equipment. She has partnered with FitRiders, hoping to bring the message to all dirtbikers and adventure riders that the ride isn’t the workout, the ride is the fun part, the reward for all the hard work. The way to get to the ride is off seat training and yes it does make a difference! Her wealth of experience and knowledge will be a great asset to the resources of FitRiders and she is super excited to be writing regular blogs and bringing her passion for fitness, dirtbiking and all things active to people of all ages and backgrounds she meets on her travels.
Life is exciting.
lazycatzimmerman@icloud.com