Rod Lecher's triathlon career is on hold.
He's found a new sporting passion in powerlifting and has his son to blame for that.
Eighteen-year-old Josh Lecher discovered the benefits of practicing dead lifts, bench press and squats while he was in high school football in Chilliwack playing defensive end for the G.W. Graham Grizzlies.
Josh came up to Prince George to spend some time with his dad over the summer and started working out downtown at the Xconditioning gym, where he saw the likes of Mike Webber, Jay Cook, Tara Green and Tony Tomra showing what it takes to compete at the national level. He was hooked right away.
It was only a matter of time before his 49-year-old father followed suit and on Saturday they competed alongside each other in the Northern Powerlifting Classic.
"I was the endurance athlete trying to get him into it and he got me into this," said the six-foot-three, 210-pound Rod Lecher, who competed in the 100-kilogram class.
Josh, who stands six-foot-one and weighs 195 pounds, competed Saturday in the 90 kg class. He was unable to match his best-ever dead lift of 515 pounds but still lifted 417 lb. He hit 242 in the bench press and 377 in the squat.
"I came up here in between my Grade 11 and 12 season and started training here and all the trainers here are elite powerlifters and that's how I got into it," said Josh. "I definitely fell in love with the sport. No matter what weight or how old you are, there's still more weight to be lifted, so there's endless goals you can set for yourself. It's always a good place to push yourself."
Rod, a mechanical/structural engineer, is nursing a shoulder injury and his numbers in pounds Saturday were 370 (dead lift), 210 (bench press) and 308 (squat).
"I was a little bit nervous - it's a little intimidating before you get here - but after you get the first squat over with you put that behind you," said Rod, who works out four days per week.
Rod's goals are to eventually reach 500 in the dead lift, 400 in the squat and 300 in the bench press.
The Northern Classic was sanctioned by the International Powerlifting Association. In Chilliwack, Josh competes under slightly different rules in International Powerlifting Federation-sanctioned events. Saturday's meet was his third.
"Eventually I'd like to go to nationals but probably not this year, I'll work on building more size and strength," said Josh, now in his fourth year of powerlifting,
Rod started training at Xconditioning two years ago but it's only in the last five months he's been intent on competing. He had to cut out his triathlon training to bulk up for Saturday's competition.
"I was doing endurance training before that and Josh and I have been talking on the phone for a couple years about training practices," said Rod. "But being in a gym that's being run by pretty competitive powerlifters it's a good atmosphere here and I started thinking it's a good thing for me and Josh to do together.
"I'm a little slower when it comes to endurance stuff, but generally I've seen some huge gains in my lifting. The guys here know the game. If you get a little tweak in your shoulder they modify your workout routine to work around that or strengthen that or lay off just for a couple days to give it a rest."
Coming from a background of football, where opponents can turn nasty, Josh says there's no intimidation or rivalries in a powerlifting competition, where everybody pulls together to help each other push the weight.
"You come to a meet and think it's going to be rugged with all these mean guys around you but it's probably one of the best sports atmospheres I've been in - everybody helps you and everybody cheers for you," said Josh. "There's an endless amount of help if you need anything."
