Monique Coleman Gears up for L.A.'s Kids

You know you’ve seen her break it down on more than one occasion. High School Musical 3 star and Dancing with the Stars veteran, Monique Coleman definitely knows how to get going for a cause. Gearing up for the Malibu Triathlon on September 13th, Monique will be running, not dancing this time, to benefit the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital.

In our exclusive interview, CGG talked to Monique about her causes, Corbin Bleu, staying fit, and saying goodbye to High School Musical.

CGG: So, what brought you on to do a triathlon?

MC: “Well I’m working with a personal trainer, and I’ve just always wanted to do things that are challenging, especially physical things. It was something that was sort of a goal of mine. A couple of years ago I was at a point in my life where I wanted to do a bike race, run, or something like that.”

“I just think its really cool and with the Malibu triathlon coming up there were some other teams that were being put together and they asked me, ‘do you want to do this?’ I thought, ‘now’s a good time as any, and it’s for a good cause, so I thought sign me up!’”

CGG: That’s fantastic! Now is it a crazy exercising routine and what not?

MC: “Well I’m still doing my regular cardio and strength training, and now I’m adding on going to a track a couple times a week and working towards it, its 4 miles, and I don’t think I’ve ever run 4 miles in my life. So it’s like building up to being able to do that with a little more ease and so, I’m just running on the tracks a couple days a week.”

CGG: I’m sure it’s quite a big different from your Dancing with the Stars training.

MC: "Yea it’s really different, it’s very, very different. I feel like with dancing you can be motivated a lot by the music."

CGG: Do you miss it?

MC: "I don’t miss it, I watch it to keep up with it, but it was definitely an experience that changed my life, extremely grueling, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

I don’t know if I’ve ever cried that much ever, I was always just like “Oh my gosh, I don’t know if I can waltz this week”. For me it was a really powerful experience because it showed me that if you put your mind to something you can really do anything.

And I was going out there every week and just doing the best that I can. That’s something that I believe more kids need to realize, that you don’t just wake up knowing how to do things sometimes. If you really care about something, sometimes you have to start at the bottom and work your way up, and that’s really what I did."

CGG: Was it different filming this one than the other two?

MC: "Right, What was so different about this one, was knowing that it was our graduation, for real. We graduated in the film, but were graduating from this in our real lives and we’ve been together almost as many years as you’re really in high school. We’ve been together for 3 years!

I’d never been on a feature film, and obviously I’ve never been in a musical feature, so I was able to see, from a production’s stand point, how it all comes together. It was truly an amazing first experience."

Get going with Monique! Check out HSM3 this fall!