Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Last night was great. Checking USAT cards and saying hi to everyone. Wishing the veterans good luck and telling the newbies encouraging words to rid them of nervous looks. I helped out for about 3 hours and headed home around 6:30 for a pre-race dinner. Right now I am enjoying french toast (egg beaters and Nature's Own High Fiber bread) w/ yogurt on top and cottage cheese with scrambled eggs (leftover from the bread). I still love my sweet potato and bread from Outback but with shorter races, I like a lighter dinner. I wasn't really tired around 9 but I made myself get into bed at 9:45. I must have fallen right asleep because the next noise I heard was my phone alarm. 4:40 am I was up and packed up the car with my bike and Zoot transition bag. I prepared my one water bottle for the bike of powder amino acids and Heed in water and filled up a bottle of water for the hour trip. I prepared my coffee and made a little oatmeal with a little protein powder, a few fresh banana slices

Karel is heading to Chattanooga, TN today (LOOOONGGG drive!) for a race this weekend. I called him this morning after my morning swim and told him that I was so excited for this triathlon. No expectations, no big goals. I just want to get there and see everyone. I feel like I have gone a whole year without seeing all my tri buddies. Ok, so I don't know everyone by name but isn't it true that if you race local races you see the SAME people at all the races. The same people placing top 5 and the same people smiling no matter how they finish. You feel like you have family at the races because everyone shares a similar passion. Everyone loves triathlons! Since this is one of the premier races of the 2008 season, I'm sure people are anxious to show off their upgrades from last year (wheels, helmets, wetsuits, shoes, glasses, etc.). I just feel like i am going to a party tomorrow and I can't wait to get there. I'm volunteering at registration today for a few hours at the

A lot of people are getting into the beginning of racing season. Ironman Arizona is this weekend and i have a handful of friends who I will be watching on the internet this weekend. The Escape from Ft.desoto is also on sat and I will be racing with MANY of my local tri buddies. I wanted to wish everyone luck this weekend and EVERY weekend for all upcoming races. When I am getting ready for a race I get really excited. I do get nervous for running races but triathlons are a different story. I still get the nerves in my belly the night before the race and as I'm eating my pre-race snack I get a little less nervous..but still nervous. When I get in the car to drive to the race, so that I get there right when transition opens (I like getting to transition early!) I start to relax. Living in Florida, we are surrounded with great races. Therefore, I follow the line of bike racks, tri license plate frames, USAT stickers, M-dots and 26.2 stickers (isn't it great that we love what we do

What relief! My biology exam is overwith. This exam wasn't even a final but I am feeling the pressure of the last 3 weeks of school. Gotta keep the grades up and there is no slacking by me. I am so glad that my last exam of the week (2 total) is over and now I have just one quiz tonight in my medical terminology class. I just can not wait until Thursday! To me it feels like the weekend cause I can actually catch up on emails, do videos for BT.com, do nutrition work and write, write, write. My mind goes a mile a minute and it stresses me out not writing. I have all these thoughts in my head about nutrition and when I'm trying to study for an exam I just can't do both. Unfortantly, school wins most of the time since I am getting this degree TO be able to speak and write more. I guess it is the life of a writer when sometimes you get a mental block and sometimes the thoughts just flow. The thing with me (as a passionate sports nutritionist) is that when I read a concern of som

Another tough Tuesday of intervals. Yes, I woke up at 6am so that I could kick my butt only for YOU (my blog readers) to read about my pain. Once again, the heart was pounding, I could barely see straight and my breathing was so loud that all the walkers on the trail were starring at me. But all I could think about was pushing hard for my oh-so-fast, get it done, it goes by so fast, oh it hurts interval tuesday workout. I got one email in before I headed out for my run as I drank my coffee. I had my amino acid powder in about 6 ounces of water and I was ready for my run. I walked to the end of the street and started my stop watch. 10 min warm-up as usual but I really had to stay focused. Perhaps the Iron Girl 10K + 3.2 mile run home on sat, in addition to the 62 windy ride along the water I did on sun wanted to get the best of me. But NO! There is no stopping me on my interval tuesday. I extended my 10 min warm-up to 15 minutes and reminded myself of my set today (which I thought of la

I'm not afraid to admit it. I don't feel incredibly fast like I can whip out a sub 20 min. 5K or 40 min. 10K but I feel strong. I think we (as triathletes, newbies included) don't really understand or appreciate how strong we are until we are recovered from an injury. When you are injured or take a break from serious training (off-season) you feel unfit, not fast and weak. Then when you get back to training, you all of a sudden think of where you want to be. Fast, strong, lean and powerful. I guess sometimes we miss the steps to get where we want to be and don't really recognize how amazingly strong we are inside. Our muscles are contracting and we don't even realize how fast we are moving. We just think about where we were (pre injury for example) or where we want to be (A-race, months down the road). Even if you haven't been injured, perhaps you stepped up the distance and started training long. Maybe you are focusing on speed right now and cutting back on dis