Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Enjoy my latest article on Iron Girl.com and don't forget to subscribe to the FREE Iron Girl e-newsletter!! Pre-race nutrition tips Marni Rakes, M.S. Are you a newbie triathlete, about to embark on your first triathlon? Aside from the fear of how your body will feel as you run your way to the finish line, race-day nutrition is certainly on your mind. Regardless of if you are a novice or a veteran, a well- practiced race-day nutrition plan is always a top priority when attempting to perform at your best. Ask any veteran triathlete and she will tell you race-day nutrition takes planning and practice. Most people say you must practice in training what you will do in a race. True to an extent, but rarely do you wake up at 4:30 a.m. to fuel for a 7 a.m. swim- bike-run workout at maximum heart rate with 500 to 1,500 of your closest friends. Unlike training, where you exercise at different intensities and for different sport disciplines depending on the day of the week, race day brings a ...

Sat morning I woke up very nervous for the 2.5 mile ocean swim. That's a lot of swimming in the ocean. Not sure what's worse to think about, 2.5 miles of swimming or an hour+ of continuous swimming. It was hard for me to eat a whole lot at 5:30am so I added a Wasa cracker w/ PB to my normal pre-bike breakfast of oatmeal, raisins, honey and banana slices. My friend Laura came over to my place and we loaded up our bikes in her car. I had to work out my training plans well before Sat so I could do my swim+long bike and make it home sometime before dark. We made our drive to Jacksonville beach, got our caps and chips and waited for the buses. At 7:30am we got bused 2.5 miles down the road on a school bus. Fun times with 100 nearly naked athletes in a school bus. This reminded me of high school swim meets, except we wore warm parkas to our swim meets. It sure took a while to drive 2.5 miles but finally we arrived to our starting point. A little after 8am it was time to line up on th...

More to come tomorrow..... Weekend stats Sat: 2.5 mile ocean swim - 1:08.03 101 mile solo bike - 5:27 Sun: 14 mile solo run - 1:55 + 1 campy mile I am trying to use whatever brain functions I have left to study 150 pages of fat soluble and water soluble vitamins for my Adv nutrition exam tomorrow. My finals are on Wed (medical therapy) and Fri (cumulative Adv. nutrition). Nothing like finals week + last IM training week. I think I can, I think I can, I know I can......