Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Last year I interviewed Karel to help me with an article on bike trainers. Over the past 10 years, Karel and I have had the luxury of spending most of our "winter" bike training, riding outside. There were always a few cold days each year when we would bike indoors on our Cycleops Powerbeam Pro but typically we would bundle up to brave the 40-50 degree chilly mornings in Florida (yes, I realize it's all relative!). But now we live in Greenville, SC. We no longer live close to a beach but by the mountains. We now have two trainers (we added a Computrainer to our bike gear family) and we are learning to embrace the cooler fall days which will turn into cold winter days. However,  we aren't complaining as we just love our bike friendly community which is also filled with great hiking trails and beautiful fall colors.  But with the cooler temps does come a shift in the riding environment for triathletes, cyclists and anyone who enjoys riding a bike. So I thought...

  Just a few years ago there was a study that included 1,800 U.S. Women over the age of 50 years. Every individual was asked a series of questions pertaining to the body. Of the participants, 27% were obese, 29% were overweight, 42% were normal weight and 2% were underweight. Here are the results of the study: - 4% binge eat - 8% purge - 70% diet to lose weight - 36% dieted ~50% of the time in last 5 years - 41% check body size daily - 40% weigh themselves at least twice a week - 62% report body weight negatively impacts their life - 79% report body weight affects self-image -64% think about their weight daily (source: Environmental Nutrition Sept 2012, Vol 35, No 9.) We are getting close to the holiday season which often makes individuals (not exclusive to athletes) very vulnerable to their body image due to the drastic shift in food choices associated with holiday food and the realization that another year has gone by. Come the New Year, ...

As athletes, we try to do our very best to be as mentally prepared as possible for race day. Typically we think about how to be strong when our body is aching, how to stay positive when obstacles arise and how to stay tough when the going gets hard.  When it comes to being mentally tough on race day, I am reminded of a quote that reads "When you are 90% done, you are only half way there." As athletes we do a lot of mental training throughout training, on race week and even in the hours before the race start. I often speak about controlling the controllables and not wasting energy on things out of our control and this all comes down to the mental component of being an athlete. We can’t control the weather, but we can control our gear/clothing for race day. We can also control our pacing, attitude and nutrition. We can’t control who shows up on race day, the course, how many volunteers and spectators are out on the course or the exact start time of the race. Although...