Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

I may not have a triathlon race on my schedule but I'm training for Kona! Well, not as a participant this year but I am Karel's official training partner in the pool. Yes, that means that I will be doing every swim workout on Karel's PPF training plan, with him, between now and IM Kona race day. Teammwork makes the dream work...or Karel's case, misery loves company....as in the case of our main set of 8 x 300's (descend by 2 from 70% to very strong effort) this morning (4500 yards total swim). I'm also joining Karel for his easier workouts on the bike (Tri and road bikes).  And for his easy runs. And, I make sure his post workout snacks and meals are always ready for when he finishes a workout. It's a tough job but my reward is a 2-week trip to the big island of Kona in a few weeks! But it won't be all play in paradise as we have two Trimarni athletes racing their first IM World Championship (Justine and Leigh-Ann) so race week will be all about m...

Travel:  -Traveling to and from Mont Tremblant was fairly easy for us. We flew from Greenville, SC into Montreal (Newark layover going, Dulles layover returning), rented an SUV and drove 130km (~1 hour and 40 minutes) to Mont Tremblant. There was a little traffic around Montreal but around 40 minutes into our drive, the scenery changed to trees and hills and it was a beautiful drive into the village of Mont Tremblant. -It's very easy to rent a car at the airport as the rental car kiosk is right across the street, in the parking garage. I would strongly advise to rent a car from the airport and not off-site - it's just too easy to get the car right there, even if you save a few bucks off site. -The customs process did not take long for us when we arrived, however returning home, the customs at the Montreal airport (to fly into the US) took us over two hours to get checked in, go through customs, go through security and then to arrive to our gate (and the airport is no...

In the short time that we were back in our team house, I was doing a lot of calculations, with the help of a few tracker apps (thanks Ryan), to determine where I needed to be, and when, to cheer for our athletes on the bike. Luckily, our house was close to the 12-mile out and back section on the bike  which made it easy to walk to where I needed to be. Karel starting the bike before the rain started. However, once I got changed into dry clothes and ate some food, I realized I needed to hurry up to get down the hill to see Karel coming back from the out and back, before starting his second loop. I ran down the hill with my umbrella, in the rain and sprinted my way up the hill to a spot where I could see Karel coming down the hill to my right, but also I could asee the other Trimarni's starting the out and back to my left. Despite the pouring rain, there were spectators out cheering for the athletes. Knowing Karel's riding style, I spotted a flash of orange and k...

Karel came to Mont Tremblant with one goal. To Kona qualify. This wasn't a goal that came after his 9th place at Ironman Austria but instead, this was THE season goal, which was established last November, when we planned out our 2016 racing schedule. Although Karel had a phenomenal race at  Ironman Austria , just 8 weeks ago, Mont Tremblant was always the race where his training would lead him to peak appropriately on August 21st, 2016. Ironman Austria was a bit of a shock for Karel, in terms of his overall time and place, especially considering his back and hip issues in the weeks leading up to the race. Additionally, his coach Matt Dixon did not structure his training to "peak" for IM Austria so he was still in the early phases of his development, without getting into the meat of IM specific training. Karel is not one to make excuses or assumptions when it comes to training or racing, and although he was carrying great momentum from his previous 3 ...