Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

On race day, every athlete will have a reason for enduring the pain and the physical challenge that comes with racing.  I encourage you to love competition for competitive feelings help you feel energized, confident and ready to take on a challenge.  Far too often, athletes get in their own way before and on race day. Nerves, anxiety, fear, self-doubt can shift a race ready body into a frozen body that is unable to perform.   The thoughts in your mind may play ping-pong between positive and negative but this nervous energy is totally normal and needed.  Gloria (Dr. G, my mental coach)  believes that nerves are a good thing as it means you are ready and that you care.  The beautiful thing about competition is that the stress that is felt before a race is a sign that you are willing and able to face a big challenge. This nervous excitement can be a great thing as it is a sign that you are ready and willing to stretch your physical limits a...

Every time I get on my bike to go for a ride, I feel safe. Understanding that accidents do happen, I always ride cautious and alert. Although my reaction time on two wheels is not as stellar as Karel's, I do feel like I have the skills to ride safe on the open road. Prior to moving to Greenville, I felt scared on my bike. With limited options to ride, I always felt like I was risking my life on two wheels as it seemed like every car needed to get somewhere fast and the person behind the wheel was distracted.  Although we, as cyclists, can not control every person behind the wheel of a car, I do feel strongly that we live in a very bike friendly area and that the cars share the road with cyclists. From our door step, we have an unlimited amount of routes that we can ride, at any time of the day. Although we know the routes to avoid during higher traffic times, we select country roads (and the roads less traveled) as the drivers are less distracted and less rushed and the ...

Ride stats:  5:53 total ride time 107 miles covered 7274 elevation gained 18.1 mph average speed 2 refueling/hydration stops Too many animal friends to count but I said hi to all of them. After 11 years of endurance triathlon racing, I am still finding myself improving in training and on race day. I remember back in 2004, while in graduate school and training for my first marathon in January 2005, I was told by several exercise professionals that I would struggle in endurance sports as a female vegetarian athlete. While endurance training/racing is not easy for any individual, I don't see myself as a female vegetarian athlete but instead, an athlete, who happens to be a female and a 25 year vegetarian. Without a doubt, self-improvements have kept me enjoying each season of triathlon racing and training as I never feel bored or stale in a 3-sport sport. Although there have been many setbacks since I started endurance racing, I've learned that developme...

Every athlete needs a high level of dedication, passion, desire and commitment in order to perform at a high level in training and on race day. For many athletes, the motivation to athletically succeed is borderline obsession. Since training for an athletic event may resemble excessive exercise, an unhealthy obsession with exercise may go unnoticed by a coach, training partner or friend. You may even think that your commitment to training is normal and even encouraged by your coach and those who look up to you as a fitness role model. For every athlete, it can be difficult to understand whether or not your motivation and commitment to your sport is "normal", especially since many athletes are interested in diet and training strategies in order to improve health or performance. Excessive exercise has many health consequences, such as bone and muscle injuries, hormonal issues, cardiac and other organ problems. On the mental side, the addiction to exercise may cause with...

After Ironman 70.3 Florida, Karel and I were pretty sore. Like usual, we tossed and turned all night after the race and woke up exhausted. On Monday after the race, our almost 10-hour drive was rough. By Wednesday, we started to feel a little bit more normal and by the weekend, we felt mostly recovered. Oddly enough, we both felt like we recovered really quickly after the event, despite the normal post-race insomnia and soreness. Being sore, exhausted and a little run-down after an endurance event is normal. And to be honest, I think many athletes enjoy the feeling that comes with racing in an endurance event as that post-race feeling signifies the effort that was needed to get from the start to the finish. It's kinda like you earned that feeling and you are proud of it. Thinking back to my very first half ironman 11 years ago, the feeling was unlike anything I had ever felt before. As the years went on and I had more half ironman distance triathlons under my belt, I could a...