Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

On Saturday, I will be racing my 3rd half Ironman distance triathlon of 2017. And 5 weeks later, I'll be wrapping up my triathlon racing season with the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Chattanooga, TN. Although the distance has remained unchanged, athletes are covering the half ironman distance much faster/quicker than ever before. While the distance is not as long as that of an Ironman, I still respect the distance as covering 70.3 miles with the human body is no easy feat. The half Ironman distance requires a lot of preparation. You must be committed to the training for there is no fake it until you make it or wing-it on race day. The training prepares you physically, mentally, emotionally and nutritionally as race day requires great skill, self-management and confidence. Seeing that many athletes define athletic success as 1) A finish 2) Improvement in time, the true success in a half Ironman event comes from being great at not slowing down. Understanding that every...

If you are a breakfast lover, you probably scratch your head when you hear that some people just don't care for breakfast. For me and Karel, we couldn't imagine functioning, let alone surviving, the day without a morning meal after our early morning workout. Although there is great research explaining the benefits of  the morning meal, breakfast can be difficult for many reasons. While lack of time or appetite rank among the top two reasons why it can be a struggle to eat first thing in the morning, I find that many individuals suffer from breakfast burnout. Every morning it's the same thing for breakfast; eggs and toast, oatmeal, nuts and fruit or a smoothie. While your breakfast option may be working for you, overtime you feel less inspired and motivated by breakfast and you begin to not look forward to your morning meal. But despite needing a change, every breakfast recipe that you find on the internet appears too complicated and unappealing and thus you are back to...

For many athletes, exercise guilt is a constant struggle. Exercising in order to improve your physical, mental and emotional health weighs heavy on your mind as you know it's something you should do on a daily basis, especially if you are training for an athletic event, but every day, you feel pulled in all different directions, with little time to devote to yourself. Guilt is often a big barrier as it relates to making changes in your lifestyle. You either feel like you are doing the wrong thing(s) or you are failing at doing the right thing(s). No one likes to feel guilty as it can cause great physical and psychological pain, so why is it that so many athletes have such remorse when sticking to an exercise routine or when training for an athletic event? I find that there are two reasons why athletes experience exercise guilt. Athlete status - Many athletes struggle with the "athlete in training" status. Perhaps it's a new title that is not yet accepted by the...

Meet my nutrition athlete Christine. She is in the 70-74 year age group and she recently placed 1st in her age group at Ironman Lake Placid, in a time of 16:16.37. She was the oldest female finisher of the day and earned a slot to IM Kona (she declined the slot in order to focus on IM 70.3 WC). Meet my nutrition athlete Stacey. She recently earned a spot to IM Kona at Ironman Switzerland by placing 3rd in the 55-59 age group in a time of 13:07.58. These two inspiring ladies are among several older female athletes that I have the honor to work with on nutrition, along with several Trimarni coaching athletes who race in a 50+ age group category. Although it's easy to classify age based on when you were born (chronological age), these ladies, among many other female athletes, are showing us that sport can play a positive role in the aging process and that age is just a number. What can you do with your body at your age? Although aging may negatively affect the physiol...

"The only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible." I woke up to my alarm at 3:40am on Sunday morning. Since Karel and I prefer not to sleep in the same bed on the night before a race, I woke up Karel after I got myself out of bed (Campy refused to get up that early so he stayed snuggled under the covers). There was not a lot of talking that morning as Karel likes to get into his zone on race day morning. I let Karel do his thing, which started with 2 cups French Press coffee (brought from home) and then a pre-race meal of a bowl of oatmeal and a glass of Infinit MUD mixed with cow's milk. He also took in 1/2 croissant with jam as we were heading out of the door. For the next 90 minutes, he sipped on a bottle of water mixed with Precision hydration 1500  and took in 1 enervit pre sport just before his swim warm-up. Karel is not methodical with this pre race nutrition but this approach has never failed him. He simply eats what he wants and d...