Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

It took me a few miles to get over the fact that I lost two hours worth of nutrition from my rear two cages - which has never happened before in over 11 years of endurance triathlon racing. Since I was not even 5 miles into the bike, mentally, it really affected me. I was frustrated and I couldn't get my head into a good place. But after realizing that Karel likely had a faster transition than me (nothing good happens in the transition area according to Karel) and I wouldn't be seeing him for the rest of the day, I forced myself to get out of my pity party and put on my Ironman hat and figure out how to overcome this nutrition setback. With every Ironman, there is something to learn. I often think of the Ironman as a day of decision making. Perhaps this is what makes the Ironman distance so addicting in that every race tests you physically and mentally and you keep wanting to get better with every next race. With my experience and knowledge, I knew that I would need to use...

Karel and I arrived in Chattanooga on Tues evening so that we could settle (back) into the city before race day on Sunday. As I mentioned in a previous post, I registered for IM Choo about 10 days out from race day as it was my comeback race from my fainting incident on race day morning at the Ironman 70.3 World Championship. While a half IM may have made more sense since my season was focused on half IM distance racing, the idea of racing an Ironman made me excited to want to race again. Although I did not plan to race an Ironman this year and didn't focus my training on preparing me for an Ironman until 2018, I felt calm, confident and excited to participate in my 12th Ironman in Chattanooga. Seeing that Karel directed all of his training and energy to Chatty as his key race to try to win his age group and qualify for Kona, I fueled off his race day readiness. Plus, being out on the course with my athletes had me even more excited for the race. Karel had a tremendous amount ...

After our last race of every season, Karel and I like to reflect on the previous season and set new realistic and bold goals for the next season. Rather than overanalyzing single race results and critiquing every detail of every race, we like to focus on the season as a whole so that we can do a better job of training and racing smarter for the next season. Over the past 11 years of endurance triathlon racing (five for Karel), we have learned to let go of expectations, assuming that the only way to reach a goal is to perfectly follow a plan or to avoid setbacks all together. This doesn't mean that we don't set big goals for ourselves but rather, we recognize that accomplishing a goal requires going with the flow of life and staying in the moment on race day. Life transitions, whether it's an injury, fainting and smashing your face on the floor on race day morning or balancing training during a stressful period at work, can cause a significant amount of stress, making i...