Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

It's easy to confuse perfection with success. For many athletes, there's a constant allure that the more perfect you are with your training and diet - if you do everything "right" - success will come your way. If you ask any "successful" athlete about his/her road to success, there's a 99% chance that he/she will tell you that true success involves taking risks and it also involves failure. The best part about failing is that it gives you an opportunity to learn from the given situation and not being perfect means that you are always learning and there is room for improvement. In looking back at our 2017 racing season, Karel and I both feel that it was a very successful season of racing. While there were some less than ideal situations that we faced before and on race day, we have learned all too well that you don't have to have a perfect race for it to be a successful race. With the 2018 triathlon racing season awaiting us, I thought i...

Changing one's body composition will only offer a performance advantage, however, if we first establish the goals and methods uniquely suited to each athlete's individual needs. Numerous so-called "magic bullets" circulate in the health and fitness world for losing fat; triathletes should be cautious of "strategies" that promote quick results. These methods pose a great risk for losing lean tissue, bone mass, and gaining body fat, lingering fatigue, illness, injury, compromised recovery, and ultimately, performance decline. Perhaps even worse, a reckless weight reduction program can trigger disordered eating habits, paving the way to a dangerous eating disorder. Although a certain perceived "leanness" may in fact be athletically advantageous, every athlete has an ideal body composition range where he or she will feel, function, and perform the best. It cannot be overstressed that the bathroom scale provides irrelevant information about you...

Thank you  Real Food For Real Life  for the podcast interview! Scott reached out to me for a podcast interview in late August and a few days after Ironman Chattanooga, our schedules aligned for us to have our podcast interview. I really enjoyed this interview as we kept the focus mostly on nutrition, specific to how to eat and fuel to maximize performance for athletic events, while keeping the body in good health. We discussed the following in the interview: Details on my recovery post Ironman Chattanooga What I eat after an Ironman to help with recovery Keeping your immune system healthy after an extreme endurance event Importance of fueling/hydrating properly during training/racing How my education/knowledge as a sport dietitian has helped me create success as an endurance athlete Why athletes need to create a healthy relationship with food and stop the off-limit food lists Pre-race and race day nutrition issues and tips Sport nutrition product suggestions...

When I was younger, I lived for Halloween! I loved candy - all kinds! If it was tangy, sweet, salty, sour or peanut buttery, I had to have it. Growing up, I couldn't eat enough candy. I'm pretty sure I fueled my swim workouts off candy. I craved it, loved the taste of it and I always looked forward to my next candy fix. Oh so good! Oddly enough, despite candy having a big place in my diet, I nixed my sugar addiction when I was in my 20's. I don't have anything against candy but it's has no power over me. It's just candy. But I know this isn't the case for many as it's normal for many people to struggle with some type of sugar addiction. Although I wouldn't call it a sugar addiction, my hubby Karel has a mouth full of sweet teeth and while he is not a big fan of candy made in the USA, he can't get enough of his Czech candies and chocolates when we travel to Europe. With Halloween as the start of the "holiday" season (which means no sh...

Throughout the year and particularly at the end of a season, Karel and I find it imperative to reflect - what's working and what's not working.  Reflection is a necessary part of learning, growing and enhancement. While it's easy to reflect (anyone can do it), the difficulty comes in knowing how to change what's not working and then acting on it. Since Karel and I both come from different athletic and educational backgrounds and upbringings, we are able to combine our experience and knowledge in order to critique our coaching methods, workouts and relationship with our athletes so that we can explore the areas that can be improved. For coaches, it's normal to spend so much time on training plans and workouts that it's easy to forget to change what needs to change. Every coach loves talking about his/her proud coaching moments and athlete success stories but if you don't reflect on what occurred over the past season and assess how specific athletes ...