Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Some swim workouts are better with company. A swim partner keeps you accountable to getting to the pool to start your workout and to stay in the pool to finish your workout.  For our last workout of our train-cation, we had a mega swim workout provided by Tower 26. My body was still feeling pretty tired from the bike ride on Wednesday but I shifted my mindset from "I'm too tired" to "you can do it!" Here's the swim workout...... 500 warm-up 4 x 50's kick with snorkel and board w/ 10 sec rest Pre set: 400 swim w/ fins and snorkel MS: 10 x 350's with 40 seconds rest as #1-4: 70, 75, 80, 85%. #5-7: 85% (same effort as #4) #8-9: 70% #10: Best effort CD: 100 EZ Total: 4600 yards

We came to Arizona to escape the cold of winter and well, we haven't had much warmth since we arrived on Sunday. But, as the saying goes "make the most of what you have, when you have it, where you are." We came for new scenery, a mental recharge and a change in our normal routine and despite the crummy weather, we are still making the most of our train-cation (which is coming to an end tomorrow as we head back to Gville in the evening). We headed out for our 5-hour ride at 9:30am. The weather was perfect - not too cold, not too hot. The first 90 minutes were filled with amazing scenery. Emily showed us some of her favorite sights and we love the terrain here - a nice mix of steady gentle climbs where you can settle into a rhythm, flat roads to power with or against the wind and plenty of wide open roads with minimal car traffic. And the views - wow! After a stop to refill our bottles around 2 hours, it was time for a 9-mile gradual descend. Just around this time, ...

Before I talk about our last workout of the day, let's start with the first workout of the day..... Day two of our mini train-cation started with an outdoor swim....... My happy place. My comfort zone. My favorite sport! After my mental struggles on the bike yesterday, I was so excited to start Tuesday with a 75-minute, 4350 yard swim workout (prescribed by Tower 26 ). I had never done this workout before and really enjoyed it. WU: 500 Pre set: 5 x 200's with snorkel and fins with 20 sec rest as 200 swim 150 swim, 50 kick with board (head down in water stretching arms out while holding the edge of the board) 100 swim, 100  kick 50 swim, 150 kick 200 kick MS: 500 at 70% w/ 1 min rest 2 x 250's at 75% w/ 40 sec rest 4 x 125's at 80% w/ 30 sec rest 7 x 75's at 85% w/ 20 sec rest 25 EZ Post set: 500 smooth with snorkel, buoy, ankle strap 12 x 25's at 95% on 40 sec interval 50 EZ After the swim, we changed and headed to the gym for ...

I remember not too long ago when I was very afraid to ride my bike down a hill. I'm not talking about mountains but hills - anything that went down was scary for me. It was an uncomfortable feeling that brought me great anxiety and stress. Overtime, my skills improved and I felt more at ease on downhills and what was once unnatural an scary, became familiar and comfortable. I soon found myself descending on mountains and switchbacks and although I don't have skills like Karel, I am no longer afraid to descend. Descending in windy conditions, on the other hand, is way out of my comfort zone. Because we don't get a lot of wind in Greenville when we ride (we are tucked away between the mountains on our country roads), anytime I experience a gust of wind, I feel unstable, tense and scared. I have no problem admitting this because it's something that I know I need to work on. Thankfully, I have an expert cycling coach in Karel who always gives me great advice and calm...

Several months ago, Karel and I decided that we would take a vacation in February to change up our normal training scenery and to enjoy some warmer weather in a place that we have never visited before. That place.....Scottsdale, Arizona and that time is now! Although we travel a lot for our races, I can't remember the last time that we traveled somewhere for a train-cation. I think the last time was in 2006 when we were dating! No race, no camp, no athletes to attend to.....A train-cation just for us! While it feels kinda weird to have the focus only on us as we love traveling for races or for our athletes, it is probably a little overdue for us to have the opportunity to spend a few days just to ourselves to do what we love to do - swim, bike, run. Although we can't shut-off our computers during our train-cation (there's always work/coaching to do), it's refreshing to change the scenery to awake the mind and body. With our furry crew enjoying a few days with ...