Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Since our very first group training camp in March 2014 in Clermont, Florida and now 15+ camps later, our focus has remained the same. Our mission is to provide athletes with a safe, enriching and affordable camp experience. We strive to empower you to stretch your athletic limits by teaching you how to become a better all around athlete and more confident human being. When you participate in a Trimarni camp, you will learn new skills and training techniques to ensure that you can train smarter and race better. You will train with like-minded athletes who will bring out the best in you. We live in the perfect training playground in Greenville, SC and we want to share it with you. We will take care of everything so that all you have to do is book your travel and arrive to camp excited to improve your weaknesses and show off your strengths. GRAVEL SKILLS CAMP EARLY SEASON CAMP LONG DISTANCE CAMP Our three training camps are now open for registration. They will sell out so act fast. To lea...

  'Tis the season of giving thanks, showing appreciation and helping those in need. Thank you for supporting Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition in 2022. Through your purchases - nutrition consultation, bike fit, camp, clothing, water bottles and coffee - we can continue supporting animal rescues. You are making a difference in our lives and in the lives of our furry friends and we are extremely grateful. Here's a list of the non profit animal rescues that we are donating to in 2022. The Catnip cottage Vintage Pet Rescue Heaths Haven Furball Farm Pet Sanctuary Greenville Humane Society

Same person. Same day. A body in motion.  Your weight and appearance do not define you. How you look is not the most interesting thing about you.  For almost all athletes, at some point in the athletic career, body image is a struggle. When it comes to appearance-related content on social media, this constant comparison to unrealistic images of people presenting the best version of themselves can negatively impact your relationship with your body. Unrealistic expectations of how your body should look may turn into unhealthy eating and exercise behaviors and disordered eating. Although athletes have the same risk factors for body image issues as non-athletes, athletes are constantly conflicted with two body images - one in sport and one outside of sport. The body that is fit for performance may not meet society's "thin" ideal.  For athletes, there are two wardrobes. Clothes that are designed for functionality and performanace and clothes for outside of sport - work, leisur...

 The winter can be a challenging time when it's cold and dreary but getting outside to exercise is an immediate mood booster. And as the saying goes, there's no bad weather, only bad clothing. On Saturday morning, Karel went gravel biking with our friend Alvi and I joined the GVL WBL  group ride. I've participated in this winter bike league for the past few years and it has significantly helped my mental health in the winter. Being inside or alone with my own thoughts is challenging for me and I find that I am the happiest when I am with people. I feel incredibly lucky that I have several swim partners and bike partners to help get me out the door when the weather is less than ideal.    I returned home from my ride shortly before Karel and for the next 20 minutes, I couldn't stop talking about the ride. I told him about the 60+ people that showed up, the horses that ran alongside us in a farm, the guy who didn't have the best bike handling skills and was making me ...

I have spent much of my career focusing on the many ways to help athletes optimize physical health. But it wasn't until my life was turned upside down by the passing of my dad to cancer in May of 2014, followed shortly by a diagnosis of PMDD , that my mental health became just as important as my physical health.  Mental illnesses often come with the stigmatized belief that those who struggle with depression or anxiety are weak and fragile. Many people hide mental health struggles due to shame. To improve quality of life, it's important to work through any barriers that are preventing you from addressing your mental health in a positive and productive way.  Anxiety and depression are interesting. It's wild how certain words, pictures, videos, people or noises can be very triggering some days and I can be immune to the same things on another day. Over the years (with the help of medication ) I've learned valuable coping skills for working through the emotions, thoughts an...

  Over the past few weeks I've been progressing gradually with my run fitness. I'm not training with a specific race day pace goal in mind but instead, I'm training to become a stronger runner. A lot of variables contribute to running well off the bike and frankily, it really comes down to not getting injured. Running is corrosive and it brings a great risk for injury. I've been thankful that my body has not had a setback since August 2019 and for me - someone who has had a rocky relationship with running - that is a big deal. When I eased back into running after my short off-season break, I focused primarily on easy running with good form. I incorporated a lot of walk breaks in my runs to help reset form and neuromuscular firing (communication with the brain and muscles) and finished some of my runs with hill strides (10-15 seconds uphill w/ walk down) to activate the posterior chain and for leg turnover. After a few weeks of frequent running, I continued with easy run...

  Proponents of training in a fasted (or carbohydrate-depleted state) claim that exercising when your body's glycogen stores are low (or depleted), will improve fat metabolism.  Teaching the body to rely on the massive energy supply that fat provides as a fuel source is often referred to as "metablic efficiency" or "fat adapted." These sexy terms are frequently used among endurance athletes and can be intriguing when associated with phrases like; Burn more fat.  Minimize the risk of bonking. Reduced relience on sport nutrition (ex. exogenous fuel sources) during training.  Minimize the incidence of GI issues.  Body composition changes.  Steady energy.  Sparing glycogen. It's understandable how the above claims of fasted training can be appealing to endurance athletes. But with much of the available literature studying the effects of fasted workouts and carbohydrate-restricted diets concluding that there is no correlation with enhanced performances in e...

                           Few people know this but shortly after I completed graduate school and received a Master of Science degree in exercise physiology from FAU (in Davie, Florida), I accepted a 6-month internship with Ironman from January until June 2006 in Tarpon Springs, FL. Instead of utilizing the two new initials behind my name, I was 23 years old, broke, living with my parents in New Port Richey, FL and obsessed with triathlon - I was registered for my first half ironman distance at Disney in Orlando, Florida (May) and my first Ironman in Panama City Beach, Florida. I received a very small amount of money each week to perform various tasks at the World Triathlon Corporation (located in Tarpon Springs, Fl). At that time, Dr. Gills - a world-renowned ocular surgeon and Ironman athlete - owned the Ironman brand.  Much of my interning was learning about the behind-the-scenes of this event organization. Ba...

The holiday season is a time of socializing, celebration and reunions. Now is the time when families, coworkers and friends gather together around food. For those struggling with an unhealthy relationship with food and the body, the holiday season may not be so bright and merry. If you experience great emotional stress around the holiday season, you are not alone. Here are some reasons why the holidays can be so stressful when it come to food:  Fear of weight gain. Too many food items available. Guilt around indulging. Feeling weak or out of control. Stress and anxiety. Uncomfortable being seen eating food. Pressure or comments when eating. Worry of offending others. Struggling with "normal" food portions. Remarks about body weight/size. Inability to recognize fullness. Eating on another person's schedule.  Having the right tools to manage triggers and unhealthy thoughts can help you maintain a healthy relationship with food (and your body) so you can fully enjoy the hol...

  Most popular running races occur in the winter and spring, which doesn't work well in our triathlon training. We are either working on building our foundation for the upcoming season or we are deep in a training phase in route to the first race of the year. However, there's one race that always gets us excited - the Paris Mountain Road Race . As the oldest and most challenging road race in South Carolina, we are lucky that this event starts less than 2 miles away from where we live and it is usually held in Nov/December. Not only doesn't this make for a logistically easy race to get to/from but we know the course very well (primarily from biking it). The reason why we love this race is that it suits us as triathletes - it's a strength-based course.  My training has been going really well over the past few weeks. On average I swim 4x week, bike 3-4x week (one trainer session on the tri bike and the rest road and mountain bike outside) and run 3x week. The focus has bee...

This past weekend Karel and I watched " The Swimmers " on Netflix. We love watching true story documentaries, especially with a sport focus. Words can't describe how powerful this movie was to watch. It brought back some uncomfortable emotions and memories from Karel who immigrated to the US over two decades ago.  The film is based on the true story of 17-year old Yusra and 20-year old Sara who left their home and family in Syria to travel to Germany due to the escalation of the Syrian civil war. Yusra was determined to make the 2016 Rio Olympics as a swimmer, with the support and coaching from her father. Germany would give her the opportunity to pursue her (and her fathers) dream. The 25-day journey from Syria to Germany involved airplanes, boats, lots of walking, buses and taxies.  The film shows the many obstacles and struggles of being a refugee. Although swimming is the reason why the sisters left Syria, this movie shows the complicated lives that people from around...

  When I first heard about the inaugural Ironman 70.3 Blue Ridge in 2020, I was intrigued by the possibility that this race would feature a challenging bike course. When the bike course details described an "epic five-mile climb on Route 43 to the Blue Ridge Parkway entrance" and that "Athletes will experience breathtaking views of the valley, as they ride and descend 21-miles of completely closed roads" I couldn't stop thinking about the race. I love challenging race courses as the accomplishment is in the adventure to get to the finish line. My most memorable long distance races have all been on really hard courses. I've raced in St. George many times, I love IM Lake Placid, IM Austria and IM Wisconsin and I have also completed IM 70.3 St. Croix and IM 70.3 Branson  (two very tough bike courses - both events are now retired from the IM 70.3 race circuit).  Where I live, the terrain is extremely technical. There's a lot of climbing, descending, twists a...

For many people, November begins the season of gratitude. Starting with Thanksgiving - whcih literally has THANKS in the name, it's important to ask yourself how often do you thank your body? Learning to quiet the body bashing and negative body thoughts is not easy. The mental picture you have of your body is constantly compared to an image of what you think you should look like. This is due to the social impact of body image. Seeing images over and over again is linked to poor body image and feelings that your own body is not normal. As a result, you may shame, criticize and hate certain parts of your body.  Body image refers to how you see your body. What you believe about your appearance, how you feel about your body and how you move, nourish and use your body.  Gratitude is the expression of appreciation for what one has. It involves being thankful.  The human body is incredible. Just think about all your body can do and has done for you - crossing finishing lines, br...

The holiday season is here and it's filled with family, friends and.....food.  Without a doubt, food is a significant component of every holiday. For anyone who suffers from an eating disorder or an unhealthy relationship with food and the body, this can be a challenging time of the year.  You may not realize it but the holidays bring several triggers that could lead to disordered eating and exercising behaviors. Often times, stress, overwhelm, people pleasing, travel, toxic relationships/family members, uncomfortable conversations and finances can bring on uncomfortable feelings. In order to lessen those emotions, it's easy to resort to food restriction (or dieting). And with restriction often comes binge eating. Overeating from time to time does not mean that you have a binge eating disorder. Fundamentally, binge eating is different from overeating.  Signs and symptoms of binge eating include:  Eating a large amount of food in a short period of time (ex. over 2 ho...

I love the heat and humidity but there's something about winter riding that soothes my soul and sharpens my mind. It's as if the cooler it gets outside, the more excited I get to go outside for a bike ride. I was not always this way - it took me several years to learn how to dress appropriately for cold weather riding but as the saying goes "there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing." Where we live in Greenville, SC. the weather can be unpredictable. Luckily, we are never too cold for too long and it rarely snows. While this is a great thing for year-round outdoor cycling, it does make it tricky for what to wear.  As an example, in the past two weeks, we have enjoyed a variety of weather for a variety of outdoor rides.  Warmish 2-hour afternoon gravel ride. Private skills session with our athlete Diane.  9:30am, 3hr group ride. Started off foggy, stayed cloudy, got warm and then cooler again.  Very cold 3.5 hour mountain bike ride.  Sunny sky, cold...