Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

  I booked an early flight to Canada on Delta which had us leaving the house at 3am (waking up at 2:45am) on Wednesday June 28th. We would have left on Tuesday but Karel flew home from Bend, Oregon on Monday after completing the 5-stage Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder  and I wanted to give him a full day to recover at home before flying again. Karel came home exhausted after riding 363 miles with 32,681 feet of climbing. He finished 5th in his AG (45-59) and had his best placing on day 5. While the scenery was stunning, the event was very hard and the wild weather (sun, rain, hail, cold) added to the adventure. Karel had a nasty crash near the finish of stage 1 when he was having a bit too much fun descending and overshot a turn. From sleeping in tents to climbing, climbing and more climbing, I ‘think’ Karel had a good experience but I know he’s relieved it’s over. We arrived to the GSP airport around 3:45am and had no issues checking in and going through security. At 4:30am ...

  Although most XTRI events have a similar distance to that of an Ironman distance triathlon (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run), the demands are much more extreme. Extreme triathlons are almost always hilly. and the terrain and weather conditions can be..... extreme. For example, the 112 mile bike course at Canadaman has almost 8,000 feet elevation gain and the run (which includes a lot of trail running and hiking) has almost 4,000 feet elevation gain. The water is predicted to be cold (in the 50s) when we start the swim at 4:30am and it may be very windy and a bit rainy throughout the day.  My approach to preparing for Canadaman was not too different than what I would do for a standard Ironman. It takes a very strong, powerful, efficient and resilient athlete to complete an Ironman distance triathlon but for an extreme triathlon, I believe that you must be physically fit but also mentally strong and emotionally resilient. Since my training playground (Greenville, S...

Over the past few years, I've tried a lot of new things. Gravel racing, mountain bike racing, Xterra racing, stage racing. Being a beginner means embracing failure and struggle but I've also learned a lot about myself. I also learned that the more variety I have with my training and racing, the stronger I become in mind and body. Over the past several years of Ironman distance racing, I have learned that the harder the course, the more excited I get to train and race. As I searched for "hard" triathlon race courses to add to my bucket list, the Norseman triathlon in Norway always seemed to come up first in my google search. Everything about that race was everything that I don't enjoy (cold water, cold temperature, wind) but I kept coming back to that race and thinking "I need to do that." The Norseman triathlon is part of the XTRI series . The XTRI series originated with Norseman Xtreme Triathlon in 2003. Jumping off a ferry into 50-degree water, cyclin...