Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Pre-Race  We started our drive to Chattanooga around 1pm on Thursday. Sunny has been keeping me busy with his new "job" as a therapy dog and we spent an hour in the morning at the Children's Museum.  The drive was uneventful with on and off rain. The quickest route was through the mountains and the drive was very beautiful. It was a new route to us and we loved it. We arrived around 6pm to our Airbnb (1/2 mile from the race start) and unloaded the car. I ordered Chipotle online and picked it up around 7pm. My body was feeling great all week but I was very tired. It was as if I couldn't get enough sleep to feel rested during the day. I was supposed to get my period on Monday but I was feeling stressed and anxious all week which contributed to a late period (it arrived Friday afternoon).  On Friday morning we went to the Dam for a swim. It felt good to be in the water (which was warm). I wore my swim skin and swam for around 30 minutes. I included some faster efforts th...

In a world where elite athletes push the limits of human performance, people still feel entitled to comment on the bodies of athletes. From social media to sports commentary, athlete bodies are constantly judged, praised, picked apart, or criticized. Too often, weight and appearance overshadows performance. Here's the truth: this obsession with how athletes look is harmful and needs to stop. Athletes are not training to meet beauty standards. They’re training to compete, to excel, to inspire, to protect their mental and physical health and to maintain joy for the sport that they love. Athletes deserve respect without conditions. Stop obsessing over what athletes’ bodies look like.  Let’s shift the focus from appearance to achievement.

Just because you can run fasted doesn’t mean you should.  The ongoing debate "to fast or not to fast" sparks passionate discussions within the running community, with proponents highlighting benefits like improved fat adaptation and weight loss, while opponents raise concerns about performance, health, and weight gain. Pro ultrarunner @kilianjornet has publicly discussed occasional use of fasting before easy, low-intensity runs to understand how his body adapts to running with depleted glycogen (carb) stores. Meanwhile, other elite ultrarunners, like @mountainroche  attribute the “high carb revolution” as the primary catalyst for the increasing rate at which endurance running records are being broken. So, what’s the real story behind fasted running, and is it a strategy worth considering for your training? Check out my full article at HERE.

I was quoted in an article from Outside Run titled " A Sports Dietitian’s Guide to High-Carb Drink Mixes. " With the recent hype of professional endurance athletes consuming between 120-180g of carbs per hour while racing, it's important to know that more is not always better. Like your muscles, the gut is adaptable. You can train your gut to increase its ability to absorb and tolerate carbs when training and racing but it takes time and repeated exposure. Don't expect your stomach to tolerate 100g carbs per hour on race day if you have only been training with 50g carbs per hour.  

  The pictures above represent my 19-year evolution in the sport of triathlon. On the left, I am doing something that I've never done before. My first Ironman in Panama City Beach, Florida at the age of 23. On the right, I am preparing to race my 24th full-distance triathlon on one of the most challenging Ironman courses in the world - Ironman Lanzarote (a Canary Island located off the coast of Northwest Africa).  At the age of 43, it's wild to think that on Sunday, I will be participating in my 25th full distance triathlon. I will be racing Ironman Chattanooga - which is one of my favorite race venues in the US.  Next year will mark 20-years since my first Ironman. Every year, for the last 19 years, I have participated in some type of triathlon event. Whereas there was once a time where my self-identity was triathlon, I can say that for the past ten years, triathlon is simply part of my lifestyle.  To keep my fire alive and to prevent burnout, he...

  It's World Championship season for triathlon. Over the next three months, athletes from around the world will be competing in the Ironman World Championship in Nice, France (men), the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii (women) and in the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Marbella, Spain (men and women). There are also other events like the T100 in Qatar and the World Triathlon Championships in Australia. With the excitement of World Championship season comes extra attention on podcasts, YouTube videos, articles and forums. With so much hype around these sporting events, it's acceptable to discuss athlete favorites and dark horses as well as making assumptions for how the races may unfold. However, there's growing attention and discussion around the weights of many notable athletes.  Commenting on an athlete's body image carries a significant risk of damaging mental and physical health. Publicly discussing an athlete's weight, size, or general appearance, ...