Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Aging doesn't have to mean slowing down — but it does mean paying closer attention to your gut. Gastrointestinal (GI) distress is one of the most common performance limiters in endurance sport, and masters athletes (40+) often notice their digestion isn't as forgiving as it once was.  I recently wrote an article for Never Second. In the article, I discuss the following topics: DOES AGE AFFECT CARB ABSORPTION?  WHAT CAUSES GI DISTRESS? GUT TRAINING FOR MASTERS ATHLETES GUT CHALLENGES WITH EXERCISING IN THE HEAT To read the full article, check it out HERE.

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 Outside Run .

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.

  The Importance of Breakfast Where are my breakfast lovers at?  🙋‍♂️🙋🏽‍♀️🙋🏼 As the name suggests, breakfast (or the first meal after you wake in the morning) breaks the fasting period that occurred throughout the night.  Despite the many benefits of starting your day with a nutritious meal, I've heard many convincing reasons for skipping breakfast:  Not feeling hungry Not having time Wanting more sleep  Can't tolerate food first thing in the morning Desire to lose weight The rest of the family skips breakfast  Having nothing to prepare Poor appetite  Having nothing to eat  Having no one to prepare breakfast There's been a considerable amount of research to try to answer the question "Is breakfast the most important meal of the day?" and while the results are mixed, there are many noticeable benefits for starting your day with a meal.  Eating regular meals and snacks - starting with breakfast - allows for more opportunities throughout th...

  I made a lot of mistakes in my early years of Ironman training and racing. I was a stubborn and naive 24-year old who was obsessed with the sport of triathlon. Fast forward 18 years, 19 Ironmans and 2 XTRI events, I have a lot more experience, knowledge and wisdom to pass along to other athletes.  In my first year of endurance racing in 2006, I completed the Boston Marathon, Disney half ironman and IMFL within 8 months. Despite having the most success at IMFL by winning the 18-24 age group by an hour, I wish I would have focused more on shorter distances instead of directing all my energy to the Ironman distance. I should have hired a coach to guide me on the best path for my body and development. If completing an Ironman is on your bucket list, I was recently interviewed by Business Insider and shared my best tips for those who are interested in conquering the 140.6 mile distance. You can read the full article HERE.

In many sports, it is considered beneficial to achieve a leaner body composition for locomotive efficiency — in other words, the less you weigh, the easier it is to move your body. Within the sport of triathlon, triathletes are not immune to this mindset and will often manipulate the diet in order to achieve a lower body fat percentage. Although there are safe and healthy ways to change body composition, triathletes can be very rigid and inflexible with their thoughts and actions. When a driven, perfectionistic, competitive, achievement-oriented triathlete is constantly exposed to diet discussions, advertisements, articles, endorsements and images on social media, a general interest in weight loss may manifest into an unhealthy obsession. With so many ways to enhance performance and to optimize health, two of the most popular sought-after strategies by athletes include diet and body composition changes. When done correctly, performance may improve. However, it’s not uncommon for a...

Many people complain about bloating. That feeling of feeling full, tight, gassy and uncomfortable in the belly. With many causes, a few of the top reasons include constipation, IBS, SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), gastroparesis and gynecological conditions.  With several treatment options, looking into the diet is a great first line treatment plan. In a recent Bicycling article, I was given the opportunity to provide a few of my thoughts on this popular topic. You can check out my tips along with the top ten anti-bloating foods. Anti-Bloating Foods

Running does not require a gym membership, it's fairly inexpensive and you can do it almost anywhere (and anytime). It comes with a list of benefits including body composition changes, fitness gains, stress relief and improved self-confidence. Plus, when you run outside, you get to explore nature with your senses. Running is also a great way to feel connected to your community.  While running can provide you with a great endorphin-rush, making you feel like you are capable of tackling everything on your to-do list after you finish your workout, running does come with a few downfalls. Running is very corrosive on the body and comes with a great risk of injury. Running requires good range of motion as well as exceptional cardiorespiratory endurance and muscular strength. Injuries due to overtraining, poor biomechanics and improper shoes or increasing mileage too quickly are very common in runners of all fitness levels. For triathletes, aside from injuries, one of the bi...

Within every sport, there are "must try" nutrition strategies for athletic success. While some are effective, most are extreme, unhealthy, unrealistic and unsuccessful. In the sport of triathlon, combining three sports together can be challenging. The longer the distance, it becomes more difficult to master the art of fueling to delay fatigue and optimize hydration while minimizing GI issues. There's also the mindset that a lean body will outperform a body that is "overfat" because less is best when it comes to body weight. Sadly, more and more athletes are using extreme endurance training in an effort to achieve a certain body image over attempting to improve performance. Therefore, triathletes will often gravitate toward any style of eating that provides food control and helps take away the guessing of what to (and not to) eat in order to improve the odds of race day success. To help with the dietary confusion and to ensure that your health isn't c...

Coffee....lots and lots of coffee. Only kidding..... Well, not really. In addition to coffee, professional athletes put a lot of focus on nutrition as they train to perform because it's their job. Unlike the age grouper who participates in triathlon as a hobby, the athlete who gets paid (when ranking high at a race or from sponsors) is likely going to explore any and all opportunities to maximize fitness in training to ensure race day excellence. And this means putting a focus on nutrition. Although professional athletes are not immune to body image struggles, I do find that age group athletes expend an extreme amount of energy on the "look" of the body versus how the body performs during workouts. In other words, whereas a professional athlete will eat for fuel, an age grouper will train to lose weight - often restricting calories/carbs in an effort to maximize the fat-burning process. Whereas the professional athlete will often utilize a sport dietitian to help per...

We have all been there - that unpleasant race-day incident that you hope will never happen again. Although we'd like to think those "oh-no" moments are no big deal (hey, no one is perfect), it's not easy to move on from the Worst. Mistake. Ever. As you think back to your most embarrassing race-day moments, check out a few of my nutrition tips in my recent Triathlete Magazine article (July 2018, pg 66), to help you successfully recover from the most humiliating situations. 

Picture source For any athlete with Celiac disease, it may feel overwhelming to meet daily and athletic nutritional needs with a gluten-free diet. But just because you have Celiac disease, your diet doesn't have to adversely affect performance or sabotage health IF you plan appropriately. As a Celiac athlete, you should not feel embarrassed or frustrated with your dietary situation. With proper education and guidance, you can stay healthy and optimize performance to meet your athletic goals.  In the May 2018 issue of Triathlete, you can check out my latest case study article. I featured a Celiac triathlete that I worked with and his struggles relating to meeting his nutrition and energy needs while training for long-distance triathlon events and what we changed to help him find athletic success in training and on race day.  Here are a few tips for the Celiac athlete:  Read ingredient labels and avoid cross-contamination. When it doubt, go without.  S...

It seems like every week we hear of an endurance athlete thriving on a ketogenic diet. While advocates boast about endless energy, bonk-free training/racing and rapid weight loss, there are several limitations beyond strict dietary compliance, bad breath and digestive issues. What is Ketosis? Under normal physiological conditions, glucose is the primary energy source of the brain. When dietary carbohydrates are restricted and insulin drops, the body becomes stressed and requires an alternative energy source to maintain normal brain cell metabolism. Fatty acids are subsequently mobilized and broken down in the liver to produce ketones. The liver then releases ketone bodies into the bloodstream where they travel to the brain to be used as the new fuel source. Although the ketogenic diet was originally developed as a drug-free way to treat epilepsy, athletes are now voluntarily putting the body into a state of ketosis in order to oxidize fatty acids and use ketones for energy. To...

The definition of "high" or "low" volume training can vary from athlete to athlete. While I consider our training volume to be low compared to what some athletes do when training for an endurance triathlon event, it may also be seen as "high" volume compared to what other athletes do for long workouts. Since much of our weekly volume occurs from frequent training sessions (instead of two "long" workouts each week), I'd say that we have the right mix of intensity, frequency and volume to encourage training adaptations without risking injury or burnout. Certainly, this was years in the making with lots of trial and error and many athlete case studies to learn from. Last year I was interviewed for a Triathlete magazine article on this topic of high/low volume training. I really enjoyed providing my insights on this topic for I feel many endurance triathletes adhere to haphazard training which includes high volume workouts. weekend after weekend...

When was the last time you felt a sudden drop of energy during a workout but after a quick sip of a sport drink, swig of a gel or chop of a chew, you felt an instant pick-me-up? Because skeletal muscle glucose uptake during exercise is not an instant process, it's important to consider the practicality of sport nutrition products as it relates to meeting your fluid, electrolyte, carbohydrate and motivational eeds. Because of the time that it takes to digest and absorb nutrients (nutrients must move from the mouth to the small intestines, where absorption occurs), this is one of the primary reasons to rely on well-formulated sport nutrition products (instead of real food) in a convenient/portable form, to supply your body with a steady intake of "fuel" regularly throughout training/racing. Ironically, when you consume sport nutrition, your muscles don't receive a quick jolt of energy, but instead, your brain was rewarded by something sweet (glucose), giving yo...

In our social media obsessed world, it's very easy to scroll through Facebook or Instagram and feel like everyone but you is succeeding in life - diet, training, family, relationship, career...... Living a failure-free life is not possible nor is it worth striving for. We all struggle at times. Furthermore, setbacks bring value to life as they give life greater meaning when things go well. A failure makes you appreciate the successful moments and forces you to learn how to react to unfavorable situations. Although it's normal to use social media to post/share your highlighted moments in life, it's important to acknowledge your setbacks and not hide your feelings when you are in a tough place. Instead of avoiding your feelings or pretending that you are ok, accept sadness, embarrassment, guilt, frustration, depression and fear in your grieving process. For almost every athlete, a setback is bound to occur at some point in your athletic career, if not at least once p...

As a sport dietitian who specializes in endurance sports, one of the most common questions I receive from athletes is, “what should I eat after a workout?” For the performance-focused athlete, effective refueling strategies can help optimize recovery so that you can achieve the desired training adaptations from your workouts. But recovery nutrition is much more than drinking a smoothie after your swim, bike, or run.  Specific refueling recommendations vary based on fitness level, volume, and intensity of the workout, body composition goals, menstruation (for females), and daily energy intake needs. To help you get the most out of your training sessions and to reduce the confusion on what, when and how much to eat post workout, check out this recent article I wrote for Triathlete magazine online.  To read more:  The proper recovery fuel for every type of workout

As a long-time endurance triathlete, I love the process of training for a race. I enjoy the journey that I get to take my body on within every racing season and at the start of every season, I look forward to stretching my limits in an effort to reach new personal accomplishments.  It's not uncommon for endurance athletes to be very committed to training while constantly looking for what else is out there to help take fitness to that next level. With a relentless drive to improve, it's important that your training methods, dietary regime and lifestyle choices don't get you injured, burnout or with a serious health issue. In a recent Ironman article, I selected my top 50 ways to be a better athlete so that you can unlock your potential and reach athletic excellence on race day without compromising your health and quality of life.  Which qualities on my list are you doing a great job of and which qualities need improvement? Read the article HERE .

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...

A few months ago, I saw an email in my inbox from my contact at Triathlete Magazine.  I assumed it was a request for an article so I opened it to see what topic I was asked to write about. Well, to my surprise, the email was to inform me that Triathlete magazine wanted to feature me in an article! I was shocked, surprised and honored. Although the article was just one page, I found it to be a fantastic opportunity to share my messages on how I fuel my body. In today's society, female athletes are bombarded with unrealistic body images and misleading nutrition advice. As an athlete, you can't let these images and misinformation derail you from achieving athletic excellence in your own personal athletic journey. As an athlete and as a nutrition professional (and coach), I want to be a good role model for female athletes of all ages. As a strong, confident and healthy female athlete, I aspire to encourage other female athletes to use sport as a healthy outlet to build conf...