Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

  Typically when I blog about a race, I find myself comparing it to the last race, reflecting on my race specific training and putting the race in perspective with my upcoming season goals. Well, this year has been a bit different......very different.  Karel and I are very satisfied with our recent race performances at Ironman 70.3 Florida. This was my 4th year competing in the event and we kinda lost track for Karel (sixth time maybe?). We love this race venue as it is very spectator friendly (pre-Covid), the race itself is all within one venue (swim/bike/run/transitions), there's plenty of lodging options in the surrounding neighborhoods and the community supports the race (and the volunteers are always amazing). While we still love this race venue, the emotions in route to this race were a bit different.  Navigating the past 12+ months has been difficult for many athletes. For our team, we have encouraged them to train with the focus of maintaining a solid level of fit...

Pre-race Going into the first race of the season, I had the typical phantom niggles (that make you believe you are injured) but thankfully, I didn't feel stale. With over nine hours of scheduled training from Mon-Saturday, each workout helped me sharpen-up for race day (Sunday). We stayed one mile from the race venue at  Balmoral Resort  and I would absolutely stay there again for this race. The location was perfect as we could jog, bike or drive to the venue through the back gate and could quickly access Publix grocery store for food. Although we didn't use all of the amenities at the resort, the house made for a relaxing stay leading up to the race. Having Campy with us also made our trip feel a bit more like home as he kept me on a routine and I always had something to look forward to throughout the day. Campy enjoyed all the new sights and smells and had plenty of butt rubs from our athletes. We shared the house with 4 of our athletes and the rest of our ...

The nerves were low for this race. I was bottled up with excitement to kick off the 2019 triathlon racing season. I remember my very first half Ironman (in Disney) back in 2006 and I was filled with thoughts of the unknown. But this beginner's mindset opened my mind to possibilities instead of being paralyzed by results. Over the past decade-plus of endurance triathlon racing, it's easy to compare race to race, often wanting to validate improvements by times and paces. However, I've wanted to do things differently this year - starting with my mindset. Instead of seeing improvements as pass or fail based on paces and times, I want to do things well when I race. Karel always has this mindset when he races whereas I often put a lot of pressure on myself to be better, faster or stronger. While this has worked for me at times, it also creates a lot of mental stress that can easily take away the fun of racing. This season is the first time ever that I've had a coach - ...

How in the heck is it already April!?!?! I can't believe we are just a few sleeps away from our first triathlon race of 2019. When planning our 2019 race schedule back in October/November, we knew we wanted to go back to Haines City for the half Ironman. It's a great early season race to dust off the rust and welcome the hurt that comes with racing. We love the race venue as the town welcomes the race, the race vibe is always welcoming and exciting and the course is spectator friendly (swim and run). The course is not an easy one, and that also appeals to us. This year will be even more challenging as the race day temperature is suppose to reach 90 degrees! 😱 But, we are super excited to share the course with 15 of our amazing athletes. We broke up the drive into two days, leaving on Wednesday late morning. We made the 5.5 hour drive to Jacksonville, FL where we stayed overnight with our friends/athletes Joe and Erica. After our morning workout, we hit the road to Haines C...

Hello from Haines City, FL! Here we go again. It feels like it was just a few weeks ago when we were one sleep away from an Ironman! During our travels back home from Kona, Hawaii on October 16th, we received an email from Ironman that Ironman Florida was cancelled due to extensive devastation from Hurricane Michael. In the beginning of the year, Karel wanted to do something that he has never done before - race two Ironmans within a month. While an experimentation to see how his body would handle two endurance triathlon events in such a short time period, Karel also wanted to see if he would be able to re-qualify for 2019 Kona. Seeing that Karel did not have the race that he wanted in Kona, he was really looking forward to another opportunity to race. Even though there's the uncertainty of what his body will be able to do in the later miles of the marathon due to the unknowns of what's still lingering in his heart, tissues and muscles, Karel was really looking forward to...

On the night before the race, I found myself thinking of a popular quote "Success is where preparation and opportunity meet." As I enter my 12th consecutive year of endurance triathlon racing, I found myself referring back to my training over the past few months as my main confidence builder going into the race. Although I have past race performances to make me feel prepared for the distance, I couldn't help but think about all the workouts that were accomplished in the months leading up to the race to help me feel physical and mentally prepared. Putting my trust in my training helped me ease the nerves that I was ready to perform. I consider myself a great sleeper but I guess the pre-race excitement got the best of me as I didn't sleep too well on Saturday night. Karel was in bed around 7:30, listening to music with his headphones and visualizing his race and I went to bed shortly after. Although I eventually fell asleep around 9pm, I slept really light and fel...

Oddly, I'm very calm with one sleep to go before race day. With no expectations or pressures for this race, I'm most excited to kick off the 2018 triathlon racing season and go through the motions and emotions of swimbikerun in a competitive setting. I am also so pumped to race with over 30 of our coaching athletes as part of the regional Tri Club Championship. There's something about seeing familiar faces out on the race course (and the sidelines) that makes for a fun, energy filled day of racing. Here's a list of all of our athletes who are participating: Ironman 70.3 Florida Alvaro Velez Chris Anuszkiewicz Christine Feiherr Curt Kloc Erica Nagy Fiona Martin Greg Marshall Heather Anderson Heidi Hogan Jane Green Jim Nitz Julie Huyett Justine Waters Kathy Petri Kevin Drury Kim Crist Lisa Comer Lisa McCartney Lisa Heath Melanie Ziarko Meredith Rigdon Mitch Przybelski Natalie Ramello Tricia Rado Rebekah Miller Reid Thomas Stephanie Gibson ...

After a busy morning packing up the car, squeezing in a short outdoor ride and getting our furry crew ready for "grandma", it was time to hit the road down south. We headed out around noon (but didn't make it far until Karel realized he forgot our Di2 charger) and then we officially hit the road. I had prepped a lot of meals before we left to make it easy for us to eat when we arrived to our rental home in Florida, as well as lots of snacks to minimize the need for grocery shopping. We stopped a few times to stretch our legs, go to the bathroom and pick-up dinner at Moe's but other than that, it was a smooth day of traveling without any major traffic delays. We arrived around 7:30pm and made it to bed just before 10pm. To help break up the drive, we stopped at our friend's house (Joe and Erica) in Jacksonville, FL for a good night of sleep before the rest of our trip on Thursday morning.  To shake out the stiffness from our long day in the car on Wedne...