Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Race Week  We left for Chattanooga on Thursday September 26th around 11am. Most of the drive was in the rain. We drove through Asheville and Knoxville as it's so scenic and our favorite way to go Chattanooga. It rained most of the drive. Two weeks ago we adopted Sunny - a 1-ish-year old, 16 lb terrier mix from the Charlotte Animal Control and this was our first road trip together. My mental health hasn't been the best this past week because I have been really missing Campy (it's been 10 weeks since he passed away) and I wasn't sure how I would be able to put together a good race in Chattanooga. I gave myself a lot of grace going into Chattanooga as I didn't specifically train for the event with Norseman XTRI as my primary focus. I signed up for Chattanooga because I love the course and I love the community/spectator support. I also love hot and humid races. Seeing that the weather was cool and the bike course was entirely changed a month out from the race, I was hav...

Wow. Has it really been a year since Ironman Chattanooga ? As a little recap, my entire 2017 season was dedicated to qualifying and then racing the 2017 IM 70.3 World Championship in Chattanooga. However, on race day day morning, just after 4am I found myself on the kitchen floor, with a smashed and bruised face and bloody lip due to fainting soon after getting out of bed.  You can read more here.  Racing an Ironman in 2017 was not on my season plan as I spent the season focusing on the half Ironman distance. But after my incident at Worlds, I knew that I couldn't finish my season on such a low moment. Thus, Ironman Chattanooga will go down as one of my most memorable Ironman races, for so many reasons. First off, Karel and I shared the course with 14 of our Trimarni athletes and we watched every one of them cross the finish line. It was incredibly special to be there with so many Trimarnis (and to even have a few of our athletes attending just to cheer). Secondly,...

With every Ironman, there is always the unknown of what will happen to the body on race day. For most athletes, there are a lot of questions surrounding the Ironman marathon. Running 26.2 miles is no easy feat but after 2.4 miles of swimming and 116 miles of cycling, the body is physically compromised. Toss in the heat and a very hilly and challenging run course and the thought of running a marathon at the end of an Ironman can cause a lot of worry. After I registered for Ironman Chattanooga the week before race week, I didn't worry too much about the marathon. To be honest, in the past, I've dedicated my entire season to training for an Ironman and felt less ready than I felt going into IM Chattanooga. All summer, my running form and resiliency has continued to improve. I always feel stronger running off the bike than in solo runs. I've experimented with all types of sport nutrition products and I've gone back to running more on the treadmill and track (along wit...