Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Your body is going to perform differently when it's 60 degrees outside than when it is 90 degrees. Although exercising in hot weather requires extra planning and caution to avoid health risks, it is possible to improve performance, enjoy your training sessions and not feel completely drained when training in the heat. There's a good chance that you are not making good decisions when training in the heat and as a result, your performance and health is being compromised. Running without a hydration belt, not planning stops accordingly on the bike, showing up to workouts dehydrated, not fueling properly (or eating enough) and not rehydrating properly after workouts will negatively impact your body's thermoregulatory process. The human body is remarkable when it comes to exericising heat, so long as you take the necessary steps to acclimate gradually, pace yourself and look for opportunities to minimize dehydration and cool the skin.

The human body functions the best at a stable temperature of around 97.7-98.6°F Thermoregulation is the maintenance of internal core body temperature by balancing heat generation with heat loss.  When I was participating in XTRI ICON in Livigno, Italy on September 1st, I experienced symptoms of hypothermia after the swim portion of the race. The air temperature was 32 degrees F and the water temperature was 52 degrees F. Although I had on a thermal swim cap, gloves and booties, my gloves filled up with water and I was forced to remove them. Spending almost an hour to cover 3.8K caused my body temperature to drop - I was losing heat faster than I could produce it. After I exited the water, I was shivering uncontrollably. The brain recognized that my body temperature had dropped and it made me shiver - producing heat through muscle activity. Thankfully, Karel and a few others athletes helped me out by getting me out of my wet clothes, putting on dry clothes (and lots of layer) and ma...

As you go from winter to spring to summer, it takes much more effort and energy to maintain a "normal" pace as the temperature rises. As a way to keep your exercising body safe in the heat, your body increases your sweat rate to remove heat from your body through evaporative cooling. As you become dehydrated (from fluid loss), blood volume decreases. In turn, more blood going to the skin means less going to your heart. To maintain cardiac output (the amount of blood pumped by the heart minute), heart rate increases in order to supply the working muscles with blood. But due to a decline in blood availability (for cooling), less blood is available to go to the working muscles. When the body can no longer take care of all of its responsibilities (remember - all of this is happening so you don't die in the heat), your body begins to shut down to keep you safe. If you ignore the signs of overheating, heat builds up in your body, your core temp increases and you are at risk for...

  Heat. 🔥 The summer presents a vulnerable time for endurance athletes who are training outside in an effort to gain fitness for an upcoming event. High heat and humidity challenges the limits of the cardio system, central nervous system and skeletal muscle system. Maintaining core body temperature and keeping body fluids in balance are key priorities for your body. Training in a hot environment can put your body under a significant amount of physiological strain, which can negatively impact your health. By understanding how the heat can impact your health and performance, you can do a better job of keeping yourself healthy this summer.

You may be able to get away with haphazard fueling and hydration strategies in cooler temps, but now is not the time to wing it when it comes to utilizing sport nutrition products during your long workouts. If you've ever struggled with the application of sport nutrition, you've likely experiences several pronounced, uncomfortable and performance-limiting symptoms related to underfueling, overfueling, dehydration and overhydration such as headache, no urge to urinate, sleepiness, lack of appetite, nausea, bloating, fatigue, muscle aches, moodiness, diarrhea, sloshy stomach, headache and dizziness. Proper fueling during intense or long duration exercise helps you sustain a desirable effort to maximize training adaptations. You can also practice fueling strategies for competition and train the gut to tolerate nutrition while exercising at various intensities. Contrary to the opinion of other nutrition experts, I'm a huge proponent of consistently using sport nutrition during...

"Drink as much as you can and take lots of salt tabs!" This is what I've been reading a lot of lately on social media as it relates to the advice that triathletes are receiving in route to their upcoming hot long distance race.  Racing in the heat is extremely taxing on the body. The biggest consequences include heat stress/exhaustion/stroke and dehydration. Anytime the weather is above 86-degrees F, there will be some type of stress to your cardiovascular system. For the athlete with a hot weather race on the schedule, you must be smart, flexible, attentive and safe when exercising in the heat. Times will be slow(er) than normal and you can't chase metrics. Your primary goal is racing smart and doing the little things well. It probably won't be your fastest race and on paper, the race results may not showcase your current level of fitness but in such extreme conditions, your only goal is to reach the finish line without compromising your health. Most athletes wil...

Remember that time when you were wishing for warmer temps? Well, that time has come. I always run with hydration and fuel in my Naked running belt (all year long) but no surprise - I go through my fluids much quicker when it's hot and steamy outside. Although it can be misearble (and sometimes dangerous) to train in the heat, there are a few ways to help mitigate the physiological response to exercising in hot and humid temps. First off, it's important to understand why exercise feels so difficult in the heat. Blood that would normally go to the working muscles in a cooler environment is now going to the skin for cooling (so heat can be released into the air). Your body is trying to maintain a safe body temperature (homeostasis). If body temp increases beyond a safe level, normal bodily functions can't be maintained and your body will shut/slow down. With a greater risk for dehydration and loss of electrolytes in the heat, your body can not maintain normal phys...

Every race requires a bit of planning but racing in the heat requires a bit more thought. When the ambient temperature is extremely high and your working muscles are generating additional heat, it's very important to externally keep your body cool and to replenish what you lose from sweat. During a race, when your metabolic and heat production rates are high, core temperature increases. This isn't too much of a worry in cool conditions but if it's hot and humid outside, the body then has to cope with the environmental heat and the heat produced by the working muscles. To keep you from overheating, the first priority of your body is sending more blood to the skin to help with cooling – leaving less oxygen-rich blood for the muscles and less blood for your gut to help with digestion. As a way to help cool yourself, your body increases the sweat rate to remove heat from your body through evaporative cooling. As you become dehydrated (from water loss), blood volume decre...

RUN I feel many triathletes need a constant reminder that they are not runners. Certainly, runners do not need to be reminded that they are not triathletes. Runners absorb a completely training stress than the multisport athlete. Furthermore, the race day effort of a triathlete is based on the race distance, which determines what time of the day a triathlete runs and what type of mechanical fatigue the triathlete brings to the run. Thus, the pacing and fueling strategy for run training and running are very different than the single sport athlete. (Note - even for runners, I still find it valuable to set up aid stations or bring nutrition and hydration with you during long runs) For the triathletes, you can not think like a runner when you train for triathlons. For example, if you are doing a brick run, you can not think of your run off the bike as "only" a 20-minute run. I see it all the time - a triathlete is out on his/her bike for 3, 4, 5+ hours and then ...

BIKE It's unfortunate but many athletes underfuel in training and overfuel on race day. Why do triathletes do this? Underfueling can be from many reasons - fear of gaining weight, wanting to lose weight, trying to be more "metabolically efficient," not knowing how to fuel, not feeling that (more) calories are needed, thinking sport nutrition is bad/unhealthy, not bringing enough energy/fluids, not planning stops accordingly, poor planning/feeling rushed to get in a workout or not knowing how much energy/fluids are needed. Certainly, underfueling does not enhance performance and consequently, not meeting energy and hydration needs can sabotage health.  Overfueling on race day is often out of fear of not having enough energy . Sadly, no amount of calories on race day can make the body perform at an intensity that was not established in training.  And if you are an athlete who underfuels in training, not only are you missing an opportunity to boost fitness in trai...

Hopefully by now in the season, you have dialed in your fueling and hydration regime to help you adapt well to training and to keep your body healthy.  While there can be several pronounced and noticeable symptoms to let you know that you are not meeting your energy, electrolyte and fluid needs during your longer or more intense workouts, like headache, not feeling the urge to urinate during a long workout or for hours after the workout, nausea, bloating, fatigue, muscle aches/throbbing and dizziness, you may notice that even without a health or performance-related issue, with the intense summer heat, something is still off with your fueling and hydrating strategy. Important note: the symptoms I mentioned  are not "normal" just because you are an athlete, training hard, wanting to get faster or leaner or training for a long distance event. Over the next few blogs, you will learn a few simple tweaks that you can make to your current fueling and hydration regime. As a Board...