Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Name: Katie Aguilar Age: 48F Profession: Engineer Where do you live? Atlanta, GA 1. What is RAAM and why did you want to participate in the event? RAAM is Race Across America . It’s an annual race where participants race solo, or in teams of 2, 4, or 8 from Oceanside, CA to Atlantic City, NJ. It’s over 3000 miles of continuous riding, climbs 175,000+ feet, crosses 13 states and must be completed within 12 days (for solo riders) and 9 days (for teams).   I have been interested in RAAM since my friend Dani Overbaugh participated in 2013. I love watching the event unfold. This year I was given the opportunity to be on a team and I couldn't turn it down. It seemed like a terrific test for me to test perceived boundaries. It seemed so exciting and challenging. To me, RAAM was an incredible opportunity to see what I could do while racing daily, with short breaks between riders. I've never done an event like this before and I wasn't sure if I could handle the extreme nature of th...

  Due to the pressures within the sport environment, such as coaches, teammates, competitors, uniforms and judges, every athlete is at risk for developing unhealthy eating practices to lose weight or to change body size/shape in order to become more competitive and to meet societal and sport-related physique ideals.  But not all athletes struggle. Why is it that some athletes refuse to diet or conform to an idealized body image but others end up in a dangerous place of disordered eating and extreme exercise? Advice from coaches -  Many coaches connect the ability to change body composition to that of hard work, discipline and commitment to sport. Coaches (and onlookers) will often applaud athletes who can reduce body fat to exceptionally low levels. How many times have you heard an athlete, coach or commentator say that an athlete looks race ready by referencing body size, shape or appearance? Comments made by coaches, social media, body shaming, fat talk, attributing po...

In our body-image obsessed culture - supported by a multibillion-dollar industry that profits from body dissatisfaction, the idealized body image, dieting and fear of fat - creating a healthy relationship with food and your body can be incredibly difficult. Sadly, even in a global health crisis, weight loss, appearance and body image are still priorities for many people, athletes and businesses. The diet culture is constantly reminding you that you are not good enough at your current weight and being a bit thinner or more toned will improve your health and happiness. In other words, changing what you look like will make you happier, more successful or will make people like you better. What starts as an innocent attempt to eat a bit healthier or lose a few lbs can easily spiral out of control. When body image dissatisfaction is present, "healthy" eating can quickly turn into dieting which can turn into disordered eating. For many, it doesn't stop there. Dieting is ...

A big thank you to Haley, LiveFiesty and IronWomen for having me on as part of their video interview "mini series". If you missed the videos, here is episode one and two for you to enjoy. And be sure to check out their website (and social media) for more inspiring, motivating and educational information. Nutrition Staples for triathletes Food Hacks for Triathletes

I recently had the honor of chatting with Haley at  Live Fiesty  and I provided some helpful tips for endurance athletes who may be grocery shopping under restricted conditions or with low frequency during quarantine. Here's the video to enjoy - thank you again Live Fiesty, Haley and IronWomen for the opportunity to chat! Here are my typical kitchen staples (not limited to just the following): Pantry  Herbs, spices, oil, baking "stuff"  Tomatoes (diced, whole, pureed, tomato sauce) Beans (garbanzo, kidney, black beans, navy, chickpeas, chili beans) and lentils - canned and dry. Variety of whole grains and rice (farro, quinoa, wild rice, basmati) Potatoes Soups. While you can make your own soup with the above ingredients, having a few cans ready to go for convenience. Semi-homemade – can of soup + fresh or frozen veggies. Canned fish (tuna, salmon, sardines) Canned fruits and vegetables (low sodium/sugar) Fortified cereal Pretzels Peanut but...

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,...

Thank you  Real Food For Real Life  for the podcast interview! Scott reached out to me for a podcast interview in late August and a few days after Ironman Chattanooga, our schedules aligned for us to have our podcast interview. I really enjoyed this interview as we kept the focus mostly on nutrition, specific to how to eat and fuel to maximize performance for athletic events, while keeping the body in good health. We discussed the following in the interview: Details on my recovery post Ironman Chattanooga What I eat after an Ironman to help with recovery Keeping your immune system healthy after an extreme endurance event Importance of fueling/hydrating properly during training/racing How my education/knowledge as a sport dietitian has helped me create success as an endurance athlete Why athletes need to create a healthy relationship with food and stop the off-limit food lists Pre-race and race day nutrition issues and tips Sport nutrition product suggestions...

A few months ago, I was interviewed by Brad Brown with The Kona Edge podcast. Over the past 11 years, I have had a lot of successes in the sport of triathlon and well, many great learning lessons. Brad gave me the opportunity to share some of the mistakes I've made over the years and to profile some of the highlights in my endurance triathlon journey. If you missed the first podcast, you can listen HERE.  But we didn't stop there! You can now listen to four more podcasts where I talk more specifically about nutrition, swimming, biking and running. Enjoy! Nutrition Podcast Swimming Podcast Cycling Podcast Running Podcast

For the first time ever, I am so thrilled to announce that Karel and I recently had our first interview together. We talk about our athletic backgrounds, our favorite race courses, a bit about our coaching and nutrition business and our best advice for athletes when wanting to experience improvements and excel on race day. As the public speaker of our house, I'm usually the one speaking in front of others on behalf of Trimarni. When I was asked by Adam, who is a Trimarni athlete and host of  Intelligent Racer Podcast , to be interviewed for this podcast, I knew that Karel needed to be part of this podcast with me as he has so much life, career and athletic experience to offer athletes. For those who know Karel, he is a great sarcastic/funny side to him but he is always upfront, honest, truthful and to the point with his advice. Plus, he is my business partner, training partner and life partner so it was only natural that he would join me on this podcast. We met 11 years ago ...

In mid October, I dedicated a blog post to recapping our 2016 season of triathlon racing.  If you missed it, you can read about it here:  2016 season recap.  Looking back, 2016 was a very successful season for me and Karel.    I fulfilled a long time goal of placing on the podium at an international Ironman, where I finished 2nd AG and 4th female amateur (10th overall female) at Ironman Austria. It was also my highest ever overall placing in an Ironman since winning the 18-24 AG at IMFL in 2006 (my first Ironman). Only this time, 11 Ironmans later, I finished 54 minutes faster than at my first Ironman (10:06 at IM Austria vs. 11:00 at IMFL).  I placed overall female at the  Lake James 50  triathlon.  Eight days later, I was leading the race by several minutes with 1 mile to go, at  Rev3 Knox,  until a pink arrow lead me and several others off the bike portion of the race course. Due to a 6+ mile de...

Hello, my name is Marni and I am a 9x Ironman finisher, 4x Ironman World Championship finisher, USAT coach and the female winner of the 2014 HITS Ocala half ironman, the overall amateur female winner of the 2012 Branson 70.3 triathlon and overall winner of the 2012 Iron Girl Clearwater Half Marathon. This month I will celebrate 23 years of eating a meat-free. I eat carbohydrates like grains, potatoes and even cereal. I use sport nutrition when I train - always. I drink milk and eat yogurt - daily. I love fresh bread and I eat dark chocolate. I love real food. My name is Marni and I am fueled by plants. And my hubby Karel eats meat but I'll still call him a a plant-strong athlete because his diet is rich in fruits, veggies, whole grains, dairy and a variety of plant strong proteins.  When you see a meal like this (above), a meal of 5 different kinds and colors of veggies tossed in olive oil, baked tempeh, cooked lentils and quinoa, do you think unhealthy athlete who ca...

Every now and then I'm approached for an interview. Often times it is for a quote or two in a magazine on the topics of strength training, endurance training, nutrition or fueling.  However, with specialty areas specific to athletes in the areas of sport nutrition, endurance training/fueling vegetarian diets and developing a healthy relationship with food and the body, I enjoy the occasional opportunity when someone reaches out to me for an interview.  Recently I was interviewed by an amazing woman, Dr. Brooke . I met Dr. Brooke at the  Women's Fitness Summit .  Brooke reached out to me as not only an endurance female athlete but also a plant strong vegetarian athlete.  (If you are new to this blog, I don't endorse vegetarianism but I strongly believe that all athletes should embrace a plant strong diet - that is nourishing and fueling the body off real-food, grown with the help of Mother Earth. I have been a lacto-ovo vegetarian for almost 23 y...

The word "beautiful" is used in so many ways. -She's so beautiful. -That painting is beatiful. -Nature is so beautiful. -That view is so beautiful. -Your hair or makeup looks so beautiful.   When was the last time you talked about your food choices being beautiful?   If beutiful is defined as "pleasing the senses or mind aesthetically", it is concerning that our society is not using the word "beautiful" enough when talking about our diet.   I don't know about you, but the picture below looks absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I would like to thank Beth Chernosky for asking me to be a guest on her  Looking Good Girl   website. I love interviews as a chance for me to express my opinion on various topics but also as a way to reach out to other inspiring people. Beth asked me great interview questions and her philosophy shined through with her questions to me! As many people know, I am all about helping other people learn how to have a ...