Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

  The past 12 weeks have been difficult for Karel. After a hard impact mountain bike crash, he broke his right (dominant) hand. While the bones healed according to schedule within 6 weeks, the nerve pain and weakness has been slow, frustrating and painful. It took over two months for Karel to feel somewhat comfortable riding outside because the vibrations of the road caused tremendous pain in his hand. Because he still has a lot of weakness in his hand, this affects his grip while riding and how he swims (he doesn't have much of a "catch" in the water). The pinky and ring finger are numb and this numbness continues down his hand, which can be painful and annoying. There is also a lot of scar tissue in his palm and elbow which causes pain if he touches or hits it in the wrong spot. Throughout this journey, which has been filled with a lot of low, discouraging moments, Karel kept showing up. Not knowing when or if his hand would fully heal, there were a lot of really tough ...

Although this is only my 2nd time racing the  Lake Logan Half Ironman , it's one of my favorite half ironman events. With it being ~90 minutes from my house (outside of Asheville), I consider it a "home town" race. Plus, it's in the mountains so the weather is typically cool for August (50-60s on race day morning). Set Up Events puts on a great race, with a beautiful and calm wet-suit legal swim, challenging and well-marked/supported bike course and easy-to-navigate net incline/decline two-loop run. And because the race venue is tucked away in the mountains, the atmosphere is very calm, relaxed and nature-filled. My mom joined me for this race as Karel was participating in the Purple Patch Greenville East Coast camp from Thurs - Sunday. We stayed at the Best Western Smokey Mountain Inn, about 20 minutes away from the race venue and the hotel was clean and the staff was friendly. We didn't take advantage of the complimentary breakfast due to our early mor...

I had a lot of confidence going into the Lake Logan half ironman. I felt physically prepared and my nerves were at an all-time low. I had trust in my nutrition, skills, terrain management and mental strength and I was excited for the opportunity to get out and race. RESULTS: Swim: 29:29 T1: 1:44 Bike: 2:43.53 T2: 1:10 Run: 1:36.55 Total: 4:53.10 (the bike and run were a bit short from the total 70.3 distance) I placed 3rd overall/open female and had the fastest overall female run and 2nd fastest run of the day (by 15 seconds). Knowing that there was going to be some tough competition out on the course, I made sure not to doubt my own strengths when comparing myself to others. I actually went into this race with more confidence in my running than swim and bike! But, I made sure to stay within myself and trust my preparation going into this race. Although I didn't fully taper for this race as I was coming off a big load of training in Lake Placid 2 weeks ago, I still felt like...

Karel and I arrived to the race venue around 5:30am. My pre-race meal of a waffle sandwich with peanut butter, maple syrup and a banana digested great and I was only dealing with a few pre-race jitters.  I still get pre-race nerves but I feel like everything starts to feel more at ease when I arrive to the race venue on race day morning. And of course, once I get into the water for my pre-race warm-up, I feel relaxed, the butterflies subside and I become super excited to get going. After body marking and getting my chip, I racked my bike on the OPEN division rack in the front of the transition area. I spotted several Trimarni athletes and other Greenville triathletes which was fantastic to see so many familiar faces. I'm the type of athlete who enjoys being around other athletes and having others make me laugh before a race whereas Karel likes to do his own thing without anyone else around. Around 6am I walked back to the car with Karel and started my warm-up with dynamic stre...

My body is in a good place right now. I feel healthy, resilient and strong. Well, in all honesty, right now I am exhausted, tired and sore and I've gathered just enough energy to ride my road bike for an hour (Sunday) and swim 1500 yards (today) in the last 48 hours. On Saturday, I checked off another race in my 10th year of endurance racing and I couldn't be more grateful to my body as it did not let me down when I asked it to go hard (like really, really hard) for 70.3 miles at the Lake Logan Half .  For the past ten years, I have been developing my fitness and skills as an endurance triathlete.  Over the past three years, I've remained injury free. Over the past nine years, I've remained illness and sickness free. Over the past three years, I have raced better than I've ever raced before since starting endurance sports at the age of 23. This was not by chance but through hard work, education and focus to make sure that my love for endurance spo...