Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

On September 22nd, 2024 the best female professional and age group triathletes from around the world will race 140.6 miles in Nice, France. For the second year, the Ironman World Championship will be split between Nice, France and Kailua-Kona, Hawaii for the men's and women's races. Last year the men raced in Nice, France and this year the women will take the stage in Europe.  The course consists of a 2.4 mile swim in the salty blue Mediterranean sea, a one-loop 112 mile stunning and spectacular bike course with over 7,800 feet of elevation gain and a four-loop 26.2 mile run on the iconic Promenade des Anglais.  Although a beautiful race venue, the course brings with it some challenging situations. With a good understanding of the following nutritional considerations, you can improve your chances of delivering a great performance on race day - while enjoying this incredible experience.  Carb loading Authentic French Cuisine places great emphasis on using fresh, high ...

The gut is a very important athletic organ because it is responsible for the delivery of nutrients and fluids during exercise. The gut is highly adaptable and should be trained repeatedly in training - just like the muscles and heart. Unfortunately, many athletes are reluctant (or afraid due to body composition concerns, previous GI complaints and 'they sayers') to take in recommended amounts of carbohydrates, calories, sodium and fluids before and during long workouts. Sadly, this results in underfueling in training and far too common, overfueling on race day. By practicing your pre-race and race day nutrition many times prior to race day, you can improve absorption of nutrition, improve gut tolerance and learn what works (and doesn't work) to reduce the chance of GI distress and to improve performance. Although GI distress is common among endurance athletes, race day performance-limiting upper- and lower-gastrointestinal (GI) issues are highly preventable. Although causes...

Preparing for a triathlon is much more than checking off workouts to improve fitness and booking travel accommodations. Nutrition plays an important role in race day readiness. Whether you are training for an Ironman distance triathlon, half marathon or a local sprint triathlon, nutritional preparation is key. How you fuel during a race primarily depends on the duration of the event and your racing intensity (which is based on your fitness level). Proper fueling will help you maximize recovery, fuel your workouts appropriately, boost your immune system and to maintain a healthy body composition, alongside building confidence for race day. While you may be able to get away with a haphazard sport nutrition strategies (or not fueling at all) during short workouts, competing at your best requires you to constantly fine-tune sport nutrition strategies to help minimize the fluid, electrolyte and fuel depletion that will occur throughout the event. Because proper sport nutrition should be par...

I didn't think that I would be writing a blog post about race day nutrition in 2020 but here we are, just two sleeps away from our first triathlon race of the season. Although it's September (which would be viewed as late season racing in years past), it's surreal to think that this will be our first triathlon race in 11 months!  While not every race day nutrition mistake is a limiter to performance, athletes are quick to place the blame on nutrition when a race day performance doesn't go as planned.  Here are some common race day nutrition mistakes that may compromise your race day performance (and health):  Overfueling - With pressure to perform at your best, it's understandable that you want to optimize performance. With this comes a need to fuel - a lot - in an effort to offset a slow down. Overfueling before and during the race can leave the belly uncomfortably full and cause lethargy. It's understandable to fear running out of energy during the race but o...

Don't you love it when everything comes together on race day and you feel incredible at the finish line? Ha - as someone who has raced 12 Ironman events, 4 Ironman World championship events and countless half IM events, I wish I could say that everything always comes together on race day. Some of my "best" performances have included race day mishaps and obstacles to overcome in order to reach the finish line. For endurance athletes, it's rare to hear of an athlete who never experiences nutrition problems on race day. While not every nutrition issue is a limiter to performance, it seems as if athletes are quick to blame nutrition when a race performance goes wrong. Recognizing that endurance events place extreme stress on the human body, the athlete who develops, fine-tunes and perfects a fueling and hydration plan in training and practices in key long workouts and low priority races will naturally be at a competitive advantage come race day for nutrition is a cri...

Many athletes blame a poor race day performance on nutrition, which doesn't surprise me since most athletes underfuel in training and guess their way through race day sport nutrition. As it relates to long-distance racing, nutrition is a critical component to race day success. While what, when and how you consume sport nutrition during the race can optimize your ability to perform with your body from start to finish, equally, if not more important, is your nutrition going into a race. From my personal experience as a Board Certified Sport Dietitian, who specializes in working with endurance athletes, here are some of the common pre-race nutrition mistakes that I see often, that keep athletes from reaching athletic excellence. Unhealthy relationship with carbs - A fear of carbohydrates can keep athletes from properly loading muscle and liver glycogen stores going into a race. On the other edge of the spectrum, eating every carbohydrate in sight can leave you feeling lethargic...