Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

As a person, you have many roles in life and with each role comes an identity. A mother, a father, a sibling, a teacher, a student, an engineer, a nurse, a doggy parent....... In the off-season, you lose a very important identity of yourself and that is one of being an athlete. You feel a great purpose in life when you are an athlete, even as a mom, dad, employee, etc. When you were training for your key races in 2016, you didn't tell people that you enjoy running, you enjoy biking or enjoy triathlons but instead, you called yourself a runner or a triathlete. You owned it with confidence (and maybe even a secret fist pump too).  I AM an athlete. This is the title you have carried with you for the past 10+ months, alongside being a mom, dad, employee, volunteer, caretaker, etc. Having a strong athletic identity is what makes athletes great.  With great athletic self-identity often comes high self-esteem, commitment, discipline and motiv...

As a coach, I find that my hardest job is telling athletes to rest. Certainly, my athletes are not seeking an expert to tell them how to take a day off from training but instead, to give well-designed, challenging and well-placed workouts in a periodized, individualized training plan in order to take their fitness to the next level.  When an athlete begins to adapt to training stress, the consistency in training can be very motivating.  Athletes know that to improve fitness, there must be a consistent load placed on the body and often with intensity and at an uncomfortable volume.  So in addition to rest and recovery days, I now have a great respect for rest in the off-season.  And this doesn't mean a few weeks of swim,bike, run workouts without gadgets or group workouts "just for fun." For the past 6-weeks I have done minimal exercising. Less than an hour a day and much of it was not related to swim, bike and run.  Lucky for me, I...

Athletes are tough people.  They can push when the body says push no more.  They can accomplish a lot before 9am and know how to squeeze a lot into an already busy day. They have this amazing ability to seek out information to make improvements, always reflecting and analyzing as if there are no personal limits but instead, consistent constant improvements. Athletes are smart, hard working, passionate, dedicated individuals but sadly, many athletes do not know how to do the off-season properly.  For the first time in 8 years, I have intentionally taken 5 weeks off from any type of structured activity with minimal running (2 runs on the track, gadget free), a handful of short bike rides (gadget free) and a few times a week swimming (after waking up without an alarm, no more than 30-45 minutes of swimming). I say intentionally because I was not injured, sick or burnt out after IMWI so the rest was planned by me and not forced by a doctor. And I still have one ...

Countdown to race Kona for me and Karel....One year and one week away!  It's been almost 4 weeks since Karel and I raced IMWI and our lifestyle has changed dramatically. If you lived a day in the life of Marni and Karel right now, you would be doing a lot of the following: No structured workouts, no workout schedule, no intense exercise, very little gym time and no alarms for workouts. Guess what... We are LOVING every day of it! This is all part of our master plan to prep for Kona 2015....we are turning into non-triathletes for 6 full weeks. Although this may seem like a long time to do absolutely no structured training, it is very needed and perhaps long over due.  I was extremely fortunate this year to have an injury-free season. Both Karel and I raced to our full potential at each of our planned races and our bodies did not disappoint us. We never experienced the slightest itch of burnout or fatigue and most of all, we loved the journey of becoming the...

There's nothing more rewarding than resting the body after the hard work is over. When it comes to training the body for a start and finish line, it's important to understand that physiological adaptations are being made through pushing the body. Training is not exercise. We must all exercise for health benefits and for weight control. That's proven through good research. We do not have to run marathons, do an Ironman or even run in a 5K to be healthy. But there's nothing more rewarding than setting a goal, working hard for a goal and then being able to let your mind be the only limiter on race day. Having a healthy and strong body is a gift and often something that is very much appreciated during exercise. Therefore, although we do not have to pay money to participate in an event in order to be healthy, it is a great feeling to finish what you started when you had an idea to accomplish something with an active body.  The past three weeks were amazing. I did no...

Wow - I can't believe it's been two weeks since IM KONA. After a few days, the aches, burns and chaffing subsided and that was a sign that I was officially in my off-season...and  I'm totally enjoying every day of it! Three full weeks of no weight bearing activity (ex. no running, plyometrics, etc.), no workout structure and no alarms. There's plenty of time to catch up on house chores, be super creative in the kitchen, take longer walks with Campy and just give a little TLC for my awesome body for what it allowed me to do this summer. And to rest up for a very exciting season of destination races: St. Croix 70.3 (May), IM Austria (June), IMWI (July). There's a lot of work to do in the off season after my recovery period and I am really excited to set new goals and to enjoy another exciting year with my healthy body. Just to recap the past few weeks, there have been no post-race blues, no guilty feelings about no structured activity (typically 30-60 min o...