Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

  On November 15th, Karel asked me if I wanted to ride his old mountain bike on the trails behind Furman University. After seeing how much fun Karel was having on his mountain bike, I thought it would be fun to try.  For my first ride, we ventured a few miles down the road. Karel taught me the basics of riding a mountain bike on very easy trails. There were no obstacles to overcome but instead, I learned how to move my weight, adjust the gears and go over curbs. It was a very fun and enlightening session.  A little over a month later (December 24th), I went for my first official mountain bike ride at Dupont State Forest. This ride was much more technical with rocks, roots, gravel, water crossings, climbs and descends. Karel took his time explaining line choices and helping me build my confidence going over more technical obstacles. We would stop and discuss the more challenging sections and although I would try, there were many obstacles that I could not get over. As the ...

  A few weeks ago we heard from Xterra that the triathlon would be turned into a duathlon (2.5-mile trail run/19-mile MTB/5.5-mile trail run). Although Karel was a little bummed that he was not participating in the swim-bike-run format, one needs a flexible mindset when approaching an off-road race. With this being his second ever off-road triathlon (and first triathlon at altitude), he was looking forward to the unknown challenge and welcomed whatever the day would bring. No race is ever the same with Xterra and that makes each race exciting. After pre-riding the bike and run course on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, he knew it was going to be an incredibly tough day of racing. Excited for the adventure ahead and the opportunity to be competitive, Karel didn't have any nerves going into the race as he views Xterra racing as "playtime" on his bike and loves the chill vibe on race day.  We arrived to the race venue at Snow Basin around 7:30am and it was a cold start to the...

  On Friday morning, Karel drove from our hotel to the race venue at  Oak Mountain state park (~5 miles away) for his pre-race workout while I stayed at our hotel ( Homewood Suites ) to do a run (and to not be gone too long from Campy). Around 9am, Karel did a ~1000 yard open water swim followed by a ~1 hour mountain bike followed by a 2 mile run. He said the trails were pretty quiet and he really enjoyed being out in nature. He did just enough movement to move some blood and test out the new gear. Karel was having so much fun on his mountain bike that if it wasn't for the race, I'm pretty sure he would have spent all morning out on the trails. As for my run, I ran around our hotel area (which was very beautiful) on the hilly roads for ~50 minutes and included 5 x 20 sec strides at the end.  As for the rest of the day, we worked for a bit in our hotel room and then went back to Oak Mountain State Park around 3pm so that Karel could get his race packet and for me to regis...

We made our way down South to Alabama on Thursday. It was a long 5.5 hour drive (thanks ATL traffic) but thankfully we gained an hour and had an exciting pit stop to look forward to. We left around 10am and arrive around 3pm local time.  A bit of a backstory.  About two weeks ago (just a few days before Karel raced the Peachtree International triathlon) I had mentioned to Karel about Xterra Oak Mountain after hearing about the effect on That Triathlon Life (from Eric Lagerstrom). I've always wanted Karel to do an Xterra event because 1) they take place in really beautiful places 2) I think he'd really have fun. Karel was interested in the idea and after sleeping on it, he became more and more excited about trying something new. Karel loves off-road biking but his mountain bike is a little over 10 years old and a bit too small for him - causing back pain on top of his already underlying back issues. Knowing that he was due for a new mountain bike, he started searching around. H...

Picture Source In the August 2017 "off-road" issue of Triathlete Magazine, I wrote an article on how to fuel for an off-road triathlon. This was an exciting article to write as I often imagine what it would be like to participate in a triathlon that occurred off-road. Oh the thrill to ride and run through nature! Although my cycling and running skills are not yet ready to trade the pavement for the dirt, I saw this as a great opportunity to educate triathletes on some of the nutritional differences between off-road and road triathlon racing. Note: In the print issue Pg 55, there were some formating issues with the staff at Triathlete Magazine that affected my article (in the 2nd column - the print words are not my words) so I wanted to take the opportunity to share my entire article with you. Sometimes these things happen in print so it's no fault to the dedicated staff at Triathlete Magazine.  -------------------------------------------------- Rock hoppin...