Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

  I love our Tuesday night workout. Karel and I leave our house at 4:40pm and ride to Donaldson. This takes us around 75-minutes to cover 17.5 miles. To get to the group ride, we bike mostly on the Swamp Rabbit trail with a few miles on the road and two short sections on gravel. I love the start of the ride because it serves as a great warm-up before we meet the Spinners A-Group at 6pm. Plus, it's so much better than sitting in the car for 40-minutes to drive to the group ride. There are several others (probably 10-20) that ride to and from the group ride, which makes it fun to chat before and after the ride.  The A-ride includes a police escort (everyone chips-in $5) for safety as the group of 50+ riders loops around the "Perimeter." We do 5 loops which comes to around 37 miles. The ride is around 90 minutes depending on the speed of the group. The ride is fast and it requires so much focus. There are a lot of surges as the riders in front try to breakaway and then the g...

I've heard some recent talk by athletes of their concerns of a post-workout smoothie containing berries and greens. Athletes are hearing that they should avoid berries and greens for at least 4 hours post workout in order to optimize recovery. The case for avoiding antioxidant rich foods immediately after exercise is based on research saying that "antioxidant supplements seem to be working against the beneficial effects of exercise: Promoting, rather than reducing, oxidative stress." In other words, antioxidants can actually increase inflammation, rather than decreasing it. As a Board Certified Sport Dietitian, I'd like to share my thoughts on this topic. But first I'd like to say that this is a topic that needs much more quality research before we (nutrition experts) can make a general recommendation to apply to all athletes. A free radical is an unstable molecule that’s missing at least one electron in its outermost orbit, which causes it to be negatively c...