Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Training is easy. You feel great when you get your endorphin boost, you can control your environment (or select your terrain), there is no pressure because no one is watching or tracking you and you know that if a workout doesn't go as planned, you always have tomorrow to try again. On the other hand, race day is stressful! Feeling pressure to perform - especially in an unfamiliar and/or uncontrolled environment - brings anxiety, nerves and expectations. It's easy to compare yourself to other athletes and experience a heightened fear of failure. Never in training do you feel what you feel on race day. Far too many athletes complain that they can train better than they race - finishing a race feeling like they underperformed, relating back to all the amazingly great workouts that they crushed, yet feel defeated as to why they were unable to perform on race day, despite feeling so prepared.  One of the great challenges for triathletes is translating training into a great...

Enjoying the sunset in St. Croix. Although I consider myself a competitive triathlete, triathlon is an outlet, a stress reliever and an opportunity for me to have my “me” time. Triathlon is much more than the hobby that keeps me healthy and active but it provides me with valuable life experiences. For me, one of my most favorite things about triathlon is having the opportunity to combine traveling and racing - two things that enrich my life. Traveling to a race, although a bit stressful and expensive, can be a fun and exciting experience, filling you with lots of great memories in your triathlon journey and showing you different places and faces.  Feeling cheesy in route to Madison, Wisconsin.  When planning your next race-cation, there are a few important considerations that you need to take into consideration to help you minimize the stress and oh-$h!t situations (let's get real here, traveling is not easy-breezy). My tips below are not requirements but rather sugg...

Do you love to race as much as you love to train?  Training is fun because you are in control, in your own environment. No one is watching or tracking you. You have nothing to prove.  Racing can be scary as it's filled with unknowns. You are nervous and you feel a lot of pressure to perform. You have expectations that you feel must be fulfilled or else you term the race as unsuccessful.  While it's great to be passionate about your training, don't forget why you train...so you can be physically and mentally prepared for race day.  And just because you race, it doesn't mean you have to PR, podium or beat your closest competition. Carefully selecting your races is a great way to set yourself up for a great upcoming season as it’s the map that helps guides your training. It's also the easiest way for you to envision and visualize yourself developing as an athlete so you know where your training is going. Planning ahead also shows your coach (and you...

Cheers to your 2016 season! If you haven't started already, it's time to start thinking about your 2017 year of racing. When it comes to season planning, there are typically two types of athletes who fail with season planning. Athlete 1 - signs up for races without any thought as to the season as a whole. A race is open, looks "fun", wants redemption from racing it in the past or knows other athletes who are racing the same event are all typical responses as to how athletes plan their races. There's little thought as to the logistics and timing of these races and many times. Athlete 2 - So overwhelmed, doesn't like to plan or commit and just waits to register when the timing is right (typically, races close and the athlete has to find other options).  ------------------------- With so many races to choose from and so much unpredictability in life, you may be overwhelmed with the thought of having to register for races, book hotels/flights and as...

You may be asking yourself why I am writing about planning your triathlon season now, instead of waiting until the off-season? Back in November, I wrote  a blog  about our racing season as well as 10 tips on planning your season.  Although this blog was written just before the New Year, Karel and I actually discussed our 2014 season back in the Spring 2013.  For triathletes who are choosing to do an Ironman, it's likely that you have to sign up in a year in advance. So if the Ironman is your ultimate goal (or a half IM), it is important to consider how you are going to plan your season. And you may want to consider your season planning before you register for your endurance race.  I realize that a lot can occur in a year, most of which is out of your control especially if you are unable to plan for it to happen (or not happen).  Over the past three years, I have been able to peak appropriately for my races (despite overcoming some o...