Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

  On Friday at noon, we welcomed six athletes to Greenwood, SC for a 3-day gravel camp. Our good friend Alvi was also present as he helped us out throughout the weekend. Gravel riding is not like riding on the road. Sure, you are on a bike that feels similar to a road bike but the skills needed for off road are more similar to mountain biking than road riding. Friday was a true skills session. We only covered 13 miles in four hours but the campers learned a lot. Heavy feet/light hands, body bike separation, and body position were repeated and ingrained into our campers with many opportunities to practice. We sectioned specific areas of the Southeast Gravel Greenwood course. Prior to the camp, our campers completed a questionnaire so that we could better understand what our campers wanted to work on. Here were their responses: -Descending -Riding on loose chunky gravel -Riding on single track -Riding in rain and mud -Cornering  -Not crashing/falling  -Riding in a group -Wh...

  I consider myself to be a good cyclist. But it wasn't always this way. There was a time - not too long ago - that I was terrified to ride my bike on any type of road that resembled going downhill. I would squeeze my brakes and feel so unstable and this caused me to absolutely dread going downhill. Although I could have avoided going downhill by selecting races and routes that were flat, the problem was that I love climbing. And when it came to tight turns, switchbacks or roads where I couldn't see what was coming next, I would find myself frozen with fear, often with tears in my eyes. Pretty much, if the road wasn't going up or it was flat, I was freaking out.  When we moved from Jacksonville, FL. to Greenville, SC. I had no choice but to work on my bike handling skills. I was an experienced triathlete with really poor bike handling skills and this showed on our challenging terrain that is littered with punchy climbs, twists, turns and steep downhills.  With Karel havin...

After the brick on day 3 of camp , our campers had a few hours to chill before our traditional camp pizza party + Q&A. Karel did two bike fits before the pizza party and I was able to get some work done during that time.  We ordered pizza from Sidewall Pizza in Travelers Rest and as always, it was so good. There's something special about sharing yums with others, after several days of exhausting training. We shared our pizza party with a few goats and of course, Campy.  After everyone was finished eating, we spent the next hour answering questions from our campers and sharing a strength that we felt each camper had shown us throughout camp. It was a great way to end day 3 of camp.  Day 4 of camp is tough - mentally and physically. You are tired and your mind begins to drift back to normal life responsibilities. This is why I feel a training camp is so good for athletes as it forces you to overcome so many physical and mental struggles. Whereas ...

Day 3 of camp started around 8:30am. Although we like to start/finish all of our rides at the lodge, we had our campers drive ~20 minutes north to Hotel Domestique  for a more steady climb in the Watershed. Karel and I planned a route that would take our campers about 2.5 hours (including a hill time trial at the end of the ride) and followed up the ride with a 15 minute brick run. The ride included ~5400 feet of elevation gained and the run included about 500 feet. It's a common theme that our terrain is very hilly. It's technical, punchy, rough and challenging. Greenville forces you to become a strong and skillful cyclist. However, we also have something incredible special where we live....bike-friendly roads. As you may have noticed, we don't have shoulders where we live. While it would be a great addition to our roads, I never feel unsafe when I ride. Sure, there's always a rude driver out there but the cars literally share the road with us. It's ra...