Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

As you go from winter to spring to summer, it takes much more effort and energy to maintain a "normal" pace as the temperature rises. As a way to keep your exercising body safe in the heat, your body increases your sweat rate to remove heat from your body through evaporative cooling. As you become dehydrated (from fluid loss), blood volume decreases. In turn, more blood going to the skin means less going to your heart. To maintain cardiac output (the amount of blood pumped by the heart minute), heart rate increases in order to supply the working muscles with blood. But due to a decline in blood availability (for cooling), less blood is available to go to the working muscles. When the body can no longer take care of all of its responsibilities (remember - all of this is happening so you don't die in the heat), your body begins to shut down to keep you safe. If you ignore the signs of overheating, heat builds up in your body, your core temp increases and you are at risk for...

Remember when you were complaining about the cold weather? Hello summer heat! The body has many mechanisms to help adapt to a range of environmental conditions. Heat acclimatization plays a major role in the body’s physical responses and overall ability to perform the heat. What is heat acclimatization?  Heat acclimatization (or acclimation) involves biological adaptations that reduce physiological strain (ex. heart rate and body temperature), improve comfort, improve exercise capacity and reduce the risks of serious heat illness during exposure to heat stress. Heat acclimatization can occur in a hot and dry environment as well as a hot and humid environment. Acclimatization varies person to person and also depends on the volume of exercise, the intensity of exercise, hydration status and fitness level. Trained athletes and those with less body surface area will generally (but not always) have more physical advantages to tolerating the heat compared to the untrained or t...

Acclimatization Complete heat acclimatization requires up to 14 days but the systems of the body adapt at varying rates. Be mindful that every time you train in the heat, you gain more tolerance to the heat. In other words, you do not need to make an effort to train in the hottest time of the day acclimate to the heat. Continue to build fitness in a temperature controlled environment, alongside training in the heat (you don't need to be outside in the heat for every workout). There's no point suffering in the heat if you are unable to complete a workout and stay consistent with your training. Sometimes you just need to stay indoors. Change in physiology It is very important to lower the intensity during the first 1-2 weeks of training in the heat (ex. early summer) as your body is trying to improve control of cardio functioning. Be mindful that acclimatization will require you to reduce your effort/intensity so be OK with seeing slower paces/watts in the first few ...

Triathletes and endurance athletes are very susceptible to dehydration and even more so, a heat-related injury at this time of the year. Whereas in the cold/cooler months of the year, athletes can get away with haphazard fueling and hydration strategies and poor pacing, now is the time in the year when a poorly planned fueling/hydration regime and pushing too-hard or too-far will negatively affect workouts, adaptations and health. Let it be known that training in the heat is incredibly stressful for the body. Seeing that training (in any environment) already creates difficulty for the body to adequately digest and absorb nutrients and fluids, you can imagine why so many athletes experience harmful health issues, GI struggles, extreme fatigue, heat stress, dehydration and so many more issues during the summer months when training for an event. As an example, exercise increases body temperature. The harder and longer you train, the higher your resting temperature. Your body comp...

RUN I feel many triathletes need a constant reminder that they are not runners. Certainly, runners do not need to be reminded that they are not triathletes. Runners absorb a completely training stress than the multisport athlete. Furthermore, the race day effort of a triathlete is based on the race distance, which determines what time of the day a triathlete runs and what type of mechanical fatigue the triathlete brings to the run. Thus, the pacing and fueling strategy for run training and running are very different than the single sport athlete. (Note - even for runners, I still find it valuable to set up aid stations or bring nutrition and hydration with you during long runs) For the triathletes, you can not think like a runner when you train for triathlons. For example, if you are doing a brick run, you can not think of your run off the bike as "only" a 20-minute run. I see it all the time - a triathlete is out on his/her bike for 3, 4, 5+ hours and then ...

BIKE It's unfortunate but many athletes underfuel in training and overfuel on race day. Why do triathletes do this? Underfueling can be from many reasons - fear of gaining weight, wanting to lose weight, trying to be more "metabolically efficient," not knowing how to fuel, not feeling that (more) calories are needed, thinking sport nutrition is bad/unhealthy, not bringing enough energy/fluids, not planning stops accordingly, poor planning/feeling rushed to get in a workout or not knowing how much energy/fluids are needed. Certainly, underfueling does not enhance performance and consequently, not meeting energy and hydration needs can sabotage health.  Overfueling on race day is often out of fear of not having enough energy . Sadly, no amount of calories on race day can make the body perform at an intensity that was not established in training.  And if you are an athlete who underfuels in training, not only are you missing an opportunity to boost fitness in trai...

Hopefully by now in the season, you have dialed in your fueling and hydration regime to help you adapt well to training and to keep your body healthy.  While there can be several pronounced and noticeable symptoms to let you know that you are not meeting your energy, electrolyte and fluid needs during your longer or more intense workouts, like headache, not feeling the urge to urinate during a long workout or for hours after the workout, nausea, bloating, fatigue, muscle aches/throbbing and dizziness, you may notice that even without a health or performance-related issue, with the intense summer heat, something is still off with your fueling and hydrating strategy. Important note: the symptoms I mentioned  are not "normal" just because you are an athlete, training hard, wanting to get faster or leaner or training for a long distance event. Over the next few blogs, you will learn a few simple tweaks that you can make to your current fueling and hydration regime. As a Board...