Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

The other day I received an email regarding gluten-free diets and athletes. The emailer wanted to know if there were any performance benefits of a gluten-free diet. Here's my thoughts, which are strictly based on my thoughts and experiences from athletes except for the info regarding celiac disease which is from my Medical Therapy textbook: As far as the gluten-free diet, most people who are advised to adhere to a gluten-free diet suffer from celiac disease. Celiac disease has a lot of symptoms including diarrhea, anaemia (due to poor absorption of iron, folate and B12), indigestion, abdominal pain, bloating, weight loss, fatigue, and infertility. When celiac disease athletes suffer from these conditions a gluten free diet can help alleviate the symptoms. However, for the majority of athletes who don't have celiac disease, a gluten-free diet may or may not improve performance. First off, the symptoms of bloating and stomach distress are common in athletes who consume a lot of s...

Fish is a must have in the diet of non-vegetarian and non-vegan athletes. I recommend fish after a hard weekend of training or after an intense workout. The omega-3 fatty acids in fish (particularly EPA) have a tremendous positive affect on inflammation. Since you train your body in order to strengthen the heart, omega-3's are also helpful to lower cholesterol, triglycerides, LDLs (bad cholesterol) and BP, while increasing good HDL cholesterol. Since we exercise for heart-health, in addition to performance gains, it is important to eat to keep your muscles, tissues, bones and heart healthy through healthy food choices. The healthy fats in fish can also help prevent stroke and heart attack. Although you may consider yourself healthy for exercising on a daily basis, a clean diet filled with healthy fats is critical if you want to keep your arteries and veins healthy. No point feeling confident in your exercise routine if you eat unhealthy (trans fats, saturated fats) and your insides...

I needed this weekend. I am exhausted. Glad it is over but enjoyed it all. Enjoyed the mental obstacles, the sore body, the worries that my injury would come back and the happiness when I finished the workout. Saturday would be the big day. Therefore, I was mentally prepared...much more than last weekend. As for a week ago, there's just something about a 10am 100 mile bike ride which is not mentally exciting. However, my plan for yesterday was to leave at 6:30am for a 6 hour/110 mile ride. Karel and I woke up at 5am to get the morning started. Coffee, my oatmeal mix (banana slices, blueberries, honey and raisin) and wasa cracker w/ PB. Not as much as I will do for IM but enough to keep my tummy happy for a few hours. I also had a different plan for my nutrition. Due to my extreme hunger last week, I decided to go with Sustained Energy from Hammer rather than only heed. I am not a big solid food or gel eater when I work out and I prefer getting my 220-240 calories/hr from sports dri...

Enjoy my latest article on Iron Girl.com and don't forget to subscribe to the FREE Iron Girl e-newsletter!! Pre-race nutrition tips Marni Rakes, M.S. Are you a newbie triathlete, about to embark on your first triathlon? Aside from the fear of how your body will feel as you run your way to the finish line, race-day nutrition is certainly on your mind. Regardless of if you are a novice or a veteran, a well- practiced race-day nutrition plan is always a top priority when attempting to perform at your best. Ask any veteran triathlete and she will tell you race-day nutrition takes planning and practice. Most people say you must practice in training what you will do in a race. True to an extent, but rarely do you wake up at 4:30 a.m. to fuel for a 7 a.m. swim- bike-run workout at maximum heart rate with 500 to 1,500 of your closest friends. Unlike training, where you exercise at different intensities and for different sport disciplines depending on the day of the week, race day brings a ...

Sat morning I woke up very nervous for the 2.5 mile ocean swim. That's a lot of swimming in the ocean. Not sure what's worse to think about, 2.5 miles of swimming or an hour+ of continuous swimming. It was hard for me to eat a whole lot at 5:30am so I added a Wasa cracker w/ PB to my normal pre-bike breakfast of oatmeal, raisins, honey and banana slices. My friend Laura came over to my place and we loaded up our bikes in her car. I had to work out my training plans well before Sat so I could do my swim+long bike and make it home sometime before dark. We made our drive to Jacksonville beach, got our caps and chips and waited for the buses. At 7:30am we got bused 2.5 miles down the road on a school bus. Fun times with 100 nearly naked athletes in a school bus. This reminded me of high school swim meets, except we wore warm parkas to our swim meets. It sure took a while to drive 2.5 miles but finally we arrived to our starting point. A little after 8am it was time to line up on th...

More to come tomorrow..... Weekend stats Sat: 2.5 mile ocean swim - 1:08.03 101 mile solo bike - 5:27 Sun: 14 mile solo run - 1:55 + 1 campy mile I am trying to use whatever brain functions I have left to study 150 pages of fat soluble and water soluble vitamins for my Adv nutrition exam tomorrow. My finals are on Wed (medical therapy) and Fri (cumulative Adv. nutrition). Nothing like finals week + last IM training week. I think I can, I think I can, I know I can......