Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

My alarm went off at 4:05am which gave me 10 minutes to make some coffee with the help of our home electric kettle that we brought + instant coffee (Nescafe Classico), take Campy outside and then fill my Nathan hydration belt flasks (2 of them) with cold water. I sipped on aminos + electrolytes in a small bottle of water and a mug of coffee w/ milk and grabbed my T2 gear (in a drawstring bag that I brought) which included: running shoes, my dad's Corvette hat, race belt,  number (safety pinned), Nathan hydration belt + flasks (with extra nutrition in my belt pocket: margarita Clif blocks, salt tube  and Clif Bar Gel)  and a small towel and headed 10 minutes down the road to T2. I parked and made the 10-15 minute walk to transition. I decided the night before the race that I would go to T2 first thing in the morning (it opened at 4:30am) to drop off my run gear by myself. Since my mom was driving us to the beach (T1/race start) we did not need to board the bus shutt...

After a 1200 yard swim at Furman University around 8am and a delicious drink of Clif chocolate  protein recovery mixed with 1% Organic cow's milk, we packed up my car, loaded the bikes, ate some breakfast (for me - waffle sandwich with syrup, raisins, cinnamon, peanut butter and banana and handful of blueberries) and hit the road. Campy was excited for his first trip to Virginia and since it was our first trip to Williamsburg, we were excited to make lots of memories together as a family. We picked up my mom (who is a great spect-athlete and a wonderful Campy sitter/aka "grandma to Campy") and we started our 7-hour trip to Williamsburg. Our in-car entertainment was several podcasts of  The Real Starky  (which we love to listen to when we travel). We all took turns driving which was good to not be stuck behind the wheel for too many hours at once.  We had plenty of snacks for the trip, including PB, bread, saltines, baked potato chips, hummus, carrots, ...

Obstacles are put into your way to see if what you want is really worth fighting for.  As athletes, we are going to peak only a few times in any given race season. Within every season, we will race on a variety of courses, in a variety of different conditions. Never will two races ever be the same. We will experience highs and lows within every race and between every race, there will be obstacles to overcome to get to the starting line.  As athletes, sometimes we feel so prepared and we fail with our physical attempt on race day. But with every bad race,  we learn how to move on. We continue to fight until we conquer our own personal demons, weaknesses and past setbacks. Sometimes on race day, it all seems to come together. Far too often, it's when we feel least prepared, not ready or feel scared to set goals that are within our reach that we do the impossible with our body on race day. Regardless if we have a great race but it comes with a fight an...

Many factors contribute to the total volume of fluid lost from the body on a daily basis - environmental conditions, size/surface area of an individual, metabolic rate, physical activity load (ex. frequency, duration, intensity), sweat loss, diet composition and volume of excreted fluids.  The daily fluid loss in cool weather (less than 70 degrees F) can be around 2300 mL (with much of that as fluid lost in urine) whereas in warm/hot weather (above 85 degree F weather) it can total 6600+ mL (with most of that lost as sweat).  Once again, as mentioned in my previous post,  relying on thirst to initiate daily water (or sport drink consumption during workouts) is a false recommendation to ensure adequate fluid consumption. I hear it over and over again that athletes feel that they don't need to drink because they aren't thirsty but then when they do feel thirsty, they do not provide themselves with opportunities for frequent drinking and it becomes uncomfortabl...

It surprises me how many athletes assume they are just fine just "getting by" in workouts by not fueling or hydrating during the workout. Could you be underfueling and more importantly, underhydrating during your workout? Maintaining adequate hydration during workouts and especially in races is one of the most important nutrition strategies for optimizing performance and for keeping the body in good health.  Every athlete knows that even losing a small percentage of body weight can affect health and can impair performance so why even think twice about going for a swim, bike or run without adequate fluids? I find myself spending a lot of my time educating athletes on what they are not doing well (or consistently) which could be sabotaging workouts and one area is speaking to triathletes and runners to try to get them to consume adequate fluids during workouts. With so many athletes coming to me looking to boost performance, improve health or to reach body comp...

Most sport nutrition experts try to make nutrition and fueling a body in motion as simple as possible because aside from a few of us who love biochemistry, explaining metabolism in the picture above is likely not the most practical way to understand and apply information as it relates to turning food into energy (aka metabolism).  These days we often hear about ways to eat less. Over and over again, nutrition "experts" proclaim that to be healthier, stronger, leaner, fitter and sexier you need to fast, cleanse, detox or find a way to restrict food. And these suggestions are not just for the sedentary, clinical unhealthy or lightly active. They often trickle down to age group, elite and professional athletes too!  Athletes who restrict food, undereat, overeat, skip meals, underfuel around/during workouts (either intentionally or unintentionally), frequently diet or overtrain may find that the diet is negatively affecting physical and mental health just like overea...

-At the beginning of exercise, your body uses carbs at a very high rate since fat metabolism can not keep up up with producing ATP (energy) fast enough, so early in a workout. Carbs are quick energy makers but we know that utilizing fat for fuel can be a sustainable energy source so long as the intensity and duration are reasonable. (This is why a warm-up is very important before you begin your actual workout to help lower your HR and taking short walk breaks fr equently in the first 2-3 miles of a long run or race. To help your body metabolize the right fuels for your workout, wait around 10-15 minutes into your workout/race to start fueling (ex. on the bike and on the run but do not wait any longer than 20 minutes to ensure that your body receives the fuel it needs to help last the duration of your race/workout). But did you know that carbs are a rate limiting fuel? In order to continue to burn fat for fuel, you need carbohydrates during your workou...