Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Ask any coach and they likely would agree that it is easy to write workouts to help get an athlete into great physical shape before race day. But performing on race day is another story. No training plan can confidently prepare an athlete for the uncontrollables that happen on race day.  As it relates to the many (and I mean MANY) conditions that we can experience on race day, being physically prepared is just a portion of what it requires to have a great race. It is so true that "whether you think you can or think you can't, you are right." I've seen and heard far too many athletes bring doubt to a race just because race-day conditions are not ideal. And more than just doubt, there's anxiety, stress, anger, frustration and even the mindset that race day will be a horrible experience.  If you are an athlete who races outdoors, you will find yourself racing in conditions that are not ideal for a PR race. You may even find yourself having to a...

I can't believe it. We are just two weeks away from the 2015 Ironman World Championship. Over the past week, every now and then, it hits me and I have to take a long exhale to calm my nerves and to bottle up my excitement. In 14 days, Karel and I, and 1500+ age group and professional triathletes from around the world, will start our  140.6 mile journey on the hot and windy island of Kona, Hawaii. With every Ironman journey, I learn a lot about myself. This journey has been unique and special in that I had so much fun training my races this season and I had three great performances to help me re-discover my love for racing. I also really enjoyed how my body responded to all of the workouts. And many of those workouts were not easy!! I've never swam so much before, I've never ran so much before and I've never climbed on my bike so much before. And despite the training load that I accomplished week after week for the past 11 weeks, I've never felt so s...

I've always been an athlete/coach who favors quality over quantity. Well, maybe not in my first few years of endurance training but through leaning the hard way with many lows in my Ironman journey's, I have learned to appreciate a smarter way to physically preparing my body to race for 140.6 miles.  As it relates to training the human body for an endurance race (ex. Ironman distance triathlon), there are so many different approaches that I could spend hours and hours discussing all of the different methods that coaches and athletes follow in order to physically prepare the body for race day and dissecting how I prepare my athletes, of all different fitness levels and abilities, for endurance races. Now I will say that there is a big difference between actually changing the physiology of the body to physically be ready to handle the demands of the upcoming race versus feeling ready as it relates to the mental component of handling the demands of the upcoming race....

In the last 48 hours, we have gone from feeling exhausted, tired and slow to feeling fresh, strong and excited.  We had a lot to recover from on Monday and Tuesday this week as we could mentally and physically feel the effects of our last big block of Kona training that happened last week.  Yesterday, I checked the Ironman World Championship event page and saw that bib numbers were released: Karel: 1739 (35-39 AG) Marni: 2129 (30-34 AG) Talk about the perfect timing for a little dose of motivation before a key workout on Wednesday (today) morning.  We were both looking forward to a little higher intensity workout on the bike this morning (6 x 4 min strong efforts w/ 5 min EZ in between) but because we don't have many options for a "flat" segment of road to put our head down and push, Karel set up our trainers in the garage (aka Karel's fit studio) and we sweated for 90 minutes while watching the 1995 Ironman World Championship  for a little ...

Happy 39th Birthday to Karel!! I remember celebrating Karel's 30th birthday with him 9 years ago. We were newly dating and I threw him a surprise party with our Gearlink friends. He was shocked and speechless. It seems like every year since then, we have been super busy with life, celebrating our birthdays between or at races. We don't do anything extravagant on our birthdays or give each other fancy gifts but it does give us a great excuse to get dressed up in "normal" clothes and to go out to a nice restaurant for dinner and dessert. No matter how busy we are in life, I find it important to take a little time to remember the past and to get excited for the future. With Karel....no day is boring in my life.  Cheers to many more races (spectating and racing) together.   Cheers to many more trips to Europe together and visiting your family.  Cheers to many more years of loving and spoiling Campy. (lots of years - like at least 50 more years) Cheers ...

What a great feeling to be starting my less than 20-day countdown until the 2015 Ironman World Championship with a healthy and strong body and mind.  On paper, this past week of Kona training was tough and not to mention, our hilly terrain makes everything tougher when we train. But I'm not complaining - training for my 10th Ironman in my new city/state of Greenville, SC has been so much fun! There is never a shortage of bike routes to keep me entertained and I just love all my running hill courses for running (in addition to being 2 miles from Furman University).  Monday was a needed day off from cardio (a little PM mobility strength) and Tuesday was a 8.7 mile AM form focused run and 4100 yard PM swim. On Wednesday, Karel and I did a higher intensity bike with 2 x 20 minute best effort intervals w/ 10 min EZ spin in between and we followed our 2:42 bike with a form focused 3.5 mile run. Thursday was a speedy 4400 yard AM swim with 3 rounds of 8 x 100's strong effo...

We all know that it's hard to regret working out after the workout is over. The hard part is always getting started.  Many times, we are told by others that we just need a little motivation to get started. But what if motivation isn't the issue? Is it possible to be highly motivated to workout but your body is not interested in the activity at the same time?   I can assure you that there were many times in the past when I would see a PM run on my schedule, and my mind was "all in" but my body was not interested. Consequently, this would result in two situations; either me skipping the workout all together or me trying to execute with a body that was not energized (which often left me with frustration during my workout followed by uncomfortable niggles post workout).  For me, running in the evening (as a second workout for the day) was always tough on my body. The stress on my body from sitting all day combined with the weight-bearing activity of ...