Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

We could not be more excited to welcome another cycling event to Greenville, SC this weekend! This weekend at the  Bikeville Classic ,  Professional men and women will be competing for the Stars and Stripes National Championship Jersey in the team time trial and criterium.  Elite amateur racers are also competing both days, as well as a fun ride on Saturday on the Southern Connector. If you are in or around the area, we highly recommend that you attend this event! We hope to see you at the Crit on Sunday as we will be cheering on the pro cyclists in downtown Greenville. (after the event, enjoy a walk in Falls Park or enjoy our awesome downtown and shop and dine at one of our many awesome restaurants). Professional Team Time Trial National Championship The Bikeville Classic Weekend kicks off Saturday, April 16 with the Team Time Trial National Championships on the Southern Connector (I-185). The winning team will be the one who records fastest time ov...

As an athlete, you have special nutritional requirements compared to your fellow exercise enthusiasts. You do incredible things with your body on a daily basis and you have high expectations for what your body will do on race day. And unlike research laboratory studies, you are not exercising to see how long you can go but instead, you train to see how fast you can cover a specific distance on a specific date.   As an athlete, you probably experience many challenges when it comes meeting your extreme training needs through the daily diet because you are not like other people who must only meet basic nutritional needs - you must have great nutritional habits on a day-to-day basis but you also have an extra responsibility to your body to ensure it has the right foods, at the right times to give you extra energy, to delay fatigue, to promote recovery and to keep your body in good hormonal and metabolic health. First off, if you are reading this right now, I want you to ...

Most athletes will come to me for nutrition help with the goals of: -Improving performance -Improving their relationship with food and/or the body -Changing body composition All three goals require dietary changes (in some capacity) and depending on the athlete, he/she may want to achieve all three goals listed above, or just one or two. Oddly enough, sometimes changing body composition can improve performance but so can improving the relationship with food and the body. And sometimes focusing on nutrition limiters and strengths in order to improve performance, with a great relationship with food and the body can change body composition.  There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to dietary changes as every individual is on his/her own nutritional journey. Furthermore, every athletes may have his/her own personal limitations when it comes to the "best" approach to changing the diet - this can be anything from lack of healthy food options, unrealistic eating/bo...

It seems like every day there is a new diet telling us what not to eat and a scientific article for reference. A nutrition expert, doctor, celebrity, professional athlete or personal trainer touting a diet plan. A book, blog or website telling us what foods are destroying our health.  And a food company excited to grab the market share by introducing a new “healthy” re-engineered processed food alternative which has the opportunity to be highly profitable.   And with all this information - people are still confused how to eat.  Whether it’s lack of confidence, common sense, passion or effort for healthy eating, much of our society relies on diet plans as the easiest or quickest way to lose weight, improve performance or to improve health. In America, eating habits are unstable.  When it comes to the mention of food, people are confused. You may have even found yourself grocery shopping and saying "I have no idea what to buy or eat!" In our...

We live in a culture that emphasizes, rewards, worships and celebrates lean, toned and fit bodies. Individuals with an unhealthy relationship with food and the body may seek extreme events to train for and restrictive methods of eating and fueling in an effort to control weight and to justify excessive exercise patterns.   Many athletes succeed in sports (especially endurance events) because they are great at doing things in extreme. But extreme thoughts, attitudes and beliefs about food and the body (especially as it relates to performance improvements) can become obsessive and may lead to more serious disordered eating habits. If your self-imposed rules, regulations and guidelines about what to eat and not to eat around and during workouts are taking precedence of what your body actually needs (and even with alarming symptoms like low blood sugar, dizziness, nausea, fatigue, blurred vision, headache, dehydration manifesting into your workout or day), you are manip...

                                   We ate a lot during the two weeks that we were in Florida for our training camp in Clermont + another week in Jacksonville for RETUL fits (Karel) and I spoke to the Delafina Women Cycling club. Despite eating a lot of food, no meal left us feeling bad, stuffed, bloated or guilty as we always eat with good intentions and have a great relationship with food. (even when Karel eats his frozen chocolate "recovery bar" - inside joke, ask us about it when you see us in person :)  During our trip, we had a nice combination of food prepared at home (well, our homes away from home) and a few inspiring meals from restaurants. After our Clermont training camp, we spent a week in Jacksonville, FL (where we use to live from 2008-2014 and stayed with our friend Shawn B. and his family. On Thursday evening (3/24), Karel, Shawn and I left the house around 5pm a...

Fueling the Vegetarian Athlete – nail the basics In the current (May) issue of  Triathlete Magazine  (pg 64), I discuss some of the important considerations in fueling the vegetarian athlete. This month I am celebrating 24-years of being a vegetarian (lacto-ovo). In the month of April, when I was 10 years old, I came home from school one day and told my parents that I didn't want to eat animals anymore. I've always loved animals and even at a young age, it was my love for animals that prompted me to be a vegetarian. I'm pretty sure I didn't call myself a vegetarian in my early years as that word wasn't part of my vocabulary but instead I just told people "I don't eat meat". My diet has evolved over the past two decades, especially as I learned more about nutrition and sport nutrition. But in all reality, my diet is no different than yours except for that I don't eat meat or fish. I'm assuming you eat a lot of plants too, right? Even thou...