Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Do you have what it takes?  What exactly am I talking about? Self-improvement.  Some of the best feelings in life are when you feel like you improved. And not just any improvement like moving up a level at your job or learning a second language. While both meaningful and valuable, it's the moments in life when you overcome a challenge, typically with a bit of suffering, and you feel like you are really living life to the fullest, while doing something worthwhile with your body. This is why it's commonly said that sports change people. Being an athlete is a title that changes you forever. I believe it's a great thing to be an athlete as it fosters great dedication, commitment, focus and passion to many other areas in life - not related to sports. You can't deny that the satisfaction of proving something to yourself as an athlete, perhaps something that you didn't think was possible, is an invigorating feeling. Because the proving requires hard work, in...

As a triathlete, I have to be prepared for any and all race day conditions and scenarios. My sport is not singular but instead, a dynamic mix of three sports - swim, bike, run.  As a coach, I have to be prepared for any and all race day conditions and scenarios to help my athletes overcome race day curve balls. A cancelled swim, a modified bike course, a cancelled, then rescheduled race, non stop rain, freezing cold and windy, extremely hot, two flat tires, GI issues, cramps.....yep, we have dealt with it all by our Trimarni athletes.  A few scenarios come to mind:  2014 IMFL - cancelled swim, cold and windy bike While at the venue, just a short time before the IM Swim start, the swim was cancelled due to swells in the ocean. Karel and I had to think fast and thankfully, our athletes had their cell phones on them as there was a period of time between the cancelled swim and TT bike start that we could re-establish a new game plan. As c...

In the spring, I read  an article from Bethany Rutledge about the perfect pain cave for your budget and it made me so happy. I have always been a gym lover but over the years, I've learned that time management is extremely important as an adult age group triathlete. We could not be more pleased with our at-home gym and how useful it is for our active lifestyle.  A lot of time and money goes into a home-gym but in my opinion, it's a huge time-saver and it's cost effective.  We can workout no matter the weather. We can workout no matter the time of the day.  We can workout when we don't want to commute to the gym. We can workout even when we don't have the energy to workout. We can workout without distractions.  We can workout and suffer in privacy.  I can imagine that there are some pretty nice at-home gyms with some pricey equipment but for us, we needed an at-home gym that was practical for our swim/bike/run lifestyle. Although trainin...

Look...mountains!  It's crazy to think that it was just a week ago when we were swimming with fishes in the ocean, and sweating in the lava fields. This past Saturday, we returned back to our mountains (with arm warmers) and explored a new route on two wheels (on road bikes). I absolutely LOVE cycling this time of the year - the tree leaves are so pretty! Our route was familiar to me as I had rode it at the Purple Patch Fitness (PPF) Greenville camp but it was new to Karel. It's crazy to think that we have lived here in Greenville for 2.5 years and have never done the   Green River Cove loop  together!! I am absolutely in love with this 20-mile loop! The beauty, the switchbacks, the descends, the climbing, the flat roads, the river views, the nice pavement, the quite roads, the mountains...it has everything a cyclist should love when riding on two wheels! Seeing that we will ride this loop at the end of the 80-mile Hincapie Gran Fondo next Saturday...

How do you define success? Is success a feeling or an action? Is success a time or placement or from something more internal? In looking back at our 2016 racing season (starting from December 2015), we would define 2016 as a successful racing season.  Perhaps the most successful racing season for both of us (in my 10 years of endurance racing and in Karel's short 4-years since he started triathlon training). While the wins, podiums and PR's can define success, our 2016 success wasn't defined simply by our end results. A few things come to mind when it comes to defining "success" in 2016.  - Consistency - despite a major setback with Karel in late May with a MRI diagnosis of a hip labral tear, followed by SI joint/back issues, which followed 11 months of overcoming a plantar tear, Karel was still able to train somewhat consistently to absorb a lot of training stress throughout the season. These injuries required a lot of help from PT's, massag...

A certain level of obsession is needed when it comes to dreaming big and working hard for goals.  With the Ironman World Championship event now behind us, alongside the Olympics and many notable road running races and other athletic events, there's a good chance that you may aspire to achieve something incredible with your body in the next few years. While this big dream of yours may excite the heck out of you, you also know it will require a lot of sacrifices, investments and hard work.....but that doesn't scare you. Whereas some athletes choose words like "determination and passion" when speaking about their love for their sport, chasing a goal requires a high level of commitment and sometimes you may even feel addicted. In the October 2016 issue of Triathlete magazine (pg 62.), Gloria Petruzzelli (who also happens to be my best friend and one outstanding clinical sports psychologist) says "Addiction in this sense can be defined as en...

After 30 minutes or so of visualization/music around 8pm, Karel was was out for his last sleep before race day. His pre-race dinner consisted of chicken and rice, which is typical and pretty simple. Oh, and of course something sweet, which was a big bite of a cranberry scone from Lava Java. Race morning started with an alarm at 4am and Karel got out of bed to start the coffee. Karel didn't show any signs of nervousness, just the typical anxiousness of having to wait a few hours before the race start and the unknowns of race day. Karel felt extremely prepared for this race as he knew every part of the course. This gave him a lot more confidence in terms of execution compared to last year in Kona. Also, no part of the course scared him, not even the marathon course. He wasn't afraid to "race" it but then again, he really respects the course and its elements, so managing effort and proper execution were critically important. After digesting his favorite ...