Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Over the past few days, I have been surrounded by many inspiring Ironman athletes who are counting down the days until it is time to put all that hard work to good use (one more sleep left!). Although I am out there swimming, biking and running alongside hundreds of other athletes, my intentions with each workout are very different than the athletes who sport a blue wrist band. As Karel sharpens up his body to race 140.6 miles on Sunday, I have been training my body to adapt to intentional training stressors. Karel has done the work for his race day and I am (still) putting in the work for my upcoming races. We each wake up with a workout on our training plan but with different mindset as to how the day will go and what we need to accomplish. Whereas I have great flexibility in my training and I don't have to read too much into my body signals, Karel, on the other hand, has to be very in-tune with his body signals so that he can perform his best on race day. The Ironman athl...

Now that we are all settled in and we have made Lake Placid our home away from home until Tuesday, it's time to look back on the past 48 hours as we have been very busy!  My train-cation started on Wednesday morning with a 1.2 mile swim in beautiful Mirror Lake. Oh do I love swimming in this lake. With an underwater cable to keep me on course, floating small buoys to break up the swim and lots to look at in the lake, I am reminded of how much I love open water swimming when I swim in this lake. After my swim, I walked back to our house (1/2 mile away) and got myself ready for my second workout of the day - a 75- minute interval run.  Although I got a little warm during my run, it was nothing compared to the heat that I have been training in in Greenville. Plus, the dry air was so welcoming. I was running happy, despite working hard with my body. WU: 20 minutes on the start of the IM run course MS: 6 x 6 minutes as (#1-2 build by 2 min to strong. #3-4 2 min EZ, 4...

After over 1000 miles of driving, we finally made it to Lake Placid, NY. Although it was a looooong drive, divided into two days (7.5 hours of driving on Monday and 9 hours of driving on Tuesday), it all felt worth it when we arrived to our final destination.  With Campy's 10th birthday approaching in September, we wanted to share this experience with him. As he gets older, we look forward to any and all opportunities to make memories together as a family. Campy is our furry child and he has a special way of keeping us stress-free, calm and appreciative of all the little things in life. Plus, he gives us non-stop unconditional love.  It wasn't long into our road trip on Monday that we made a stop at the  Flat Rock Village Bakery . Since we only end up at this bakery mid-long-ride (and jersey pockets not big enough for a mega cinnamon roll or a loaf of bread), we took advantage of this opportunity to stock up on some fresh local bread for the first leg ...

It was only four years ago when Karel and I made the trip up to Lake Placid for the 2013 Ironman. Not only was this an amazing opportunity to make memories together in a new location but this was Karel's very first Ironman! Although I never take an Ironman start for granted, I couldn't believe that I would be sharing a 140.6 mile race course with Karel for my 6th Ironman. I was so use to seeing Karel on the sidelines that it was a little strange, exciting and special to see Karel on the race course.  When we arrived to Lake Placid, we were in awe of the mountain views. The scenery was breathtaking and we felt so lucky that we could race in such a beautiful venue while soaking in all of the nature around us. Lake Placid was the last place that we both visited before we decided to move to Greenville, SC. After returning home from IM Lake Placid in 2013, it was only 6 months later that we decided to make the scary but exciting decision to leave the beach scene and famil...

Over the past few weeks, I have noticed a significant improvement in my running speed at longer distances. While I haven't done any specific speed work in my training this season, I often find myself finishing a run workout saying "wow, I can't believe I just did that." I am not chasing pace, heart rate or miles but instead, I am defining a successful run workout by execution at this point in my season development. Seeing there are many ways to guide and improve performance, identifying limiters and addressing weaknesses, I find that chasing metrics brings me great stress as gadgets have a way to rule a workout. Additionally, when a gadget/metric controls a workout, it's easy to chase numbers and to assume that fitness is not "good" when numbers are lower/slower than anticipated. A workout is simply that. A workout. It doesn't define a season and it doesn't mean that you are destined to have a bad race if you don't hit your expected ...

I love breakfast.  There's something special about that first real meal of the day that helps to wake up my body and brain. I love starting my day with a happy and filled tummy. Plus, there's no denying that I love breakfast foods. Did someone say pancakes or french toast?? Yummo.   Although research doesn't clearly demonstrate that eating breakfast has a positive effect on weight maintenance or loss, there are still valid reasons why nutrition experts continue to highlight breakfast as the most important meal of the day.  Eating is all about personal preference but the timing of your meals may reflect your daily habits. Individuals who tend to skip breakfast are those who typically overeat in the evening or graze throughout the afternoon/evening. Additionally, if you didn't grow up eating breakfast, there's a good chance that as an adult you will not consider breakfast as an important or necessary meal.  While the debate ...

There's not a day that goes by that I don't thank my body for what it allows me to do. I may be an athlete, but I am also a coach. As a triathlon coach and Board Certified Sport Dietitian, my job is to help athletes optimize performance for race day. Although many factors contribute to performance improvements, many coaches (and nutrition experts) believe that losing weight will aid in performance improvements. Unhealthy weight control/loss practices are a serious problem in sport, especially in the two sports that I specialize in - triathlon and running. Too often, athletes are pressured by media, coaches and competitors to change body composition in order to boost performance. If losing weight was a guarantee to performance improvements, than any athlete who has lost weight would find it easy to succeed in sport. But this is far from the truth. Many athletes are told (or assume) that they would be more successful in a sport if they lost weight or changed body compo...