Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Every race requires a bit of planning but racing in the heat requires a bit more thought. When the ambient temperature is extremely high and your working muscles are generating additional heat, it's very important to externally keep your body cool and to replenish what you lose from sweat. During a race, when your metabolic and heat production rates are high, core temperature increases. This isn't too much of a worry in cool conditions but if it's hot and humid outside, the body then has to cope with the environmental heat and the heat produced by the working muscles. To keep you from overheating, the first priority of your body is sending more blood to the skin to help with cooling – leaving less oxygen-rich blood for the muscles and less blood for your gut to help with digestion. As a way to help cool yourself, your body increases the sweat rate to remove heat from your body through evaporative cooling. As you become dehydrated (from water loss), blood volume decre...

Spring has arrived to Greenville, SC! The warm weather is here and our furry crew is soaking it all in. Although Campy gets plenty of time outside in his backyard, our 16.5 year old cat (Smudla) is allowed to enjoy some time outside in the warm sun. At this phase in her life, she pretty much gets whatever she wants. In case you missed it, here's an article from our weekly newsletter (subscribe HERE ) on springtime eating.                                                                    ------------------------------- With winter behind us (hopefully), warm and rich soups, stews, casseroles and drinks are replaced with brightly-colored produce and hydrating beverages. Eating what's local, available and in-season is a practical choice, especially when you are trying to optimize your nutrient intake. To keep you on ...

Sleep is extremely important for your mental and physical health and athletic performance. Do you sleep enough?  Ideally, the adequate amount of sleep to promote optimal health and to avoid the health consequences is between seven and nine hours. If you are Campy, it's 20 hours a day. Because sleep affects how your body performs and functions when you are awake, how much you sleep and the quality of your sleep are equally important. Without a good night's sleep, your immune system, ability to think and learn, glucose metabolism, reaction time and mood can become compromised. Therefore, sleep is critical in athletic success and optimizing health. For most athletes, you probably squeeze in workouts early in the morning or late in the evening due to a busy, rushed and exhausting life schedule. If you are like most sleep-deprived athletes, you've likely become very accustomed to relying on your alarm to help you get out of bed - regardless of how tired you felt the day ...

When writing my book Essential Sports Nutrition , it was important that I included a variety of recipes that everyone could enjoy - regardless of dietary preferences/restrictions. I couldn't think of a more athlete-friendly recipe than one that included oats and blueberries. I prefer this baked oatmeal served warm, but it is also good at room temperature or chilled (I’ll leave that up to you!). This oatmeal keeps well in the refrigerator so it's great to make in advance - make sure you plan for leftovers. It's perfect for a pre-workout snack or as part of your breakfast meal. Blueberry Baked Oatmeal  Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 40 Total Time: 60 minutes Yield: 15 servings INGREDIENTS 2/3 cup chopped pecans 2 cups old-fashioned oats 2 tsp ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon baking powder ½ tsp salt 1 3/4 cups almond milk ⅓ cup maple syrup 2 large flax eggs (2 tbsp flaxseed + 6 tbsp water) 3 tablespoons coconut oil (measured dry, then melted) 2 teas...

Race recap:  As an early season race, I went into this knowing that I haven't done any race specific training so I saw this an opportunity to go through the motions again of racing. There was a lot of tough competition, which I don't mind as that's what racing is all about - racing whoever shows up on the day. The nice thing about this race is having a pool to warm-up in. As a non-competitive swimmer, I always need to warmup in the water before the start of the race. This helps me avoid the "panic" feeling of swimming hard right from the gun. I swam about 700 yards in my warm-up and also jogged about 10 minutes to continue my warm-up before the start of my race. The swim was non-wetsuit and AG wave start. The swim was very congested (especially with 6 turns) but I was happy with how I was able to swim, feeling strong and pushing all the way to the finish. The time was slow but it wasn't too bad for me as a non-wetsuit lake swim. My age group had two wave...

Many athletes believe that by reducing caloric/carb/fat intake and increasing training intensity/volume, performance will improve. But sadly, the opposite occurs. Sport performance declines, the risk for injury increases, hormones get out of whack, metabolism suffers and the body becomes overly stressed. Consider these tips to help keep your body in good health as you train to improve performance. 1) When training volume/intensity increases, your energy consumption must also increase.  An extreme jump in training volume/intensity does not make you a faster, stronger or fitter athlete. 2)  Stay on the path of your own developmental journey instead of jumping on the path of another athlete.  3) Loss of menstruation is not a normal part of training.  4) You do not have to achieve an ideal/specific body type to improve your performance or to experience success in sport. 5) Sport nutrition products are designed to help you adapt better...

Pre-race Going into the first race of the season, I had the typical phantom niggles (that make you believe you are injured) but thankfully, I didn't feel stale. With over nine hours of scheduled training from Mon-Saturday, each workout helped me sharpen-up for race day (Sunday). We stayed one mile from the race venue at  Balmoral Resort  and I would absolutely stay there again for this race. The location was perfect as we could jog, bike or drive to the venue through the back gate and could quickly access Publix grocery store for food. Although we didn't use all of the amenities at the resort, the house made for a relaxing stay leading up to the race. Having Campy with us also made our trip feel a bit more like home as he kept me on a routine and I always had something to look forward to throughout the day. Campy enjoyed all the new sights and smells and had plenty of butt rubs from our athletes. We shared the house with 4 of our athletes and the rest of our ...