Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

When we arrived to the transition area at Hunter Springs in Crystal River, it felt like any other triathlon. Although there were only 17 participants, the atmosphere felt familiar. There was music, spectators (crew for each athlete), an announcer, lots of signage, rules to follow, race volunteers and staff, and a fenced in transition area. While this event was technically called a "gathering," it felt really good to be showing up to a triathlon race - especially after a season of cancelled races.  After setting up our transition area and turning in our run gear bag to the race staff (for them to bring to T2 - which was ~102 miles away in Ocala), it was almost time for the national anthem, followed by the athlete pre-race meeting. The energy around us was positive and there was a strong sense of camaraderie among the group. We instantly felt like we were all part of a family.  2 mile swim Karel and I lined up near the front on the grassy/sandy shore and exactly at 7:30am, the ...

  We started off the day with a ~3 hour bike ride on our road bikes. We left around 10am and the weather was weird - misty, grey, not too warm, not too cold. We welcomed the fresh crisp air and took in the beautiful sights of nature, farm animals and fall colors. It's incredible that after six years of living in Greenville, SC we are still discovering new routes. Although our country roads are typically pretty quiet from cars, this recent ride treated us with no more than ten cars passing us over just over 50 miles.  After we returned home around 1:30pm, I cleaned up, had a meal and then got to work in the kitchen. While Thanksgiving food centers around traditions, I see this holiday as a way to create memories over food. And there's no better way to create positive memories than around delish food that feels just as good on the taste buds as it does in the belly.  I wanted to share the recipes that I used to create the dishes that I prepared for Thanksgiving. These recip...

This picture means so much to me. It's a picture of my dad cutting the Thanksgiving Turkey in my parents house in New Port Richey, Florida and Campy waiting for pieces of Turkey to "accidentally" drop from the sky. It was my last Thanksgiving with my dad.  My dad was diagnosed with stage IV metastatic cancer to his spine in June 2013. He had major spinal surgery a few weeks later and was not given a good diagnosis if he would ever walk again and the survival rate of this type of aggressive cancer was not good. My dad was fit, otherwise healthy and active. He was also very stubborn and positive.  My dad worked extremely hard to learn how to walk again. After 3 months with a spine brace, wound vac and walker (and assistance with all daily activities) and loads of medications, radiation and chemo.....my dad continued improving his strength and was able to move around the house by Thanksgiving (November 2013) with his walker - all by himself. My dad passed away 3 days before...

  Picture source. Holly Harris.  The holidays can be a stressful time for those in eating disorder or disordered eating recovery. The current pandemic certainly adds another level of stress, anxiety and worry during this holiday season.  Holiday meals can be triggering for those who seek control over food and have (or had) an unhealthy relationship with food and the body. Eating with others (even virtually) may bring an overwhelming amount of uncomfortable feelings. Whether you are afraid of gaining weight, trying new foods or binge eating, you dread the uneasy body image and diet conversations with family or you fear being unable to "burn off" the calories with your typical early morning T-day workout, you may find it hard to be kind to yourself during this holiday season.  Although I am not advocating eating with members outside of your household (remember - we still have a deadly and highly contagious virus spreading quickly throughout our country), here are a few...

  In early August, Karel and I registered for the inaugural Lake Summit 10-mile gravel trail running race. We assumed this would be one of our last races of the 2020 season but four weeks later we registered for the Florida Xtreme Triathlon (that race recap is still a work in progress - coming soon!). Because there was only six days between the finish of our 300+ mile event and then 10-mile race, we didn't consider actually showing up for the event until Wednesday last week. After finally feeling more normal again and catching up on a lot of missed sleep, I did a short jog on the treadmill on Thursday and had no aches or niggles. Feeling good about my recovery, I decided that I would show up for the race and just run it for fun. Karel was also feeling really good after the race and did a short jog on Friday just to test the legs. All was good.  On the morning of the race (Saturday), we woke up around 5:25am and had our normal/typical pre race meal (Oatmeal/fruit/nut mix for ...

  Before I get into our actual race recap, I wanted to share how we went about the logistics of this event. As you can imagine, this triathlon event was unlike any other past event. Not only did we need a crew to transport our gear in our car from stage to stage (and to help us stay well fueled and hydrated) but we also had to move our stuff from hotel to hotel to hotel, we had three separate transition areas for swim to bike and three completely different transition areas for bike to run. This required a lot of packing and repacking, planning and organizing.  Having never done this type of event before, I was very thankful that the Xtreme Tri staff provided us with hotel suggestions (and discounted rates) which made it easy to plan out where to stay. Although we typically don't stay in hotels when we race (we prefer an Airbnb for the kitchen and space), the hotel option made the most sense for an easy check in and check out (and less effort searching for a place to stay). Sin...

  Wow. I can't believe what we just accomplished.  When Karel told me about the Xtreme triathlon event, it sounded like a challenging event. While we were challenged in ways that we have never experienced before, there was so much more to this event that we didn't expect.  Before I give a quick recap of the event, I need to give a huge thank you to our support crew - which was our friend and athlete Alvaro. Al took time away from work, family and his own training to help us navigate through the logistics of this point to point to point event. We could not have done this event without his support, videos, pictures, cheers, encouragement and ability to know what we needed at any point in the race.  I'd also like to give a big shoutout to the Xtreme Triathlon and SommerSports crew, volunteers and staff. Every person involved in the event showed professionalism, enthusiasm and encouragement. This was a legit race with official timing, start and finish signs at the transi...