Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

  RESULTS 1.2 mile swim: 28:52 T1: 2:47 56 mile bike: 2:49:55 (+ 5 min penalty) T2: 2:15 13.1 mile run: 1:38.30 2nd age group (40-44), 9th female It was too hard to summarize the race in a blog post so Karel and I decided to make a video discussing our race experience. In this video we talk about.... -How I trained/prepared for this race (and why I didn't ride my tri bike more than a few times) -Pre-race workouts and why its beneficial to train on the race course -Managing nerves/expectations - Pre-race fueling (and being organized and prepared) -Swim and T1 execution  -Karel's thoughts on participating in a relay (bike leg) -How my mind was impacted after receiving a penalty  -Serving the penalty  -Putting together a strong run off the bike and breaking 1:40 for the first time in many many years Congrats to the Trimarni team for placing 4th Tri Club! 

  Today is my 41st birthday. I'll admit that I had a very hard time with turning 40 but now that I'm 41, I'm ok with being out of my 30's.  I remember moments of my chilhood as if it happened yesterday. Playing outside with my neighborhood friends, taking road trips with my family and staying up late during sleepovers. High school and college had a lot of highs and lows but I remember specific moments as if they happened yesterday.  As I reflect on all these memories at the age of 41, I realize how fast life is flying by. Sadly, I am also reminded of this quick passing of time because my dad lost his 10-month fight with cancer on May 28th, 2014 - four days before my 32nd birthday. For the past 9 years, my birthday month brings me back to the hardest day of my life and the passing of my dad reminds me that tomorrow isn't promised.  My dad always told me that 'it's not the years in your life that count but the life in your years."  My birth day always mak...

  Oak Mountain Alabama is a special place as it was the location of Karel’s first off-road triathlon in 2021. We actually drove to the race without his mountain bike as he bought a new bike online on race week and we picked it up in Birmingham, two days before the race. Karel had so much fun racing a triathlon off road. Karel’s excitement initiated my mountain biking journey (on Karel’s old mountain bike, until I got my own in 2022), which has been humbling and fun. Although we were very excited to participate in Xterra Oak Mountain, we were sad that we wouldn’t be able to race IM 70.3 Chattanooga. However, since Chatty was a team race for our athletes, we would still be able to spectate the day after our event. The days leading up to our Xterra event were a bit stressful. Campy wasn’t feeling so great, the night before we were supposed to leave, a tube got disconnected from our 70-gallon fish tank as Karel was doing a partial water change and it caused water to leak from upsta...

With memorial day just around the corner, warmer temps are soon to follow. As the summer begins, heat-related issues during exercise become more common. Before I discuss the tips to help you safely exercise in the heat, it's important to understand how heat and humidity affect your body during exercise. As you exercise, your muscles create heat. To keep your body safe as you begin to build up internal heat, your body increases your sweat rate to remove heat from the inside of your body – this happens through evaporative cooling. Overtime, as you become dehydrated (from fluid loss), blood volume decreases. As a result, blood gets thicker. And the more blood going to the skin means less blood going to your heart which means less blood to your working muscles. To maintain cardiac output (the amount of blood pumped by the heart per minute), heart rate increases in order to supply the working muscles with blood. But due to a decline in blood availability (because of cooling), less blood...

As you go from winter to spring to summer, it takes much more effort and energy to maintain a "normal" pace as the temperature rises. As a way to keep your exercising body safe in the heat, your body increases your sweat rate to remove heat from your body through evaporative cooling. As you become dehydrated (from fluid loss), blood volume decreases. In turn, more blood going to the skin means less going to your heart. To maintain cardiac output (the amount of blood pumped by the heart minute), heart rate increases in order to supply the working muscles with blood. But due to a decline in blood availability (for cooling), less blood is available to go to the working muscles. When the body can no longer take care of all of its responsibilities (remember - all of this is happening so you don't die in the heat), your body begins to shut down to keep you safe. If you ignore the signs of overheating, heat builds up in your body, your core temp increases and you are at risk for...

  Keeping with our theme of the year, the Whitewater triathlon on May 6th was looking to be very rainy (we've experienced rain for all five of our off-road events this year). We debated if it was worth doing the race but on Thursday of the race, we decided that we would still gain a lot from the race experience. After we registered online, the weather started to improve and based on my Epic Weather app, it was looking like the weather would work out for a dry day of racing.  Although this race had a small participant list, it didn't make the race any less important to us. We still felt the nerves/anticipation for anytime we show up to a start line, we want to give our best and we know to do so, the effort is going to be uncomfortable and there will be obstacles to overcome. The really cool thing about off-road triathlon racing is that the entire race experience feels more like playtime than something serious like on-road triathlon racing. Swimming in open water, riding a mount...

The unfortunate truth is that most endurance athletes underfuel in training and overfuel on race day. Sure you completed your training sessions but did your physiology change? Did you get stronger, more resilient, fitter or faster? Were you able to recover properly to gain the necessary fitness for your upcoming event? Did you gain confidence in your race day fueling and pacing plan? Underfueling can be from many reasons: Fear of gaining weight A desire to lose weight Trying to be more "metabolically efficient" Not knowing how to use sport nutrition products appropriately Worrying about the sugar from sport nutrition because its not "healthy"  Not feeling that (more) calories are needed during training session Getting by with minimal nutrition Not planning stops accordingly to refill bottles Poor meal planning/feeling rushed to get in a workout Not knowing how much energy/fluids are needed to support the trianing session  Underfueling does not enhance performance an...