Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

Many athletes feel personal struggles with body image. Eating disorders and disordered eating habits are evident in athletes in all sports (and in non-athletes) and in all ages but specifically in sports where leanness associates with an improvement in performance (lighter = better).  It's extremely upsetting to hear of nutrition "experts" advising athletes to restrict food around workouts and to intentionally not fuel or hydrate during workouts as a way to improve performance or to lose weight.  Due to a society that has a poor relationship with food and overemphasizes leanness as the 'ideal' image for athletes, more and more athletes are becoming more and more dissatisfied with their bodies.  Athletes may experience strong feelings before, during and after workouts as if they do not have "an athlete's body" and ultimately underfuel in an effort to lose weight. Rather than fueling for success, good health and a stronger body, athlet...

When I swim, I feel like a kid. When I bike, I feel strong.  When I run, I feel free.  But as Karel use to say in his cycling days " why would you run if you can ride a bike???" In honor of National Running Day, I wanted to share a few of my personal thoughts on running.  I like to run but I don't love to run.  But I LOVE being a triathlete.  My training plan includes swimming, biking and running so in order to excel in triathlons, I have to put in the time/miles for running just like I do for cycling and swimming.  Running is hard on the body. It causes injuries, it's easy to overtrain and it can bring on fatigue, sickness and health issues.  There are so people who love to run and constantly say that it feels amazingly great to run.... But for me, I don't feel comfortable calling myself "a runner". I am a triathlete. I have great joy for swimming, biking and running off the bike.  I run because I am a...

I consider myself extremely lucky.  I just happen to have a sport psychologist/mental skills coach as my best friend. Gloria and I may live on opposite coasts but our friendship continues to grow year after year.  Gloria emailed me before my 2nd Ironman World Championship in 2011 and I could feel her positive energy through the internet. From one email she was a stranger who instantly became a close friend. From a simple email, our friendship began.. I knew she had a gift of knowing how to say the right thing at the right time and she has helped me season after season, year after year, in every one of my races. Her mental skills tricks and ability to verbalize what "we" as athletes think when we train and race is incredible. Ultimately, Gloria knows how to unleash great performances and it all starts with having a stronger, better, healthier mindset when it comes to training.  Karel and I have coached Gloria and her hubby on and off over the past few years ...

My annual tradition. Carrot cake on my birthday! I've never been one to get excited for the New Year like I do for my birthday. When it comes to birthdays, we celebrate our life. Another year of growing older, wiser, smarter and healthier and another year to add to the list from when we were brought into this world to live our one and only life.   I find myself doing a lot of reflecting around my birthday as well as goal setting. I am not one for New Year Resolutions or using January 1st as the marker of when in the year I am going to begin to change my life.  Birthdays are exciting. As Karel wrote in my birthday card yesterday Birthdays are good for you. Research shows that the people who have the most live the longest!" My 33rd birthday celebration started on Friday when our friends/athletes Peggy and Anthony drove down from the DC area (with their adorable silver lab Brutus) for two RETUL fits from Karel. Of course, no weekend with us would be complet...

Can you feel that?  The warm weather is finally here!! For the past few months, it's likely that you have been just fine with your fueling/hydration strategy while training/exercising. Perhaps you feel like you have been just fine getting by with little to no fluids or electrolytes when you train.  Well, when summer arrives, it's extremely important to make sure that you are focused on preventing dehydration and heat-related illnesses by making a huge effort to fuel and hydrate during every workout.  As an athlete, you should never ever feel like you are just getting by. If you do not make an effort or do not know how to fuel/hydrate properly for your workouts you will limit your ability to progress with your fitness as you work your butt off to get stronger, faster, fitter and more powerful.  You want to tweak, perfect and nail your sport nutrition and hydration regime all the time to ensure that you are getting the most out of your training and keepi...

One year ago today, the world lost a very special man.  This man was a mentor, an educator, a great story teller and the chief optometrist of the New Port Richey VA clinic.  He was a husband, father and son. A lover of life and someone who lived his entire life happy, patient, kind and supportive.  This man was my dad.  When a friend looses a family member/spouse, it is within our heart to be compassionate, sympathetic, empathetic and loving.  When you are the one who loses a family member, your heart becomes empty because someone so very important to you, that you see or talk to all the time, is no longer sharing your life with you.  Life presents many challenges but nothing was as hard as saying good bye to my dad one-year ago today. My dad lived his entire life as a strong, hard working, determined and busy man but sadly, he could not win on his 10-month fight with cancer.  But as a lover of life, he sure fought hard....

On Monday morning, I joined a master swim group for an open water swim at Lake Jocassee (Devil's Fork State Park). I was super excited for my first open water swim practice of the season here in Greenville and excited to swim/train with others. Because the lake is about 1 hour away from where we live, I decided to make a morning out of the swim and combine it with an EZ 30-45 min run that I had on my training schedule.  Karel stayed at home since he just returned from 4 days of RETUL fits in Jacksonville.  I packed plenty of fluids and snacks and had my run gear, Nathan hydration belt and had everything I needed for two great workouts. I was super excited and had all the motivation I needed to have a great morning swim/run.  I swam pretty hard for our 1-hour swim (out and back) as I was trying to keep up with three other super fast master swimmers. After the swim, I was really cold (we didn't wear wetsuits and the water was a bit nippy) and was tired from t...