Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

With my day starting at 3am on Wednesday, I had to wait a few hours before the sun to rise so I made myself useful by working on the computer until Karel woke-up around 5am. My body was confused on the time zone so I had a few snacks between 3-5am before an official pre-workout snack.  With a strong swim at the aquatic center on the schedule, I had a bowl of oatmeal w/ chopped figs and a drizzle of nut butter as a pre-workout snack.  Karel and I rode to the aquatic center on our bikes (around a mile) and managed to find a lane to share. The pool wasn't packed but it was still busy with both pools having all lanes occupied. We also spotted our friend Jana ( Czech chick ) who arrived about 30 minutes after us. It was nice to see a familiar face.  The pool was not cold so it was easy to get in but it sure got warm as our workout continued.  After a warm-up and two pre-sets, we had some fun with our main set (which we have done a fe...

The day before travel is always stressful. Packing, cleaning, finishing up work to-do's and of course, getting our furry crew together for a 1-mile trip down the road to "Grandma's". After a busy Monday, it was finally time for our trip to Kona on September 27th. Flying out of our local airport (Greenville/Spartanburg) makes for a smooth start to traveling. The airport is small, which means we can get through parking, check-in, security and then to our gate in less than 30 minutes (if that long!) but everyone is super nice. It is a pleasant flying experience!  With a 14-hour travel day ahead (divided into 3 flights - Greenville to Atlanta to Honolulu to Kona) I made sure to stay hydrated with a water bottle that I continually kept filled throughout our entire travel.  Karel and I both sported our new Trimarni Kona crew t-shirts, which made for a lot of friendly conversations throughout our travel....." You do all of that in one day????" I made sure...

"I don't feel like myself!" "I feel so off!" "I feel so lazy" "Why do I suddenly feel sick/injured?" For many athletes, the taper period before a race brings a lot of feelings. Some good and some well, not so welcomed. You'd think that for any athlete who has endured months of hard training, he/she would look forward to a physical decrease in the training load. Yes, that is often looked forward to but it's actually the feelings, that come along with this drop in volume, that leave an athlete feeling uncomfortable in so many ways. Think about this.... You've reached a point in your season when you put in countless hours of training and you have covered more miles in a week than you feel comfortable driving in a car (who wants to sit in a car for 100+ miles???)  and you have accomplished one too many "impossible to finish" workouts. Here you are and the only thing between you and putting all that training ...

Always a great feeling when the hard work is done after a hard (4.5 hour) workout. There are many methods and thoughts regarding how much “rest” is needed by athletes, before going into a major competition. Some athletes will train high volume until 7-10 days from an Ironman whereas other athletes will experience a massive drop in volume 21 days out from an Ironman. Ultimately, when done correctly (and only a few times per year), tapering sharpens your body and mind so that you are prepared physically and mentally for your upcoming competition. Tapering is defined as a short-term reduction in a training load before an important athletic event. When you train consistently, you are placing a lot of intentional stress on your body. You know this feeling well as you are carrying around a lot of residual fatigue, which makes it difficult to feel fresh and energetic for all of your workouts. However, you need to train through fatigue so that your body can adapt in order to g...

It was an interesting summer in 2006 as I was very much into my routine of working and training and I didn't want anything to get into my way of training for my first Ironman. I was living with my parents but I was only there to sleep as my life revolved around training, working and training. I resisted the invitation to meet a "talented cyclist, from Europe with a sexy accent" as a training partner of mine described, as she wanted to set me up with a nice single guy. A few weeks went by and I finally accepted the opportunity to meet him.  It was 10.5 years ago when Karel and I were set-up on a blind date on a group ride. We met on my birthday, May 31st, 2006. The next few months were rocky because as I mentioned, all of my energy went into training. The thought of balancing a boyfriend while training for a 140.6 mile event was overwhelming so I entertained the idea of getting to know Karel as a training partner and possibly we would become good friends. At...