Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

RACING UNDER PRESSURE For many months, Ironman World Championship participants have been dreaming about race day. And now, with only one more sleep left to go, excitement suddenly turns into nerves and a calm mind suddenly goes into overdrive. When you are racing against the best athletes in the world at the Ironman World Championship, it's easy to feel intimidated about everyone around you who is in the best shape ever and ready to perform at the top of their physical game. But don't let this psych you out. Athletic excellence on race day comes when your mind is as strong as your body. Don't let yourself get intimidated by the other athletes around you or by the challenging course. You earned your right to be at the start line and you know what you are getting yourself into. Trust yourself that you have the capability to reach the finish line.  Here are my simple tips to help you perform under pressure while making the most of your Ironman World Championsh...

RACING WITH A SPREADSHEET Racing an Ironman triathlon is dynamic as there are so many variables that affect your performance. Some are within your control and others are out of your control. No matter how hard you trained, you will never feel fully prepared for everything that happens on race day. And in Kona, the unpredictable nature of the wind and heat make for an intimidating racing experience. Going into the race with expectations and assumptions of how the day will go is just fine if that approach brings you confidence and excitement. But remind yourself that a great race day performance requires flexibility and adaptability. With a spreadsheet, metric-obsessed mindset, it's easy to fail to reach athletic excellence on race day. Although it's the approach of many athletes, you can't go into an Ironman and expect your body to go on auto cruise for 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of cycling and 26.2 miles of running by trying to hit certain paces/watts/speeds for ...

Body Image Dissatisfaction  At Trimarni, we believe in setting a good example for our athletes by encouraging a healthy relationship with food and the body. Karel and I do not follow any extreme styles of eating, we don't restrict food/fuel in an effort to change body composition and we do not manipulate our diet in an effort to change our body image. Food is our fuel and our nourishment and we firmly believe that when the body is well fueled and well nourished, it's healthy. And a healthy body can perform far better than a body that may look fit but is not receiving the necessary nutrients and energy to perform. Sadly, we live in a society and within a sport bubble that involves competitive leanness. Rather than seeing the body as the vehicle that gets you from the start to the finish line, many athletes are spending an entire season racing for a specific appearance/body fat percentage, assuming that leanness is a criteria for race day success. Truth be told, in t...

NO MENTAL PREPARATION It's a no brainer that mental training can help to boost your race day performance. Whereas the atmosphere at an Ironman event can be exciting, the big island of Kona is unlike any other Ironman event on race week. There are countless events, meet-and-greets and other activities to entertain athletes and with all of the excitement of race week, it can be difficult to tune out distractions, reduce anxiety and stress and maintain great focus for race day. It's very normal and typical for Ironman athletes to experience a heightened sense of self-doubt, worry and fear on race week. Whereas there's a lot to consider when racing for 140.6 miles, Kona brings unique race day conditions with the wind and heat and the unpredictability of the day can literally suck the energy out of your body before you even have a chance to toe the start line.  But no need to worry. My good friend and Licensed Clinical Sport Psychologist Gloria Petruzzelli (Dr. G) wrote an ...

DON'T CHANGE THE WINNING FORMULA Almost every athlete that competes at the Ironman World Championship has received a spot to the starting line by performing well at a qualifying event. Rarely does an athlete earn a spot to this notable triathlon event on a whim. The triathlete who qualifies for IM Kona typically invests a lot of time, money and energy into the craft of preparing the body and mind for a 140.6 mile event. Thus, it's the commitment, consistency, flexibility and goal-focused mindset in training, along with the understanding of the right gear, nutrition, mental skills, pacing, training and taper that contributes to athletic excellence on race day. This is the winning formula that helps an athlete qualify for the Ironman World Championship.  Far too many athletes enter race week in panic mode and begin to change the winning formula. Rituals that once helped an athlete build confidence for race day are replaced with worry, fear and self-doubt. Sure, the Ir...

Facebook reminded me of this photo from 2011. This photo was taken by my dad at the Kona Plaza, just a few days before my 2nd Ironman World Championship. Karel was just a cyclist at this time so for his first time to the big island, Karel explored every challenging bike route that he could find.....off the IM Kona bike course. Karel didn't understand or care much for the sport of triathlon back then, except for the fact that I loved the sport and he supported me in all of my swimbikerun goals and dreams. It was only a few months after the Ironman World Championship, as we were driving home from USA Crits Speed Week , when Karel mentioned to me that he was getting "too old" for competitive cycling and he was ready for a change in sport. Although he still loved bike racing, Karel wanted a new athletic challenge to keep him healthy, competitive and active. Whereas once Karel didn't understand why anyone would run when they could ride a bike, he started to dedicate hi...

At Trimarni Coaching, we only accept new athletes for one-on-one coaching in September/October for the following year. Although we have training plans and an educational membership for athletes who want to train under our guidance throughout the year, there is only one opportunity out of the year to be coached by us as a Trimarni athlete for the following year. While this may sound a bit strict, as it requires new/potential athletes to think about coaching for the next season well before the New Year, there are a few reasons why we do not add new athletes to our coaching roster throughout the year.  Athlete/coach relationship - It takes time for us to get to know an athlete so we start building this relationship early in the year (Nov/Dec). Effective coaching is so much more than workout delivery or being great workout writers as we need to understand athletes on an individual and personal level. We also want to start opening the lines of communication so that the athl...