Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition

I love to swim but there's something so special about swimming in the Kona ocean. While you always see brightly colored fishes swimming happily around you, it's not uncommon to see a pod of dolphins or a cute little dog on a boat, waiting for salty kisses. Oh the things you see in the bright blue waters of Kona. After IMWI, I was itching to race again. I am actually still wanting to do another race (half Iroman) but my options are limited due to our upcoming travels and other events. Earlier this year, I signed up for my 3rd Hincapie Gran Fondo here in Greenville, SC which will officially conclude my 2018 "racing" season. However, I still have one more event approaching - the 2.4 mile Hoa'la training swim on the Ironman World Championship swim course. While a fun event for everyone who participates, it's still a tough event in the unpredictable ocean, along with a couple hundred other fit and fast athletes. Because I am not yet ready to stop training (mental...

It's that time of the year again. I can't believe that we are about to jump into the month of October. Where did the summer go? With the majority of triathletes nearing their off-season in the next 4-6 weeks, there's a good chance that you are thinking about your next-season goals and how you can train better, smarter or harder in 2019. With the end of one season comes the beginning of another season. With that being said, we look forward to continuing to work with our returning Trimarni athletes and welcoming new endurance triathletes to our coaching team. While we have limited availability for accepting new athletes, we look forward to receiving your application. APPLY HERE Application will close on October 12th.  Coach - Athlete Relationship Your coach plays a significant role in your athletic journey. When I was in High School, I had one swim coach for four years. Then in college, I had another swim coach (one for my Freshman year before...

As I wrote this book on sports nutrition, my goal was to give you scientific and real-world based nutrition advice and strategies to help you optimize your performance. But with every tip, guideline and suggestion, there are no extreme practices or restrictive measures. While it was important to me to provide you with appropriate advice, I also wanted the book to be easy to read and to apply. Many athletes struggle with healthy eating and proper fueling and I feel confident that my book will make it easier to eat, fuel and hydrate as you work hard for your fitness and sport goals. This book is not a quick-fix book or one with lots of rules and confusing guidelines. Sure, rules take away the guessing for how to eat "right" but these strategies often ignore long-term health and performance consequences. Regardless of your fitness level, sport or dietary choices, my all-inclusive approach in this book will give you practical strategies to enhance sports performance without...

Wow. Has it really been a year since Ironman Chattanooga ? As a little recap, my entire 2017 season was dedicated to qualifying and then racing the 2017 IM 70.3 World Championship in Chattanooga. However, on race day day morning, just after 4am I found myself on the kitchen floor, with a smashed and bruised face and bloody lip due to fainting soon after getting out of bed.  You can read more here.  Racing an Ironman in 2017 was not on my season plan as I spent the season focusing on the half Ironman distance. But after my incident at Worlds, I knew that I couldn't finish my season on such a low moment. Thus, Ironman Chattanooga will go down as one of my most memorable Ironman races, for so many reasons. First off, Karel and I shared the course with 14 of our Trimarni athletes and we watched every one of them cross the finish line. It was incredibly special to be there with so many Trimarnis (and to even have a few of our athletes attending just to cheer). Secondly,...

It seems like every year we are celebrating Karel's birthday at a race venue. I guess September 22nd is a popular time of the year for triathlon racing. This birthday was extra special for Karel as it was the first time in 18 years that his mom could celebrate with Karel. Although we didn't do anything special for his birthday, we did what we love to do - swim/bike/run (well one of us more than the other). Happy 42nd Birthday Karel! 🎈 Although Karel is getting older, he doesn't seem to be slowing down. While he expects that soon the time will come when PR's will become a thing of the past, I contribute his continued improvements to not changing the winning formula. In other words, ever since Karel started triathlon training and racing in 2012, he's never been one to change his methods. Sure, the training changes and he is constantly evolving based on life, his fitness and health but he's never been one to be on the hunt for the next best thing - traini...

Hello from Augusta! This is my first time in Augusta and the downtown streets are packed with triathletes. I am thinking it's not always this way but this weekend is the 2018 Ironman 70.3 Augusta event and the town is booming with multisport lovers. To be honest, I really wish I was racing. I bounced back really quickly from IMWI and feeling fit, healthy and strong. While I only have two "fun" races left on my racing calendar, I have a feeling my FOMO from Augusta may lead me to look for one last triathlon race in 2018. We will see if I can find anything for Karel's racing calendar is keeping us busy over the next 7 weeks as he still has a lot of racing left. Speaking of Karel, it's his birthday today!! Today we are celebrating Karel's 42 years of life! While IM Kona is Karel's big key race of the season in 3 weeks time, and he is then following it up with IMFL 3 weeks after, Karel is racing Augusta 70.3 tomorrow as a tune-up race as part of his ...

Photo: Jay Baker After dismounting my bike, I quickly removed my cycling shoes as I ran my way into the terrace to grab my T2 (Run) gear bag. My legs were a little tired from 112 miles of biking but I didn't let it worry me. My athlete Diane was out on the course and on lap 2, she told me I was still leading but the girls behind me were closing in. At this point, I assumed I was still leading my age group but I didn't know by how much. Anything can happen in an Ironman marathon and I had a game plan that I trusted and I was looking forward to seeing if I could put together a solid run after what appeared to be a solid day of swimming and biking. When I entered the women's changing room, I was all smiles as I was the only one in the room and I had all the volunteers to myself. I had a few Trimarni followers in the room (volunteers) giving me cheers which made me so happy. I put on my Nike Zoom Pegasus Turbo, emptied my pockets from the bike and put on my visor. I grab...